Tribute to Author Sue Grafton

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Happy Birthday, Sue Grafton!

I have to admit that I am not a big fan of series.  I hate the feeling of being obligated to read the next book. There are too many books, too little time to dwell on one character. After all, variety is the spice of life. I especially dislike it when a book leaves you hanging and you have to continue on to the next one to find out what they should have settled in the first book. Isn’t that entrapment? Shouldn’t that be illegal? 😀

I would be lying if I said I never read or even wholeheartedly enjoyed some series. I was just as wrapped up in the Twilight saga as the next vampire lover.  I was also biting my nails as Lisbeth was dragged into a dark world of rape and murder in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. And with my book club, I dove right into The Hunger Games trilogy, even getting my son and husband engrossed in the dystopian future where kids are forced to fight to the death for the Capitol’s viewing pleasure. 

Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone Private Detective Novels.
But one series I’ve enjoyed the most is the Kinsey Millhone, private detective “alphabet” mysteries by Sue Grafton. What a fun and witty collection! I was hooked right when A Is for Alibi came out in 1982 and have been lured back again and again. The main character, Kinsey, is a former police officer turned private detective. She’s a smart, no-nonsense woman who lives in a garage converted into a studio apartment in beautiful (and fictional) Santa Teresa, California. Kinsey has a good relationship with her landlord, a loveable, active octogenarian who creates crossword puzzles. She’s intuitive and organized keeping notes on index cards for her cases.  Kinsey jogs several times a week, but still enjoys junk food.

Every time I order an apple pie at McDonald’s I think and laugh about how Kinsey describes it as “one of those fried pies full of hot glue that burns the fuck  out of your mouth. Pure heaven.”[1] Of course, that’s changed—don’t want those lawsuits.  These days, you get a tepid pocket of glue with a warning on the side.  Or maybe I just haven’t been getting them fresh out of the oven. Either way, it’s still as wonderfully appetizing as in the “good old days.”  

Sue Grafton created such a wonderful character in Kinsey I almost named my daughter after her! (My husband vetoed it.) Born on April 24, 1940, Sue Grafton managed to crank out almost the entire alphabet in mysteries in her lifetime. Sadly, she passed away in December of 2017, so her alphabet will end with the Y Is for Yesterday, which was published several months before her death.

Goodbye, Sue. Thanks for the many fun moments your books provided!

You can learn more about her books on her website http://www.suegrafton.com


Happy Reading,
Annette









[1] Sue Grafton, E is for Evidence New York: Bantam Books, 1988), 70.

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