Mystery Women Authors
Sue Grafton
Biography
Born in Louisville,
Kentucky in 1940, Sue Grafton started the Kinsey Millhone series in 1982, when,
as a twice divorced mother of three, she lay in bed plotting how to kill her
ex-husband. She says, 'I knew I would bungle it and get caught, so I wrote it
in a book instead.'
Her first published works were straight novels and her writing career began with writing for the cinema and television.
Sue Grafton has sold over 2 million copies of her books in hardcover and over 16 million copies in paperback to date, in the U.S. alone. Also an international success, her books are in print in the UK, and in 22 other languages.
Grafton is married to Steven Humphrey, has three children from two previous marriages, and resides in Santa Barbara, California, and Louisville, Kentucky, where she was born and raised.
For a recent interview with Sue Grafton on how she came up with the ideas for her books click here.
Books
Kinsey Millhone Series
'A' is for Alibi
Laurence
Fife was a slick divorce lawyer and slippery ladies' man. Until someone killed
him. The jury believed that it was his pretty young wife Nikki, so they sent
her to prison for eight years. Now, Nikki's out on parole and Kinsey Millhone's
in for trouble. Nikki hires Kinsey to discover who really killed her husband.
But the trail is eight years cold, and at the end is a chilling twist even Kinsey
doesn't suspect -- a second eight-year-old murder and a brand new corpse. (From
Amazon.com)
Published Pan Books 1986 UK, Crime Line USA
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'B' is for Burglar
Finding
wealthy Elaine Boldt seems like a quickie case to Kinsey Millhone. The flashy
widow was last seen wearing a $12,000 lynx coat, leaving her condo in Santa
Teresa for her condo in Boca Raton. But somewhere in between, she vanished.
Kinsey's case goes from puzzling to sinister when a house is torched, an apartment
is burgled of worthless papers, the lynx coat comes back without Elaine, and
her bridge partner is found dead. Soon Kinsey's clues begin to form a capital
M -- not for missing, but for murder: And plenty of it.
Winner Of The 1985 Private Eye Writers Of America Shamus Award And The 1985 Anthony Award For Best Novel. (From Amazon.com)
Published 1986 Crime Line USA, Pan Books UK
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'C' is for Corpse
Kinsey
meets him in the local gym. Bobby Callahan is a scarred young man struggling
back to life after a car forced his Porsche over the edge of a canyon, battering
his body and muddling his memory. All he remembers is that someone, for some
reason, tried to kill him. Desperate for clues about his own past life and certain
he is being stalked, he asks Kinsey to protect him. Kinsey can't resist the
brave kid - and neither can the killers. Three days late Bobby is dead. Kinsey
Millhone never welshed on a deal. She'd been hired to stop a killing. Now she'd
find the killer. (From Amazon.com)
Published Pan Books 1987, Crime Line USA
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'D' is for Deadbeat
The client
came to Kinsey Millhone with an easy job -- just deliver $25,000 to a fifteen-year-old
kid. A little odd, and a little too easy, but Kinsey took Alvin Limardo's retainer
check anyway. It turned out to be as phony as he was. In real life, his name
was John Daggett, a chronic drunk with a record as long as your arm and a reputation
for sleazy deals. But he wasn't just a deadbeat. By the time Kinsey caught up
with him, he was a dead body -- with a whole host of people who were delighted
to hear the news. But how do you make a stiff pay up what he owes you? (From
Amazon.com)
Published Crime Line 1988, USA
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'E' is for Evidence
'E' is
for evidence: evidence planted, evidence lost. 'E' is for ex-lovers and evasions,
enemies and endings. For Kinsey, 'E' is for everything she stands to lose if
she can't exonerate herself: her license, her livelihood, her good name. And
so she takes on a new client: namely, Kinsey Millhone, thirty-two and twice
divorced, ex-cop and wisecracking loner, a California private investigator with
a penchant for lost causes -- one of which, it is to be hoped, is not herself.
