[In the following review, Waugh admires the sophisticated plot of “M” Is for Malice, but also finds the novel predictable.]

[In] Sue Grafton's M Is for Malice Kinsey Millhone, Grafton's sturdy, female private eye is asked to find the black sheep of the Malek family when the estate (a 40-million-dollar company) has to be settled. Guy, the missing member of the family, left home, unmourned, at 16 after countless misdemeanours fuelled by drugs and drink. His three boorish, greedy brothers say he was disinherited by their father, but the will cannot be found. Kinsey tracks down a sweet, born-again hippie looking for love and reconciliation—a trussed lamb for the slaughter. She spends the rest of the novel driven by angry guilt in pursuit of a killer.

Unlike Sarah Paretsky's private eye Warshawski (the forerunner of most of this generation of female detectives), who has become increasingly angry, bitter and discouraged by dealing endlessly with crooked financiers, Kinsey has a tough vulnerability about her. Her relationships may not be entirely satisfactory but they do not exist to prove points, nor does she fall back on sentimental relationships with dogs or, as in the case of Patricia Cornwell's Dr Kay Scarpetta, a niece. She is altogether a more rounded and presentable heroine for the reader to engage with, and M Is for Malice delivers a nicely intricate plot, although I guessed both the motive and the murderer rather too early on.