Sue Grafton
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Sue Taylor Grafton (born April 24, 1940 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA) is a contemporary American author of detective novels.
Her best known works are a chronological series of mystery novels. Known as "the alphabet novels," the stories are set in and around the fictional town of Santa Teresa, which is based on the author's primary city of residence, Santa Barbara, California (Grafton chose to use the name Santa Teresa as a tribute to the author Ross Macdonald, who had previously used this as an alternative name for Santa Barbara in his own novels). All novels of the series are written from the perspective of a female private investigator named Kinsey Millhone. Grafton's first book of this series is "A" is for Alibi, written and set in 1982. The series continues with "B" is for Burglar, "C" is for Corpse, and so on through the alphabet. The timeline of the series is slower than real-time - "Q" is for Quarry, for example, is set in 1987, even though it was written in 2002. Her latest book, "S" is for Silence, was published in December 2005.
The daughter of novelist CW Grafton, Grafton is a graduate of the University of Louisville, where she earned a bachelors degree in English Literature. In addition to her books, she has written for television and movies. Some of these works were in collaboration with her husband, Steven Humphrey.
In 2004, Grafton received the Ross Macdonald Literary Award, given to "a California writer whose work raises the standard of literary excellence."
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Early novels
- Keziah Dane. (1967)
- The Lolly Madonna War. (1969) (filmed as Lolly-Madonna XXX , 1973)
[edit] Kinsey Millhone series
- A is for Alibi. (1982)
- B is for Burglar. (1985)
- C is for Corpse. (1986)
- D is for Deadbeat. (1987)
- E is for Evidence. (1988)
- F is for Fugitive. ISBN 0-8050-0460-2. (1989)
- G is for Gumshoe. (1990)
- H is for Homicide. (1991)
- I is for Innocent. (1992)
- J is for Judgment. (1993)
- K is for Killer. (1994)
- L is for Lawless. (1995)
- M is for Malice. (1996)
- N is for Noose. (1998)
- O is for Outlaw. (1999)
- P is for Peril. (2001)
- Q is for Quarry. (2002)
- R Is for Ricochet. (2004)
- S Is for Silence. (2005)
For more on Kinsey Millhone see Kinsey Millhone
[edit] Also published
- Kinsey and Me. (1992) - a collection of Kinsey Millhone short stories along with other short stories about Grafton's own mother.
[edit] Plot outlines
[edit] A is for Alibi
"A is for Alibi" covers the investigation by Millhone into the death of Laurence Fife. The investigation is initiated by his wife, Nikki Fife, who was charged and convicted of his death. Eight years later, and upon her release, she sets Millhone the task of finding the real killer.
Grafton based the story to some extent on her own 'fantasies' of murdering her then husband prior to divorce. The choice of murder through a substitution of the contents of an antihistamine tablet with oleander meant that an alibi held no value since the tablet could have been switched a considerable time prior to someone actually taking the tablet.
Millhone finds out about a second death (Libby Glass) by the same means just several days after the death of Laurence Fife. With insufficient evidence, Nikki Fife was never prosecuted for the second death but it was assumed she had also killed the young accountant, who was rumoured to be having an affair with Laurence Fife.
The investigation leads Millhone to Las Vegas where a scheduled meeting with a former secretary of Laurence Fife ends with the former secretary being shot. Millhone suspects the ex-boyfriend of Libby Glass whom she had met with on the way to Vegas.
A relationship develops between Millhone and Laurence Fife's ex-business partner Charlie Scorsoni.
Millhone eventually discovers the real killer of Laurence Fife and Libby Glass.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 later Bobby is dead. Kinsey Millhone never welshed on a deal. She'd been hired to stop a killing. Now she'd find the killer.
[edit] 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?
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] G is for Gumshoe
Good and bad things seem to be coming in threes for Kinsey Millhone: on her thirty-third birthday she moves back into her renovated apartment, gets hired to find an elderly lady supposedly living in the Mojave Desert by herself, and makes the top of ex-con Tyrone Patty's hit list. It's the last that convinces Kinsey even she can't handle whoever's been hired to whack her, and she gets herself a bodyguard: Robert Dietz, a Porsche-driving PI who takes guarding Kinsey's body very seriously. With Dietz watching her for the merest sign of her usual recklessness, Kinsey plunges into her case. And before it's over, she'll unearth the gruesome truth about a long-buried betrayal and, in the process, come fact-to-face with her own mortality . . .
[edit] H is for Homicide
His name was Parnell Perkins, and until shortly after midnight, he'd been a claims adjuster for California Fidelity. Then someone came along and put paid to that line of work. And to any other. Parnell Perkins had been shot at close range and left for dead in the parking lot outside California Fidelity's offices. To the cops, it looked like a robbery gone sour. To Kinsey Millhone, it looked like the cops were walking away from the case. She didn't like the idea that a colleague and sometime drinking companion had been murdered. Or the idea that his murderer was loose and on the prowl. It made her feel exposed. Vulnerable.
[edit] I is for Innocent
Kinsey Millhone helps Lonnie Kingman, who is right in the middle of putting together a civil suit. The private investigator who was helping him with his pretrial preparation has died from a heart attack, not long before the court's statute of limitations will catch up with his case. Five years ago, David Barney was acquitted of murdering his rich wife, Isabelle.
