"S G stands for Superb and Great"

Santa Teresa private detective Kinsey Millhone is hired by wealthy Nord Lafferty to pick up his daughter at the California Institute for Women and get her through the first few days of freedom. Out on parole, Reba takes to Kinsey and the two women go out to dinner together when her former boss Alan "Beck" Beckwith arrives at the restaurant. He invites himself to have a drink with the two women and Kinsey knows she has been set up by a pro.

She pretends to leave but watches them making love in the back seat of Beck's car. Kinsey does not understand this tryst because he is the person Reba embezzled the funds from and never made restitution. Reba believes that she and Beck are going to run away together but the Feds are closing in on him for money laundering. They have pictures of Beck in bed with her boss's friend and regardless of the consequences, Reba is determined to get even with him but the authorities want Reba to help them their way. Kinsey wants to stop her before she goes too far and is put back in prison but can she get through to the woman she has come to care about in time.

Readers are not going to believe what happens to Kinsey in R IS FOR RICOCHET. She becomes involved with a man and it looks like the relationship might last at least one more book. Even though Reba breaks the law and the rules set down by her parole officer, readers, like Kinsey, cannot help but care for the vulnerable waif with steel for a spine. Once again, this author shows that S G stands for Superb and Great.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 9, 2004

Summary

Reba Lafferty was a daughter of privilege, Abandoned by her rebellious mother when she was an infant, she was the only child of a rich man already in his mid-fifties when she was born, and her adoring father thoroughly spoiled her. Now, at thirty-two, having had many scrapes with the law, she is about to be released on probation from the California Institution for Women, having served twenty-two months of a four-year sentence for embezzlement. Though Nord Lafferty could deny his daughter nothing, he wasn't there for her when she was brought up on this charge. Now he wants to be sure she stays straight, stays at home and away from drugs, the booze, the gamblers. It seems a straightforward assignment for Kinsey: babysit Reba until she settles in, make sure she follows all the niceties of her parole. May a week's work. Nothing untoward - the woman seems remorseful and friendly. And the money is good. But life is never that simple, and Reba is out of prison less than twenty-four hours when one of her old crowd comes circling around.