Sue Grafton has bumped off a few dozen people on the page. The popular mystery novelist has been thinking up methods of death for over 30 years, yet the author says she never runs out of ideas for the deaths that kick of the action for her detective Kinsey Millhone. Her favorite?
“I found in a book about homicide ways that people would kill themselves by putting their heads through a fork in a tree,” Grafton tells Steve Fast.
Grafton’s latest bestseller is “X,” the 24th installment in the “Alphabet Mysteries” series starring detective Kinsey Millhone. With the end of the alphabet only two books away, Grafton may be ready to wrap up Kinsey’s adventures. Grateful for the success, Grafton is still surprised that “A is for Alibi” was the beginning of something that would still have a public appetite three decades later.
“It if fairly amazing to me,” Grafton says. “I honestly didn’t realize this scheme would work.”
What caught the attention of readers was Grafton’s unique take on the mystery genre. In a way, Grafton was carrying on a family tradition with her detective series. Her father wrote detective novels in the 1940’s. Unlike her dad’s lead characters, Kinsey Milhone was an independent female investigator in a tradition that had mostly relegated women to the role of femme fatale.
“When I started this series I knew nothing about criminal law, or private eye procedure, or police procedure,” she says. “The only thing I knew was how to be female.”
Grafton says she isn’t sure if her iconic female private eye will carry on after the letter “Z.”
“I’m waiting to see,” Grafton tells Steve Fast, adding that Kinsey Milhone might not want to step off the stage. “She’s a very jealous mistress. I know she would never allow me to write about anyone else.”
Listen to the interview: Sue Grafton on The Steve Fast Show
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