Лучшие книги Сью Графтон

В сборник в специальной редакции Издательского дома "Ридерз Дайджест" вошли избранные романы американских авторов.

Она любила рисковать. Опасность для нее была своего рода наркотиком. Доза становилась все круче, все страшнее, но Лорна Кеплер уже не могла остановиться. Это сделала за нее Смерть. Полиция закрывает дело "за неимением состава преступления". Но частный детектив Кинси Милхоун уверена: это убийство.

Главная героиня книги, частный детектив Кинси Милхоун, расследует убийство… и, как выясняется, не одно. Клубок противоречий, череда подозреваемых, неожиданная развязка - события проносятся по страницам этого увлекательного романа, как сметающий все на своем пути тайфун.

Красавица Виолетта Сачливан отправилась полюбоваться фейерверками - и исчезла.
По маленькому городу поползли слухи...
Миссис Салливан сбежала с любовником?!
Ее изнасиловали и убили?!
От нее избавился ревнивый муж, заподозривший ее в неверности?!
Полиция не обнаружила ничего.
Дочь Виолетты, Дейзи, решает расследовать тайну исчезновения матери и нанимает Кинси Миллхоун, самую талантливую женщину-детектива со времен мисс Марпл.
Кинси понимает: разгадку случившегося надо искать в самом центре змеиного гнезда интриг, обманов и страстей, скрытого за благополучным фасадом городка...

Частный детектив Кинси Миллоун берется за банальное на первый взгляд дело об исчезновении состоятельного врача, которому, скорее всего, просто наскучила семейная жизнь. Но вскоре выясняется, что партнеры пропавшего были нечисты на руку и он знал об их махинациях, что его жены – бывшая и настоящая – весьма заинтересованы в получении миллионной страховки, что многие готовы любой ценой остановить расследование Кинси. И при этом главная опасность исходит от ее нового ухажера – красавца техасца с темным прошлым.

Безжальний серійний убивця не залишає слідів своїх злочинів. Авторка порушує правила й прокладає нові шляхи: визначенню, хто саме є цим соціопатом, вона відводить зовсім мало часу. Питання полягає лиш у тому, чи встигне героїня довести свої звинувачення проти вбивці, перш ніж стане його наступною жертвою.

Она - женственная красавица с неженской профессией. С опасной профессией. Она - лучшая из частных детективов штата Калифорния. Штата хищниц-кинозвезд, акул-продюсеров, амбициозных режиссеров. Штата богатства и роскоши, изощренных интриг и закулисных войн.Это - ее новое дело. Дело, которое кажется абсолютно простым. Всего-то - отыскать то ли сбежавшую, то ли по каким-то причинам не подающую о себе вестей девушку. Однако неожиданно дело начинает набирать обороты - и становится лишь первым шагом в запутанном лабиринте преступлений. Преступлений опасных, изощренных и на первый взгляд не связанных между собой...

Пять лет назад внезапно исчез, выйдя в море на своей яхте, предприниматель Венделл Джаффе. И хотя тело его не нашли, версия о том, что, запутавшись в долгах, Джаффе покончил с собой, казалась весьма убедительной. До тех пор, пока частный детектив Кинси Милхоун не обнаружила самоубийцу в Мексике…

My name is Kinsey Millhone and I'm a private detective. I'm thirty-two years old, and I live and work in Santa Teresa, in southern California.
The day before yesterday, I killed someone. I had to do it, but knowing that doesn't make me happy. I'm a nice person. I have a lot of friends. Killing someone has made me feel bad.
I've already given a signed statement about the death to the police.
I've also written a report for the client that I was working for.
But now I want to tell the whole story.

E is for Evidence

M is for MONEY…

Malek Construction is a mega-million-dollar company that grew out of modest soil to become one of the big three in California construction―and one of the few still in family hands. Today, the three Malek sons stand to inherit a fortune, but in order for any one of them to claim his share, the missing fourth brother must be found.

M is for MISSING…

Now it's up to Kinsey Millhone to find the man who, eighteen years ago, vanished without a trace. Did he run away―or was he abducted? Did he intend to make something of himself on his own, apart from the wealth and prowess of his family, or were his motives something more sinister?

M is for MALICE

The ties that bind. The rivalries of brotherhood. The fall of an empire… As Kinsey tries to unravel the mystery of the missing Malek brother she finds herself in a heart-stopping race against time in which loyalties are tested, greed is rampant, and no one―including Kinsey herself―is safe…

Although business has been slow lately for P.I.Kinsey Millhone, she's reluctant to take on the case of locating Beverly Danziger's sister Elaine Boldt. It's a small matter that Beverly should be able to handle herself. So why is she enlisting Kinsey's services? Beverly claims she needs Elaine's signature on some documents so that she can collect a small inheritance. But the whole affair doesn't sit well with Kinsey. And if there's something she's learned in her line of work, it's to always follow your instincts... Kinsey's hunch proves true when she begins her inquiries into Elaine's whereabouts and discovers that the attractive widow was last seen in a flashy lynx coat boarding a plane for Boca Raton. But the more Kinsey searches for Elaine the more questions she encounters. Is Elaine's disappearance tied in to the brutal murder several months ago of one of her bridge partners? And what happened to Elaine's Persian cat who seems to have also vanished? Things take a turn for the worse when a stranger vandalizes the home of one of Elaine's neighbors and another neighbor turns up murdered. With her reputation and career on the line, Kinsey risks all to find a missing woman and a killer who's waiting in the shadows to strike again...

