It's been a while since I read a mystery and this was a solid and enjoyable one. Kinsey Millhone is a practical and stoic PI based out of the fictional southern California town of Santa Teresa. A former cop, twice divorced and a loner by nature, she enjoys a modest career, a tiny apartment and the righting of small scale wrongs and the justice she can help deliver. At the start of this book (the first in a 25 part series) she is visited by a client just released from 8 years in prison. This woman was accused and convicted of killing her husband, a prominent divorce attorney, but she still claims she is innocent. She wants Kinsey to find the real murder, but the trail and clues are 8 years cold. Kinsey takes the case anyway, not promising any real results. Things heat up more quickly than she ever would have suspected. I like the straight forward writing style, and the mid 1980s setting. Pre-cell phone and pre-internet, all of the investigative work is grounded in physical objects: literal paper trails, long drives to view evidence and conduct interviews, film which must be developed.