For those of us who have been following Sue Grafton since A is for Alibi, the approaching end of the alphabet is a little bit sad. If you have not read anything in her series, I envy you. You have 26 marvelous stories and many hours of relaxation ahead of you. I think of the protagonist in these books (Kinsey Millhone) as a kind of girlish Clint Eastwood. She does not, however, take herself very seriously, so she is a little more palatable than her male counterparts.
Happily, the stories are set in a fictionalized Santa Barbara, California. Reading the novels is a clever and inexpensive way to live in Santa Barbara for a few hours, creating a kind of delightful flashback for anyone who has been lucky enough to spend time there in real life.
A is for Alibi was published in 1982, and all of the novels are set in the eighties. Grafton's own story is satisfying in a mildly vengeful way. She has been turning the straw of a bitter loss into gold for decades. Ms. Grafton once told an interviewer that after her divorce, she spent so many hours and sleepless nights plotting ways to kill her ex-husband and his new love interest that she decided to turn these fantasies into books. I have no way of knowing just how true this story is, but it has a nice Happy Ending ring to it. Whatever the actual facts are, she is a talented writer and a great contributor to one of literature's most popular genres.
She has stated publicly that the last book in the series will be Z is for Zero. I can't wait. Or maybe I can. Maybe she will do something with numbers, and then I won't have to worry about running out of her books. Is that last title a hint?
Post Script: Sue Grafton died in December of 2017 and Z is for Zero exists only in our imaginations.
No comments:
Post a Comment