When Alvin Limardo walks into P.I. Kinsey Millhone's office, she smells bad news. He wants Kinsey to deliver $25,000. The recipient: A fifteen-year-old boy. It's a simple matter. So simple that Kinsey wonders why he doesn't deliver the money himself. She's almost certain something is off. But with rent due, Kinsey accepts Limardo's retainer against her better judgment…

When Limardo's check bounces, Kinsey discovers she's been had big time. Alvin Limardo is really John Daggett--an ex-con with a drinking problem, two wives to boot, and a slew of people who would like to see him dead. Now Kinsey is out four hundred dollars and in hot pursuit of Daggett.

When Daggett's corpse shows up floating in the Santa Teresa surf, the cops rule the death an accident. Kinsey thinks it's murder. But seeking justice for a man who everyone seemed to despise is going to be a lot tougher than she bargained for--and what awaits her at the end of the road is much more disturbing than she could've ever imagined…

V is for Vengeance

When Kinsey Millhone is asked by a friend to help a family obtain a military funeral for a pilot called Johnny Lee, she soon finds that there was nothing simple about Johnny Lee's life. Why do the airforce have no record of him? And why is his apartment burgled soon after his death?
Then there is the large key which is found. What is it for? What secrets will it unlock?
- Notes about the life of Sue Grafton; - Notes about the story; - Points for Understanding comprehension questions; - Glossary of difficult vocabulary; - Free resources including worksheets, tests and author Data.

Retold by John Escott.

In 1979, four teenage boys from an elite private school sexually assault a fourteen-year-old classmate—and film the attack. Not long after, the tape goes missing and the suspected thief, a fellow classmate, is murdered. In the investigation that follows, one boy turns state’s evidence and two of his peers are convicted. But the ringleader escapes without a trace.

Now, it’s 1989 and one of the perpetrators, Fritz McCabe, has been released from prison. Moody, unrepentant, and angry, he is a virtual prisoner of his ever-watchful parents—until a copy of the missing tape arrives with a ransom demand. That’s when the McCabes call Kinsey Millhone for help. As she is drawn into their family drama, she keeps a watchful eye on Fritz. But he’s not the only one being haunted by the past. A vicious sociopath with a grudge against Millhone may be leaving traces of himself for her to find...

In what may be her most unsettling novel to date, Sue Grafton's T is for Trespass is also her most direct confrontation with the forces of evil. Beginning slowly with the day-to-day life of a private eye, Grafton suddenly shifts from the voice of Kinsey Millhone to that of Solana Rojas, introducing readers to a chilling sociopath. Rojas is not her birth name. It is an identity she cunningly stole, an identity that gives her access to private caregiving jobs. The true horror of the novel builds with excruciating tension as the reader foresees the awfulness that lies ahead. The suspense lies in whether Millhone will realize what is happening in time to intervene. Though set in the late eighties, T is for Trespass could not be more topical: identity theft; elder abuse; betrayal of trust; the breakdown in the institutions charged with caring for the weak and the dependent. It reveals a terrifying but all-too-real rip in the social fabric. Once again, Grafton opens up new territory with startling results.

Floral Beach wasn't much of a town: six streets long and three deep, its only notable feature a strip of sand fronting the Pacific. It was on that sandy beach seventeen years ago that the strangled body of Jean Timberlake had been found.

The people of floral Beach didn't pay a whole lot of mind to past history, especially when Bailey Fowler, the self-confessed killer, had been properly processed and convicted. They weren't even unduly concerned when, a year after the murder, Fowler walked away from the men's prison at San Luis Obispo, never to be seen again. After all, everyone knew Jean had been a wild kid. "Like mother, like daughter," some said--though never within hearing of Shana Timberlake, who, whatever her faults, still mourned her murdered child.

And then, by sheer fluke, the cops stumbled on Bailey Fowler. And a case seventeen years dead came murderously to life again.

For Royce Fowler, old and sick with not much time left, his son's reappearance was the chance to heal an old wound. For Kinsey Millhone, the case was a long shot, but she agreed to take it on. She couldn't know then it would lead her to probe the passions buried just below the surface of family relations, where old wounds fester and the most cherished emotions become warped until they fuse into deadly, soul-destroying time bombs

In 1960s Santa Teresa, California, a child is kidnapped and never returned... When the case is reopened after twenty years, a man - Michael Sutton - contacts private detective Kinsey Millhone for help. He claims to have recalled a strange and disturbing memory which just might provide the key to the mystery. He may have stumbled across the kidnappers burying Mary Claire Fitzhugh's body... But Michael's account is indistinct -he was only six years old at the time of the kidnapping; and even members of his family try to discredit his evidence. But Kinsey is certain there is something vital within Michael's recollections. And even when what is eventually unearthed isn't what anyone expected, she can't quite let go of the case. As Kinsey gradually brings to light the stories of the protagonists involved in the tragedy, from Country Club parents to their free-living, hippy children, the truth finally begins to emerge. And while stepping back into the past, Kinsey discovers more about her own history too...