P Is For Peril (Grafton)
The sixteenth installment of the Kinsey Milhone series finds Kinsey mixed up in two mysteries, as the background 'B' story takes up a good portion of the book.
The main mystery involves a missing persons case. Dr. Dowan Purcell disappeared nine weeks earlier and hasn't been located yet. His first wife is started to get worried now because he had gone missing once before but eventually returned. Kinsey briefly ponders if he'd faked his own death, as happened in an earlier case of hers. But Fiona, the first wife, believes that he may still be alive because his passport is missing, along with a bit of money.
Add in possible trouble at home with wife number two, Crystal, and mounting evidence of medical billing fraud, and it doesn't look good.
While all this is going on, Kinsey is once again looking for a new office. She's been renting space from Lonnie Kingman, but they are relocating. She finds a space at a reasonable rate nearby -- she can literally see it from her current office building -- and agrees to lease it from two brothers. They turn out to be bad news, as they were suspected in the fiery death of their parents. Investigators have been watching them as they blew through their insurance settlement to see if they'll fence any of the jewelry believed to be in their possession that would provide the evidence linking them to the crime. One of the brothers takes a liking to Kinsey and tries to attach himself in a way that a soon-to-be abusive boyfriend might, despite the difference in their ages.
Of the two plot lines, the main one wraps up neatly enough, although not spectacularly, with answers to the location of Dr. Purcell, the missing money, billing fraud, and, without saying too much, "who did it" and why. The other involving the sons along with a woman who is trying to use Kinsey to investigate them is a little underwhelming.
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