W Is for Wasted — Kinsey Millhone #23

Two Deaths

W Is for Wasted, the twenty-third Kinsey Millhone novel, opens with two deaths that seem to have nothing in common. One is Pete Wolinsky, a sleazy, disreputable private investigator Kinsey knew and disliked, shot dead in a parking lot. The other is an unidentified homeless man found dead on the beach, carrying nothing but a slip of paper bearing Kinsey’s name and phone number. The mystery of how — and whether — these two deaths connect drives the novel, and Kinsey’s investigation gradually braids the seemingly separate cases into a single, sprawling story involving research fraud, old debts, and the hidden histories of two very different dead men.

The discovery that gives W Is for Wasted its emotional core is that the homeless man was family. Terrence Dace, the dead man on the beach, turns out to be a relative of Kinsey’s — and, in a startling turn, he has left her a substantial inheritance. This revelation deepens the family story the series had been developing since J Is for Judgment, adding a new relative and a new dimension to Kinsey’s slowly unfolding history. The arrival of family after death, the inheritance from a man she never knew, gives the novel a poignant, personal weight, and it advances the long arc of Kinsey’s family discoveries.

Homelessness and a Wasted Life

The title points to the novel’s thematic heart: the question of a wasted life, and what meaning remains in it. Terrence Dace died homeless and alone, his life apparently squandered, estranged from the family that included Kinsey, and the novel explores his history with care and compassion. W Is for Wasted is, in part, an examination of homelessness — the people who fall through the cracks, the histories they carry, the humanity that persists even in lives the world has written off. Grafton renders Dace and the homeless community around him with sympathy and specificity, refusing to reduce them to statistics or stereotypes.

This compassionate exploration gives the novel a thematic depth beyond its mystery. The question of whether Dace’s life was truly wasted — whether a life that ended in homelessness and estrangement can still hold meaning — runs through the book, and Kinsey’s investigation into his death becomes an act of recovering his history, of granting him the dignity of being known. The theme connects to the series’ deeper concerns, the value of every life and the obligation to pursue the truth, and it gives W Is for Wasted an emotional and moral seriousness that distinguishes it.

A Sprawling Structure

W Is for Wasted is one of the longest and most sprawling Kinsey Millhone novels, its two braided deaths and multiple threads giving it a broad, complex structure. The research-fraud mystery surrounding Pete Wolinsky’s death, the exploration of Dace’s homeless history, the family revelations and inheritance — these multiple strands combine into an ambitious but diffuse narrative, less focused than the series’ tighter entries. The length and complexity ask for the reader’s patience, and the multiple threads can dilute the focus, the novel covering a great deal of ground.

But the sprawl serves the novel’s ambitions. The braiding of the two deaths, the exploration of homelessness and family, the thematic engagement with wasted lives all require room, and the broad structure accommodates them. The clever connection of the two seemingly separate cases provides a satisfying mystery, and the family development gives the book emotional weight. Grafton’s clean prose and Kinsey’s dry narration carry the sprawling material, and the thematic depth rewards the investment. The result is one of the more ambitious and emotionally rich later entries, even if its length and complexity make it less tightly focused than the series’ best.

A Rich, Sprawling Entry

W Is for Wasted is one of the more thematically rich later Kinsey Millhone novels, and its strengths are the poignant exploration of homelessness and family, the major development in Kinsey’s family story, and the clever braiding of two deaths. The thematic depth about wasted lives gives the book a moral seriousness, and the family revelations advance the series’ long personal arc. The sprawling structure and multiple threads dilute the focus, but the ambition and emotional weight carry the novel.

The 1980s setting remains a defining texture, dating the book while keeping the focus on Kinsey’s investigation. W Is for Wasted is the series in an ambitious, thematically rich mode, anchored by two braided deaths, the discovery of an unknown relative, and a compassionate exploration of homelessness and the meaning of a wasted life, one of the more substantial later entries.

Where It Sits in the Series

W Is for Wasted is the twenty-third Kinsey Millhone novel, following V Is for Vengeance and preceding X. It reads richest with knowledge of the series, since it advances Kinsey’s family story, though its central mystery works as a standalone. The Pete Wolinsky thread also connects forward to X. For readers tracking the Alphabet series, it is one of the more thematically rich and personally significant later entries.

Among the Kinsey Millhone books, W Is for Wasted stands out for its poignant exploration of homelessness and family and its major development in Kinsey’s family story, one of the more thematically rich later entries. It is an ambitious, sprawling novel that braids two deaths and examines the meaning of a wasted life, demonstrating the series’ capacity for emotional and moral depth even as its length and complexity ask for patience.

Our rating: 3.9/5 — A thematically rich, sprawling Kinsey Millhone novel that braids a dead PI and a homeless man into one investigation, delivering a major family revelation and a compassionate exploration of wasted lives.