Graceland: Book 4 of the JP Kinkaid Chronicles

Blues fans will welcome Grabien's fourth mystery featuring British session guitarist JP Kinkaid, now a San Francisco resident and member of the rock-blues band Blacklight (after 2009's While My Guitar Gently Weeps). When Kinkaid nominates Farris "Bulldog" Moody for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Early Influences category, he's amazed to learn from blues critic Ches Kobel that the 86-year-old blues guitarist is still alive. Kinkaid meets Moody at Moody's home in southern Ohio, where they make music and plans for the Hall of Fame induction. When Kobel, who's writing a history of the blues, dies unexpectedly and perhaps suspiciously, Kinkaid asks SFPD Det. Patrick Ormand to (unofficially) investigate. While the solution to the mystery will strike many as mundane, Grabien is particularly good on the early blues players and their continuing influence—and she handles Kincaid's multiple sclerosis with sensitivity and insight. (Apr.)