Y is for Yesterday (Kinsey Millhone, #25)

Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really sad that the next book will be Z, although I still find it annoying the books are stuck in the 80s with NO CELL PHONES. And with this book we go all the way back to the 70s.

In 1979 a young woman (Sloan) was killed and a group of her friends was implicated in the murder. Now the young man (Fritz) convicted of the murder is out (he was tried as a juvenile) after serving his time and ready to pick up his life where he left off. But someone is blackmailing him with a sex tape he and his friends made. His Mother hires Kinsey to find out who is doing the blackmailing. Kinsey suspects it may be a bid by Fritz to get money out of his parents which his Mother refuses to consider. She fires Kinsey when she voices her suspicions about Fritz, but when Fritz goes missing rehires Kinsey to find him.

Meanwhile Ned (X Kinsey Millhone, #24)) is back in town and has managed to track down Phyllis and seriously injure her. He also tortured Ed (the cat) and kept him prisoner under the office Kinsey rents. Kinsey managed to shoot Ned when he arrives while she is rescuing Ed, but he gets away. So Kinsey is looking over her shoulder to make sure Ned isn't around for most of the book.

Kinsey starts to wonder why Sloan was killed the stated reason is that Austin who bullied the other kids was angry with her for breaking up with him. He started a rumor that she snitched on Troy and Poppy when they cheated on a test, resulting in the other kids shunning her. Austin went missing shortly after Sloan was killed so it's impossible to question him. Bayard had suggested to Sloan that she steal the sex tape from Fritz and use it to blackmail Austin (Austin was giving orders on the tape) into stopping the shunning. She did and it resulted in her being invited to "the party" at Austin's Parent's Cabin where she was abducted by Austin and his "friends". The tape has supposedly been missing since Sloan's death, the police didn't find it in her room when they searched. Sloan suspects that Austin was the snitch as it conveniently got her and Troy out of the running for an award that Austin wanted.

Iris (the underage star of the sex tape) is engaged to one of Sloan's step-brothers and was at the cabin when Austin and his friends drove off with Sloan at gun point. Iris called her Father to come get her while the boys were away with Sloan and it probably saved her life. Supposedly Iris was also given the gun Fritz shot Sloan with.

Troy was convicted of being an accomplice since he drove the truck. He got out after 2 1/2 years and works as a mechanic at his brother-in-law's garage.

Fritz was the one who actually shot Sloan, but Austin had a grave prepared although he maintained that they were only going to scare Sloan into handing over the tape. Iris claims that she has seen Austin in town, but can she be trusted.

Bayard was supposedly blackmailed by Austin into accompanying them as Austin knew a secret that would get Bayard disinherited but when Kinsey learns that Sloan was Bayard's half-sister and that Bayard's Father was considering putting her in his will, Kinsey has to wonder if Bayard might have had his own reasons for wanting Sloan dead.

Sloan finds Fritz's body at the boy scout camp and draws her own conclusion about who killed him and why.

Kinsey meets Celeste at the airport so Celeste can turn Ned's trophies over to the police after seeing Celeste safely onto the plane and preventing a murderer from escaping town Kinsey returns home only to be attacked by Ned and engaged in a fight to the death.

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