In the present case Kingman is acting as attorney for the dead woman's ex-husband and their child (because he feels the jury was wrong), and is bent on taking back from Barney the profits of that murder. However, time is short and David still maintains his innocence.
[edit] J is for Judgment
While investigating the reappearance of the long-presumed-dead Wendell Jaffe, Kinsey Millhone uncovers some unpleasant truths about her own family.
[edit] K is for Killer
Lorna Kepler was beautiful and willful, a loner who couldn't resist flirting with danger. Maybe that's what killed her. Her death had raised a host of tough questions. The cops suspected homicide, but they could find neither motive nor suspect. Even the means were mysterious; Lorna's body was so badly decomposed when it was discovered that they couldn't be certain she'd died of natural causes. In the way of overworked cops everywhere, the case was gradually shifted to the back burner and became another unsolved file. Only Lorna's mother kept it alive, consumed by the certainty that somebody out there had gotten away with murder. In the ten months since her daughter's death, Janice Kepler had joined a support group, trying to come to terms with her loss and her anger. It wasn't helping. And so, leaving a session one evening and noticing a light on in the offices of Millhone Investigations, she knocked on the door. In answering that knock, Kinsey Millhone is pulled into the netherworld of unavenged murder, where only a pact with the devil will satisfy the restless ghosts of the victims and give release to the living they have left behind.
[edit] L is for Lawless
Kinsey's skills are about to be sorely tested. She is about to meet her duplicitous match in a couple of world-class prevaricators who quite literally take her for the ride of her life.
[edit] M is for Malice
On Wednesday, January 8, Kinsey Millhone meets her first cousin, Tasha and her sister Lisa, for a lunch meeting. Tasha is an attorney specializing in wills and estates, a frequent line of business for private investigators. After little to no contact, they are relative strangers. So it comes as a shock when mirrors in the restaurant make it plain that all three might be triplets. On a professional level, Tasha's firm represents the estate of Bader Malek, the recently deceased owner/operator the of extremely successful gravel pit Malek Construction, a force to reckoned with in the Califoria construction business.
Kinsey arrives home after this meeting to find Robert Dietz, a PI from Vegas and former romantic interest at least until the expansion of his security business required him to live in Germany, for a while anyway. Now two years later he's knocking on her door. They haven't talked long before a call from Malek Construction about Tasha's case intrudes, but Kinsey gives him a key to her place and leaves for her appointment.
Tasha hires Kinsey to find a missing Malek heir that disappeared 18 years ago. Guy Malek was trouble with a capital "T" and into every vice of the day. Kinsey finds him a bit quicker than expected, and then the malice follows...
[edit] N is for Noose
[edit] O is for Outlaw
[edit] P is for Peril
[edit] Q is for Quarry
"Q is for Quarry" was unique in that it was inspired by an actual unsolved "Jane Doe" murder in 1969 (though, being set in 1987, the murder was only 18 years ago in the book.) The details of the victim and crime scene in the book were almost identical to those of the real Jane Doe case, though Grafton made a few changes which are noted in the book's epilogue. The Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office gave Grafton an extraordinary level of cooperation, including letting her see a copy of the murder book and the victim's hair, clothing and mandible bone.
Additionally, the real Jane Doe's corpse was exhumed in July, 2001 and a clay facial reconstruction was made from her skull (photographs were included in the book's appendix.) Though Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office investigators Bill Turner and Bruce Correll were both eager to re-examine the case, Grafton's interest came at a time when law enforcement agencies statewide were facing a major budgetary shortfall. For that reason, Grafton offered to underwrite the cost of the exhumation. Jane Doe's body was re-interred with a Sheriff's Office honor guard on February 26, 2002. The Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office has received close to 100 tips since "Q" came out, but, to date, have been unable to identify Jane Doe or her killer.
[edit] R is for Ricochet
Reba Lafferty was a daughter of privilege, the only child of an adoring father. Nord Lafferty was already in his fifties when Reba was born, and he could deny her nothing. Over the years, he quietly settled her many scrapes with the law, but he wasn't there for her when she was convicted of embezzlement and sent to the California Institute for Women. Now, at thirty-two, she is about to be paroled, having served twenty-two months of a four-year sentence. Nord Lafferty wants to be sure she stays straight, stays at home and away from the drugs, the booze, the gamblers.
It seems a straightforward assignment for Kinsey: babysit Reba until she settles in, make sure she follows all the rules of her parole. Maybe all of a week's work. Nothing untoward--the woman seems remorseful and friendly. And the money is good.
But life is never that simple, and Reba is out of prison less than twenty-four hours when one of her crowd comes circling around.
Found here is a complex and clever money-laundering scheme that is just a cover for love: love gone wrong, love betrayed, love denied. And love avenged. For Reba Lafferty, its moral is clear: Sometimes what you hand out in life comes back to bite you in the behind. Sometimes the good guys win, even when they lose.
[edit] S is for Silence
Thirty-four years ago, Violet Sullivan put on her party finery and left for the annual Fourth of July fireworks display. She was never seen again.
In the small California town of Serena Station, tongues wagged. Some said she'd run off with a lover. Some said she was murdered by her husband.
But for the not-quite-seven-year-old daughter Daisy she left behind, her absence has never been explained or forgotten.
Now, thirty-four years later, Daisy wants the solace of closure.
[edit] References
- Natalie Hevener Kaufman, Carol McGinnis Kay (1997). "G" Is for Grafton: The World of Kinsey Millhone, Hardcover, Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-5446-4.
