'L' IS FOR LAWLESS

Just a few days before she's to be a bridesmaid at her ancient landlord Henry Pitts's Thanksgiving wedding, Kinsey Millhone agrees to help her late neighbor John Lee's family recover enough money from the Veteran's Administration to pay for his burial, and it's all downhill from there for Kinsey's bridesmaid's plans.

A break-in at the Lee place makes it clear that the late Johnny was not what he seemed. Neither are his service friend Ray Rawson, who's hoping to rent the house; Gilbert Hays, whom Kinsey sees leaving the Lee house carrying a suspicious duffel bag; or Laura Huckaby, the woman Hays hands the duffel bag to. Up to now the story has been earthbound, but it takes wing when Kinsey does, deciding on the spur of the moment to get on Laura Huckaby's flight to Palm Beach, thus releasing the whimsical anything-can-happen sense that's always been Grafton's biggest draw. Before her wild odyssey ends, Kinsey will have masqueraded as a maid at The Desert Castle hotel, led a treasure raid on a tomb, and watched a half-blind grandmother do her stuff with shotgun and baseball bat.

Minor work for Kinsey ("K'' is for Killer, 1994, etc.), who appears in just about every role imaginablecheerleader, traffic cop, accessory after the fact to the felonious hunters of Johnny Lee's treasure. She's everything, in fact, except a detective.