photo by Mark Coggins |
Sue Grafton (1940-2017) began writing the "Alphabet Series," after a fairly successful career as a screenwriter. The books are usually categorized as hard-boiled PI thrillers. However, Kinsey Millhone brings a softer touch between the adventurous parts. They are set in the fictional Santa Teresa, which is a thinly disguised verson of Santa Barbara, California.
Recurring Characters of Note:
Kinsey Millhone
Henry, her neighbor
Rosie, Henry's Hungarian sister-in-law who runs a small restaurant
Con Dolan, a cop
Cheney Phillips, a cop
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 (1989)
"G" Is for Gumshoe (1990)
Kinsey returns to her renovated home (after it was destroyed by a bomb), and takes on a job to locate an elderly woman who has lived most of her life as a recluse in a desert "community" populated by people considered homeless. But the woman is missing, and someone seems to be trying to kill Kinsey!
She becomes so alarmed that she hires a bodyguard, but working with him presents issues of a different kind. The woman is located. She is suffering from dementia and her daughter brings her to a nursing home nearby. Then the mother escapes. Relationships get complicated.
"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)
Year is 1987. Millhone has just moved to new offices after years of sharing space in the Kingman building. Her friend, Con Dolan, is on medical leave after suffering a heart attack. He wants to privately look into a cold case with an old cop friend Stacey, who is being treated for cancer. Kinsey agrees to work with them.
This book is based on an actual case of an, even yet, unidentified body of a young girl who was murdered in 1969. Other than the basic facts of the body, the rest of the story is complete fiction.
Kinsey, Con, and Stacey travel to Lompoc to see where the body was found, and Kinsey is stunned to find it has connections to her estranged biological family. We learn how Kinsey's parents died when she was five.
"R" Is for Ricochet (2004)
"S" Is for Silence (2005)
"T" Is for Trespass (2007)
"U" Is for Undertow (2009)
"V" Is for Vengeance (2011)
"W" Is for Wasted (2013)
"X" (2015)
"Y" Is for Yesterday (2017)
