In Memoriam: Sue Grafton

In my last post, I mentioned my early love of Agatha Christie. As an adult, I’ve absolutely loved the Kinsey Milhone books by Sue Grafton.

Sue Grafton didn't write cozies, but neither did she write blood-and-gore thrillers. Her main protagonist is a smart, savvy professional who is highly competent but doesn't take herself too seriously. Her books hint at darker themes without being disturbing, and have a lot of humor without being silly or absurd.

She also helped to revolutionize the stereotypical hard-boiled mystery formula. Prior to the 1980s, whodunits were primarily a "good ol' boys’ club" where the only real roles for women were femme fatale or victim. Casting 30-something, twice-divorced Kinsey Milhone as the gumshoe opened up the entire genre to new emotions, themes, and humor–not to mention a generation of female sleuths, including my own Fenway and Bernadette.

As Milhone travels through the alphabet, she doesn’t just check off the crimes solved, but actually wrestles with the violence of the past.

“Most of the hard-boiled male detectives go through murder and mayhem, and it has absolutely no impact on their personalities,” she said in an interview with The New York Times in 1985. “I find it more interesting to see what the constant exposure to violence and death really does to a human being, how a person incorporates that into their psyche.”

Recommended Sue Grafton books (note: while the...Read More