Dr. Dowan Purcell had been missing for nine weeks when
Kinsey got a call asking her to take on the case. A
specialist in geriatric medicine, Purcell was a prominent
member of the Santa Teresa medical community, and the police
had done a thorough job. Purcell had no known enemies and
seemed contented with his life. At the time of his
disappearance, he was running a nursing care facility where
both the staff and the patients loved him. He adored his
second wife, Crystal, and doted on their two-year-old son.
It wasn't Crystal who called Kinsey. It was Purcell's
ex-wife, Fiona. Everything about their meeting made Kinsey
uneasy. Fiona's manner was high-handed and her expectations
unrealistic. Kinsey's instincts told her to refuse the job,
yet she ended up saying, "I'll do what I can, but I make no
promises."
It was a decision she'd live to regret.
Pursuing the mysterious disappearance of Purcell, Kinsey
crashes into a wall of speculation. It seems everyone has a
theory. The cops think he went on a bender and is too
ashamed to come home. Fiona is sure he ran off to get away
from Crystal, and Crystal is just as sure he's dead. The
staff at the nursing home is convinced he's been kidnapped,
and one of his daughters, having consulted a psychic, is
certain that he's trapped in a dark place, though she
doesn't know where. Kinsey is awash in explanations and
sorely lacking in facts. Then pure chance leads her in
another direction, and she soon finds herself in a dangerous
shadow land, where duplicity and double-dealing are the
reality and, with the truth glinting elusively out of reach,
she must stake her life on a thin tread of intuition.
"P" is for Peril: Kinsey Millhone's latest venture
into the darker side of the human soul.
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