If you’ve never read this series, it’s time to start. The world lost an incredible writer when Sue Grafton died in 2017, just shy of the last installment in a series where the titles follow the letters of the alphabet.
I’ve loved Kinsey Millhone, private detective, since A is for Alibi. She’s tough, she’s smart, she’s funny, she’s independent. In some ways she is a typical PI, sharing many traits with her stereotypical male counterparts. She has a string of failed relationships and marriages. She eats mostly junk food and has no fashion sense. She’s an unabashed loner. She has a tragic past, both her parents dying in a car wreck when she was five years old.
The series is firmly planted in the 1980s so Kinsey relies on old fashioned detective work. No cell phones, no internet. She lives in a fictional California beach town, similar to Santa Barbara. The series has very little violence and nothing graphic.
Laden with insatiable curiousity and flexible morals, she is self-sufficient, no-nonsense, and has a great sense of humor. These traits serve her well whether she’s tracking down a missing person, searching courthouse records, trailing suspects, or chasing murderers.
The story plots are usually tight with no loose ends. The settings are detailed and the diaglogue convincing. Grafton is a master of the genre.
Kinsey is a fantastic female protagonist, and despite her character flaws I consider her a role model. She has a strong work ethic, she is fair and believes in justice, has a healthy sense of her own sexuality, and is a fully formed adult woman. If I needed a private eye, she’d be my first choice.
