A SAD END TO STORY
Writer Grafton, 77, dies
RENOWNED MYSTERY author Sue Grafton, who penned the best-selling “alphabet series” of novels, has died following a two-year battle with cancer, her family said Friday.
Grafton, 77, passed away Thursday night surrounded by family, including her husband, Steven Humphrey, her daughter, Jamie Clark, said in a statement 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,” Clark wrote.
Grafton was born and raised in Louisville, Ky., in April, 1940.
Her father, C.W. Grafton, was a crime novelist raised in China by missionaries.
Grafton went to Atherton High School and later graduated from the University of Louisville.
She then spent 15 years in Los Angeles writing screenplays for film and television.
After a bitter divorce, Grafton (photo) turned her talents to novel writing, gaining fame with her chronological series of mystery books whose titles began with a letter.
Readers fell in love with Southern California private detective Kinsey Millhone, the fictional heroine of the “alphabet series.”
The first book in the catalog, “A is for Alibi,” was published in 1982.
The novel tells the story of a murdered divorce lawyer whose young widow — after serving time for the murder — hires Kinsey to find out what happened.
The most recent, “Y is for Yesterday,” landed on bookstore shelves this past August.
Millhone was Grafton’s alter ego, she told The Seattle Times earlier this year.
“I’m an introvert, so doing half of what Kinsey is beyond my poor capabilities,” Grafton said. “But it’s fun to get to live her life without penalty.
“When I started, she was 32 and I was 42,” she added. “And now she’s 39 and I’m 77, which I just do not think is fair.”
Books in Grafton’s alphabet series were generally released two years apart, and Humphrey said his late wife had not yet started writing her last book in the series.
Humphrey said Grafton was struggling to find an idea for “Z” while undergoing chemotherapy 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.”
Grafton’s daughter broke the news to her mother’s fans on the author’s website.
“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,” Clark 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.”
In addition to her husband and daughter, Grafton is survived by another daughter, Leslie Twine, and her son, Jay Schmidt.