U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton

Latest Kinsey Millhone mystery

Happy New Year - I finished up 2009 with a great book!

Still in 1988, but with flashbacks to 1967. Kinsey's latest case involves Michael Sutton, who claims that he recently recalled an event that occurred when he was just six years old. In July of 1967, four-year-old Mary Claire Fitzhugh was abducted from her home in Horton Ravine, California. Although her parents agreed to pay the ransom demanded by Mary Claire's kidnappers, the money was not picked up and the child was never seen again. Sutton remembers playing in the woods when he saw two men digging a hole and burying a bundle in the ground, and he cannot help but wonder if the pair was burying the corpse of little Mary Claire. Michael hires Kinsey to reconstruct the past and find out if his memories are accurate.

While this seems like a straight forward case Kinsey quickly finds siblings of Michael coming forth to disspell his memories. In his teens he claimed he was molested by his father and siblings which caused a huge rift in the family and years later feelings are still running hot. After his parents death he recanted saying it was placed memories under hypnosis. So Kinsey starts to doubt him and wonders if it is worth her time. But she is having problems of her own as her newly discovered family is not pulling any punches in trying to get her to come to them.

It is an interesting match between the flashbacks that at first you wonder how are connected to the story and to the final chapter that left me gasping as I frantically turned the pages to see how it would end. I think this is one Grafton's best yet and I really love seeing her stories get stronger and more complicated. It's hard to believe that there are only a few letters left. I might have to re-read the entire series again.

My goal was to read more books this year than any other and I did it! My record was 76 books read in 2006 and in 2009 I hit 86! Maybe someday I'll hit a 100 but I have a ways to go.