Writer’s ‘alphabet’ series will end with Y
Author’s bestselling books brought female presence to world of crime fiction
LOS ANGELES— Sue Grafton, author of the bestselling “alphabet series” of detective novels, died Thursday in Santa Barbara, Calif. She was 77.
Grafton was surrounded by family, including husband Steven Humphrey, when she died after a two-year battle with cancer, her daughter, Jamie Clark, posted on the author’s website.
“Although we knew this was coming, it was unexpected and fast. She had been fine up until just a few days ago, and then things moved quickly,” the posting said.
Grafton began her “alphabet series” in 1982 with A is for Alibi. Her most recent book, Y is for Yesterday, was published in August.
“Many of you also know that she was adamant that her books would never be turned into movies or TV shows, and in that same vein, she would never allow a ghost writer to write in her name,” her daughter wrote. “Because of all of those things, and out of the deep abiding love and respect for our dear sweet Sue, as far as we in the family are concerned, the alphabet now ends at Y.”
Humphrey said Grafton had been struggling to find an idea for “Z” while undergoing treatment and losing weight.
“Nothing’s been written,” he told The Associated Press. “There is no Z.” He added with a laugh, “Nobody in this family will ever use the letter Z again.”
The notion of the alphabetical series, Grafton said, was inspired by The Gashlycrumb Tinies, Edward Gorey’s macabre 1963 rhyming book in which 26 children meet bizarre ends.
“I was smitten with all those little Victorian children being dispatched in various ways,” she told the New York Times in 2015. “‘A is for Amy who fell down the stairs; B is for Basil assaulted by bears; C is for Clara who wasted away; D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh.’ Edward Gorey was deliciously bent.”
The fictional heroine of the series, Southern California private detective Kinsey Millhone, was Grafton’s alter ego, she told the Seattle Times earlier this year.
“I’m an introvert, so doing half of what Kinsey (does) is beyond my poor capabilities,” Grafton said. “But it’s fun to get to live her life without penalty.”
Her husband agreed that Grafton was Kinsey.
“Yes, as Sue said, ‘We’re one spirit in two bodies, and she got the good one,’ ” Humphrey said.
While Grafton aged, her heroine didn’t quite as much.
“So when I started, she was 32, and I was 42. Now, she is 39, and I am 77. So there’s a little bit of injustice there, but she is single,” she told NPR in an interview this year. “She’s been married twice. She has no kids, no pets, no house plants.”
She said she was looking forward to reaching the end of the alphabet with Z is for Zero.
Grafton began writing at 18, and wrote her first novel at 22. A is for Alibi was the eighth novel she wrote, and the third she had published.
“Will the series take hold?” Newgate Callendar said in reviewing A Is for Alibi for the Times. “This first book is competent enough, but not particularly original.”
The reading public apparently thought otherwise. The Millhone books routinely made bestseller lists. They also established a star female presence — both character and author — in a genre that leaned heavily male. Grafton read the Nancy Drew books and Agatha Christie growing up, but, she said, the first book that really rocked her was Mickey Spillane’s I, the Jury. “After Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie, what a revelation!” she said, “and it may have been the moment when the spirit of Kinsey Millhone first sparked to life.”
Grafton said one difference between her books and the ones with male protagonists was her willingness to deal with the “human and emotional ramifications” of violent crime.
“Most of the hard-boiled male detectives go through murder and mayhem, and it has absolutely no impact on their personalities,” she said in 1985.
“I find it more interesting to see what the constant exposure to vio- lence and death really does to a human being, how a person incorporates that into their psyche.”
On her blog, Grafton said her ideas come from everywhere.
“I read newspapers, textbooks on crime. I talk to private investigators, police officers, jail administrators, doctors, lawyers, career criminals. Ideas are everywhere,” she said.
Born in Louisville, Ky., Grafton stayed tied to her roots, dividing her time between a home there and her home in California. In addition to her husband and daughter, Jamie Clark, she is survived by another daughter, Leslie Twine, and her son, Jay Schmidt. With files from the New York Times