T is for Trespass

T is for Trespass is the Sue Grafton alphabet novel where the form gets genuinely terrifying. Kinsey's elderly neighbor Henry has been worried about his older brother Gus, who has fallen and seems to be losing the ability to live alone. A live-in nurse is hired. The nurse is not what she says she is. Kinsey is the only person who notices.

What makes the book extraordinary is how Grafton handles the villain. Solana Rojas (not her real name) gets her own point-of-view chapters that are some of the most chilling antagonist writing in the genre. She is not a thriller-villain monster. She is a careful, patient, controlling person whose elder-abuse pattern unfolds in the slow patient way real elder abuse does, and Grafton documents it with the precision of someone who has done the research.

The case resolution earns its weight. The elder-abuse material is handled with seriousness. Five stars. The strongest novel in the back half of the alphabet series. Recommended even to readers who have not kept up with all twenty entries.