Book ~ "C is for Corpse" (1986) Sue Grafton

From Goodreads ~ How do you go about solving an attempted murder when the victim has lost a good part of his memory? It's one of Kinsey's toughest cases yet but she never backs down from a challenge. 

Twenty-three-year-old Bobby Callahan is lucky to be alive after a car forced his Porsche over a bridge and into a canyon. The crash left Bobby with a clouded memory. But he can't shake the feeling it was no random accident and that he's still in danger.

The only clues Kinsey has to go on are a little red address book and the name "Blackman." Bobby can't remember who he gave the address book to for safekeeping. And any chances of Bobby regaining his memory are dashed when he's killed in another automobile accident just three days after he hires Kinsey.

As Kinsey digs deeper into her investigation, she discovers Bobby had a secret worth killing for - and unearthing that secret could send Kinsey to her own early death.

Kinsey Millhone is in her 30s and a private detective in Santa Teresa, CA. She is hired by Bobby Callahan, who was nearly killed when his car went off the road nine months before.  Bobby is convinced that the accident wasn't an accident ... someone was trying to kill him and he wants Kinsey to find out who wanted him dead.  The problem is that Bobby lost a lot of his memory and can only give Kinsey bits and pieces of his life before the accident.

A couple days later, Bobby is killed in a car accident and the autopsy reveals he had a seizure, a result of the first accident.  Because he had paid Kinsey a retainer, she continues with the investigation.

I thought this book was just okay.  Though I liked the writing style, I didn't find the story engaging and didn't really care about the characters.  It is written in first person perspective in Kinsey's voice.  I found it wrapped up really quickly and I thought the ending (the catching of the "whodunnit") wasn't believable.  As a head's up, there is swearing.

This is the third in the "alphabet series" featuring Kinsey Millhone.  I discovered this series in the mid-1990s and have been a fan since and have read them all.  Since the series will soon come to an end, I am starting at the beginning and rereading them.  They are all set in the 1980s before everyone had a computer, cell phone, etc.