(From Amazon.com)
Published 1989 Crime Line USA
Read a review of 'E' is for Evidence - click here
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'F' is for Fugitive
Everyone
knew the kind of girl Jean Timberlake was -- ask anybody in the sleepy surf
town of Floral Beach and they'd say Jean was wild, looking for trouble. But
she certainly wasn't looking for murder. She was found dead on the beach seventeen
years ago, and a rowdy ex-boyfriend named Bailey Fowler was convicted of her
murder and imprisoned -- and then Bailey escaped. Now private eye Kinsey Millhone
steps into a case that should have never been closed, in a town where there's
no such thing as a private investigation. (From Amazon.com)
Published May 1990 Crime Line USA
Read a review of 'F' is for Fugitive - click here
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'G' is for Gumshoe
"G"
is for guilt and guile, greed and grief, and the grim reaper in this adventure
about wise-cracking Millhone.
Published Pan Books 1990 UK and Crest Books 1991 USA
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'H' is for Homicide
When Kinsey
happens across a file in an insurance scam, there seem to be more questions
to answer in the recent death of a claims adjuster.
Published 1991 Fawcett Crest
Read a review of 'H' is for Homicide - click here
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'I' is for Innocent
Kinsey
Millhone agrees to take over a case left unsolved by her private eye friend
when he died and finds that she has to start from square one and defend her
life while she is at it. (From Amazon.com)
Published Crest 1994
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'J' is for Judgement
While
investigating the reappearance of the long-presumed-dead Wendell Jaffe, Kinsey
Millhone uncovers some unpleasant truths about her own family in the process.
(From Amazon.com)
Published May 1994 Crest
Read a review - click here
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'K' is for Killer
Grafton
gets ready to out-sell herself once again--this time with a more complex, more
disturbing and more emotionally involved novel than ever before. Launching into
more than a simple mystery, she takes readers into the dark heart of murder,
where victims rise up to remind us that taking a life is no laughing matter.
(From Amazon.com)
Published Fawcett Books May 1995
Read a review - click here
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'L' is for Lawless
Call it
Kinsey Millhone in bad company. Call it a mystery without a murder, a treasure
hunt without a map, and a quest novel with truly mixed motives. In this addition
to Grafton's mega-best-selling "Alphabet Mystery" series, Kinsey hits
the road and proves that Tolstoy got it all wrong: Unhappy families are all
alike. (From Amazon.com)
Published Pan Books 1995 and Ballantine Books 1997 USA
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'M' is for Malice
"M"
is for money. Lots of it. "M" is for Malek Construction, the $40 million
company that grew out of modest soil to become one of the big three in California
and, uniquely, remains in family hands. Eighteen years ago, one of the sons
of that family went missing. Now, "M" is for Millhone, hired to trace
that missing black sheep. Though Kinsey Millhone succeeds in her search, this
prodigal son will find no welcome at his family's table. And, in the all-too-common
outcome of familial hate--"M" winds up standing for Murder. (From
Amazon.com)
Published Fawcett Books January 1998
Read a review - click here
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'N' is for Noose
Kinsey
Millhone should have done something else--she should have turned the car in
the direction of home. Instead, she was about to put herself in the gravest
jeopardy of her career.
Tom Newquist had been a detective in the Nota Lake sheriff's office--a tough, honest cop respected by everyone. When he died suddenly, the townsfolk were saddened but not surprised: Just shy of sixty-five, Newquist worked too hard, smoked too much, and exercised too little. That plus an appetite for junk food made him a poster boy for an American Heart Association campaign.
Newquist's widow didn't doubt the coroner's report. But what Selma couldn't accept was not knowing what had so bothered Tom in the last six weeks of his life. What was it that had made him prowl restlessly at night, that had him brooding constantly? Selma Newquist wanted closure, and the only way she'd get it was if she found out what it was that had so bedeviled her husband.
Kinsey should have dumped the case. It was vague and hopeless, like looking for a needle in a haystack. Instead, she set up shop in Nota Lake, where she found that looking for a needle in a haystack can draw blood. Very likely, her own.
"N" Is for Noose: a novel in which Kinsey Millhone becomes the target and an entire town seems in for the kill.
Published Henry Holt 1998
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Other Works by Sue Grafton
Sue Grafton wrote numerous movies for television, including "Walking Through Fire" (1979), for which she won a Christopher Award; "Sex and the Single Parent;" "Mark, I Love You;" and "Nurse."
With her husband Steve Humphrey, Sue adapted two Agatha Christie novels, Caribbean Mystery and Sparkling Cyanide, and co-wrote "Killer in the Family" and "Love on the Run."
Her early novels include Keziah Dane (1967) and The Lolly-Madonna War (1969).
Web site Address
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Page created by Leone Moffat
Last updated 03-Mar-2002