This is my mom's favorite mystery series and I remember her reading these when I was younger. She was quite excited when I let her know that I was planning on reading the first in the series. Written in 1982, this still holds up really well in 2015. Kinsey was a tough but sensitive PI, which I liked a lot. She could play the tough cop when she needed answers but mainly was a good listener and didn't push too hard to the point where people were completely turned off. The mystery was well written, I changed my guess on who did a few times but did not predict the end at all! My only complaint was that Grafton includes every single detail, which is helpful sometimes but at other times I read the sentence and rolled my eyes (like describing her jogging routes and which roads she took- it reminded me of the SNL skit "The Californians"). I would be interested in reading more of this series and seeing where Kinsey goes next. For a first book in a series, pretty good!