G is for Gumshoe by Sue Grafton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"'The Slabs?'
'Ah, doesn't ring a bell. [...] The Slabs are out on the Mojave, to the east of the Salton Sea. During the Second World War, there was a Marine base out there. It's gone now. All that's left are the concrete foundations for the barracks, known now as the Slabs. Thousands of people migrate to the Slabs every winter from the North.'"

Reading the first third of Sue Grafton's G Is For Gumshoe was a riveting experience for me. Along with my family and friends, I used to pass next to the Slabs, now called Slab City, every year between 1990 and 2010, when driving to our well-hidden New Year's Eve camping place in Chocolate Mountains. I often wondered about the daily life of people coming from Canada or northern parts of the US to stay in their trailers in the Mojave.

And then, on page 38 of my paperback edition, I see:

"In the distance, to the right, I caught sight of a hillock of raw dirt, crowned by an outcropping of rock painted with religious sentiments. GOD IS LOVE and REPENT loomed large."

Yes, the place is still there, only now it is a full-blown tourist attraction, called The Salvation Mountain. Highly recommended! The book also mentions a motel in Brawley, and the locality called Niland, on the shore of Salton Sea. I know all these places so well!

Back to the novel. A woman hires Kinsey Millhone to check on well-being of her mother, an 83-year-old woman, living alone in Slab City. At the same time, Kinsey learns that there is a contract on her life. A felon whom Kinsey helped to convict and put in prison wants her killed. When she drives on Highway 111 (so many memories for me), she is shot at and run off the road. Kinsey acquires a bodyguard to ensure her safety.

The scenes of Kinsey's conversations with Agnes, the old woman, are the best parts of the novel. The dialogues ring true, and the psychology of the character reads plausible. As opposed to the entire thread of Kinsey evading the killer and the somewhat lame romantic thread between Kinsey and her bodyguard. Connections to events from the deep past (1940s) emerge and there is a lot of action. A lot of action! We even have passages like:

"Blood and torn flesh bloomed in his chest like a chrysanthemum, shreds of cotton shirting like the calyx of a flower."

Well, quite visual, yet a bit cheap! I like the novel, but mainly for the locales on the east shore of Salton Sea and for the Agnes character. Without these, I do not think it would be a highly readable novel.

Three stars.

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