Three women with long-running P.I. series have published new books that prove they’ve still got game. Sue Grafton introduced Kinsey Millhone in 1982’s iconic A is for Alibi; almost thirty years later she has worked her way through the alphabet to V is for Vengeance. Marcia Muller introduced Sharon McCone in 1977’s Edwin of the Iron Shoes; McCone now appears in her thirtieth adventure in City of Whispers. Jane Haddam’s Gregor Demarkian got a somewhat later start, in 1990’s Not a Creature Was Stirring, but now chalks up his twenty-sixth outing in Flowering Judas.

Haddam may have garnered fewer major awards and nominations than Muller or Grafton, but Flowering Judas (Minotaur, $25.99) is solid evidence that she deserves to be ranked with them. Demarkian, the former FBI department head whose exploits have earned him the sobriquet “the Armenian-American Hercule Poirot,” sometimes delivers more than his clients bargained for.

Despite its small size, Mattatuck, New York, a city of some fifty thousand people, has a police commissioner instead of a police chief. Corpulent Howard Androcoelho fills that position, and his former patrol partner, Marianne Glew, is now the mayor. Twelve years ago, they were responsible for investigating the disappearance of Chester Ray Morton.

Chester was the adult son of Charlene and Stew Morton, local royalty by virtue of money (they own Morton Rubbish Removal) and Charlene’s ruthlessly controlling personality. Since Chester’s disappearance, Charlene has labored to keep her son’s fate in the public eye through billboards plastered with his picture, calls to various authorities, including the FBI, and flyers posted all over. She especially targets the neighborhood of Chester’s former girlfriend, Darvelle Haymes, whom she believes killed Chester. Charlene has even continued to pay rent on her son’s trailer, which now sits as an unoccupied reminder of Chester’s fate. Her latest strategy is to interest a true-crime television program in doing an episode on Chester.

But everything changes when Chester’s recently dead body is found hanging from one of his mother’s billboards near the entrance to Mattatuck-Harvey Community College where Chester had taken classes.

It is this discovery that leads Androcoelho to visit Demarkian in hopes the famous detective will confirm that Morton’s death is a suicide—which is what the town’s medical examiner wants to call it, saying there is no physical evidence to suggest anything else.

Demarkian is pushed by his wife Bennis to investigate, and all it takes is an examination of the photos of Chester’s body for him to conclude that Chester did not commit suicide by hanging himself from the billboard. Demarkian reduces the problem to answering four questions: Why did Chester disappear? Why did he come back? Where did he die? Was he murdered or was it suicide?

Demarkian must deal with a slew of interesting characters as he tries to cut through the lies, obfuscations, and self-serving stories that hide the truth behind Chester’s disappearance and death. Even Haddam’s minor characters are so well drawn that they carry the reader deep into their lives and fortunes. Flowering Judas is one of Haddam’s best and shows Demarkian at his finest as he patiently sifts the truth from the pile of rubbish built during the twelve years Chester was gone. 

Sue Grafton is nearing the home stretch as she and P.I. Kinsey Millhone move closer to the end of the Roman alphabet with V is for Vengeance (Putnam, $27.95), the twenty-second volume in the series. Lucky Kinsey has aged a mere six years and remains comfortably ensconced in the 1980s. This time warp gives the series a unique sense of familiarity and stability, even though Kinsey has moved on from her beloved Volkswagen “Bug” to a sexier Mustang.

Kinsey has a stubborn streak and has taken on bad guys of every stripe in her short (in time) but extensive (in experience) career, but she can seem almost wimpy when compared to some of the kick-ass female P.I.’s who have followed the trail she helped to blaze. Still, as Kinsey says: “For the record, I’d like to say I’m a big fan of forgiveness as long as I’m given the opportunity to get even first.”

As is often the case, Kinsey has multiple cases or a case with multiple facets on her plate in V. First there is the team of shoplifters she observes at a clothing store—sixty-three-year-old Audrey Vance is caught by store security, but the other not only escapes but almost runs Kinsey down in the process. Then there is incompetent burglar Pinky Ford, who once hired Kinsey and now turns to her for a loan and stirs her interest in his wife Dodie’s new career as a saleswoman for direct sales giant Glorious Womanhood.

A few days after Vance’s arrest and later release on bond, she leaps (or is pushed) from a bridge. It’s presumed to be a suicide, but then Vance’s fiancé, Marvin Striker, comes to Kinsey asking her for details about Audrey’s arrest and hiring her to look into the circumstances leading to Audrey’s death. The investigation morphs into one of Kinsey’s most complex cases, as it ties into an
organized crime ring, police corruption, and an oddly moving romance between Lorenzo Dante, Jr., the current boss of a crime family, and Nora Vogelsang, wife of a wealthy and cheating husband.

Grafton’s plotting has always been one of her strengths and this book is no exception. Likewise, Kinsey’s strength of character allows her to keep digging and digging, even when met with physical violence. V is for Vengeance is a satisfying dish, one that will have fans looking for W and ruing the fact that four more books might end Kinsey’s run. 

In contrast to Kinsey Millhone, Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone has aged normally and her career has grown in arcs that are more common, if still unconventional. Not only has McCone grown her agency over the years to include other operatives and experts, but she has acquired both a husband and an extended family that has included some real surprises.

McCone has more surprises in store as she continues to recover from the frightening “locked-in” condition she experienced in her adventure appropriately titled Locked In and reviewed in AHMM in the January/February 2010 issue. In this follow-up, City of Whispers (Grand Central, $25.99), McCone’s half-brother Darcy Blackhawk, a troublesome and troubled young man who has shoplifted, assaulted a cop, and battled drugs, among other things, sends McCone an e-mail asking her for help and saying that he is in San Francisco. Darcy may be in town, but he is addled as well as in trouble and McCone has to be able to locate him before she can help him.

McCone’s mission leads her into some of San Francisco’s roughest neighborhoods, where she uncovers some unsolved murders as well as the unfortunate fate of a young heiress. And Mick Savage, one of McCone’s operatives best known for his computer skills, gets some experience with field work as he tries to help her locate Darcy. City of Whispers covers an intense three-week period with McCone, Blackhawk, and Savage trading the narrative back and forth, while Muller expertly ratchets up the tension as the search for Darcy becomes an all out effort to save his life. Like Haddam and Grafton, Muller shows no sign of slowing down and Sharon McCone continues to find and meet new challenges with courage and strength. 

ALL POINTS BULLETIN: Oceanview Publishing has released John F. Dobbyn’s newest novel, Black Diamond. • This fall Prometheus announced the launch of Seventh Street Books, a new mystery and thriller imprint. • Zillionaire, Gary Alexander’s latest Buster Hightower novel, is now available. • Jim Ingraham has published a new novel: Sahara Dust (Five Star).