The A -Y of Mysteries - Sarah Nicholson
Sue Grafton, born in Kentucky in 1940, was the daughter of mystery novelist C. W. Grafton and she decided to write her own series of mystery novels because these were the books she had been raised on.
"The
mystery novel offers a world in which justice is served.
Maybe
not in a court of law," she has said,
"but people do get their just desserts."
She created her protagonist Kinsey Millhone in the late seventies
and freely admits she is her alter-ego. “a thinner, younger, braver
version of herself, living a life she may have led had she not married and had
children at a young age.”
“She is a marvel for which I take only partial credit,
though she probably claims all the
credit for me.”
She never got to celebrate her 40th birthday, not
because she died on a perilous case, although she came quite close on occasion,
but because sadly in 2017 her creator died before she finished the last book “Z
is for Zero”. The alphabet series of mysteries came to an abrupt end. The final
book in the series will forever remain “Y is for Yesterday”.
“The
alphabet now ends at Y,”
wrote Sue’s daughter, on her mother’s passing.
Whereas the Stieg Larsson Millennium series, featuring the unparalleled
Lisbeth Salander have continued with a new author taking over the helm, Grafton
never wanted anyone else to write about Kinsey.
It’s a little frustrating to not know if any of her romantic
liaisons ever progressed to more serious commitment, but perhaps it’s
comforting to know we will never have to deal with the grief of losing her
loveable octogenarian landlord Henry or any of his remarkable siblings.
Kinsey and her assorted “family” have been a part of my life
for many years. I am a huge fan of Sue’s writing and because of the first-person
narrative it is easy to warm to Kinsey, she is everyone’s badass alter ego
fighting crime and righting wrongs.
I really would like to read the whole series again someday,
I’ve even toyed with the idea of making “Kinsey Millhone and the Alphabet
series by Sue Grafton” my specialist subject on Mastermind, which would give me
the perfect excuse to dive right in and re-live the 1980s. I probably can’t
remember all the plot twists, so they would seem fresh, even if dated, set in
the eighties with no internet or mobile phones.
But something holds me back from re-reading, maybe it’s the
huge to be read pile on the shelf that entices me to read something new I’ve
never read before. If only there were some undiscovered Kinsey stories for me
to read…
“Kinsey and Me Stories” by Sue Grafton isn’t a new book; it
was published in 2013 between “V is for Vengeance” and “W is for Wasted”. It
features nine short stories about Kinsey and a collection of stories about a
character called Kit Blue.
The book includes a short preface and introduction which offer
much to those interested in Grafton’s writing process as she explains the subtle
differences between a crime, mystery and detective story, the necessity for
fair play, how the reader must see every clue the detective finds and the
killer cannot just pop up in the last paragraph out of context.
It’s like a masterclass in just a few short pages of what
has made her such a superb story teller. I’m almost loathe to return the book
to the library, even if crime is not a genre I would ordinarily write.
She writes about her research, how she read books in “forensics,
toxicology, burglary and theft, homicide, arson, anatomy, and poisonous plants”
to educate herself for each case Kinsey takes on. She tells us the 1974 VW that
Kinsey acquires in “H is for Homicide” was a car she originally owned and jokes
that while she didn’t object to Kinsey using it, “with her driving record, I
refused to put her on my insurance policy.”
The “all-purpose dress” is real and it gets an outing in this
book of adventures but these short stories have no place for the “peripheral
characters” we know and love as “such indulgences are stripped away”. Misdirection is “pared to a minimum”. Grafton’s
words give a writer so much to ponder, comparing the short stories with the much
longer novels is fascinating.
There is even more insight to be gained about Grafton’s own
family history when reading the stories in the second half of the book about
Kit Blue, a “younger version” of herself written as a way to come to terms with
the grief she felt after losing for her mother.
I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who loves
the Kinsey Millhone novels and also to those who enjoy the writing process and want
to see behind the curtain into the world of a much loved and prolific mystery
writer.
“It amuses [Kinsey] I’m sure,
that she will live in this world long after I am gone.
I trust that you will enjoy her companionship as I
have.”
Sue
Grafton
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