Kinsey Milhone the California private investigator has had her share of trouble. In this latest in Grafton's fine "Alphabet' series, a homeless man is found dead in a park. He's got Kinsey's firm's details on a piece of paper. So begins W IS FOR WASTED.

Spanish-style architecture, bougainvillea and beaches are the setting for much of Kinsey's work. She lives in a garage rented out by an elderly baker, Henry, and while she did acquire a long-distance boyfriend during the series, she is divorced, stubbornly independent and likes her own company. Henry's brother William, a hypochondriac with a suddenly bad back, arrives to stay, bringing a cat which he'd rescued from the pound. This not particularly happy black and white odd-eyed cat makes a lively addition to the group.

Circulating with homeless people is all in a day's work for Kinsey, who learns that the dead man, Terrence, was hoping to trace some family members. He'd just got out of prison so it's possible they would not have been keen to see him. Kinsey is flabbergasted when Terrence's relatives also turn out to be hers. Now she's obliged to execute his will despite the fact that it gives Terrence's family reason to hate her. Interspersed is the last case of a defrauding PI whose rent is long overdue and who is hired to follow a woman working in a research institute. He decides to make some side money out of it, but it's a bad decision.

There's a lot of reading in a Sue Grafton book, a lot of looks at the underside of society. She makes us care about all the characters, even the heavily-smoking down-and-outs, even the dead man whom we never met. The tale is set back in 1988, so we are not burdened with smartphones and websearches; this tale carries the same hardworking atmosphere of the early books. Step by step, document by phone book, interview by phone call, Kinsey retraces the path of a miscarriage of justice and a family breakdown. She should be well aware that she's in a precarious position but we can just see this car crash waiting to happen as we turn the pages and the two cases fall into line. It's compulsive reading which only gets better from this masterly author. W IS FOR WASTED should read W for a Worthy addition to Sue Grafton's series.