Sue Grafton Popular Books
Sue Grafton Biography & Facts
Sue Taylor Grafton (April 24, 1940 – December 28, 2017) was an American author of detective novels. She is best known as the author of the "alphabet series" ("A" Is for Alibi, etc.) featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, California. The daughter of detective novelist C. W. Grafton, she said the strongest influence on her crime novels was author Ross Macdonald. Before her success with this series, she wrote screenplays for television movies. Early life Sue Grafton was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to C. W. Grafton (1909–1982) and Vivian Harnsberger, both of whom were the children of Presbyterian missionaries. Her father was a municipal bond lawyer who also wrote mystery novels and her mother was a former high school chemistry teacher. Her father enlisted in the Army during World War II when she was three and returned when she was five, after which her home life started falling apart. Both parents became alcoholics and Grafton said "From the age of five onward, I was left to raise myself". Grafton and her older sister Ann grew up in Louisville, where she went to Atherton High School. She attended the University of Louisville (first year) and Western Kentucky State Teachers College (now Western Kentucky University) in her sophomore and junior years before graduating from the University of Louisville in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in English Literature and minors in humanities and fine arts. She was a member of Pi Beta Phi. After graduating, Grafton worked as a hospital admissions clerk, a cashier, and a medical secretary in Santa Monica and Santa Barbara, California. Grafton's mother killed herself in 1960 after returning home from an operation to remove esophageal cancer brought on by years of drinking and smoking. Her father died in 1982, a few months before "A" Is for Alibi was published. Writing career Grafton's father was enamored of detective fiction and wrote at night. He taught Grafton lessons on the writing and editing process and groomed her to be a writer. Inspired by her father, Grafton began writing when she was 18 and finished her first novel four years later. She continued writing and completed six more novels. Only two of these seven novels (Keziah Dane and The Lolly-Madonna War) were published. Grafton would later destroy the manuscripts for her five early, unpublished novels. Unable to find success with her novels, Grafton turned to screenplays. Grafton worked for the next 15 years writing screenplays for television movies, including Sex and the Single Parent; Mark, I Love You; and Nurse. Grafton sold the movie rights for The Lolly-Madonna War and co-wrote the screenplay for the feature film. The adaptation, released in 1973 as Lolly-Madonna XXX, starred Rod Steiger and Jeff Bridges. Her screenplay for Walking Through the Fire earned a Christopher Award in 1979. In collaboration with her husband, Steven Humphrey, she also adapted the Agatha Christie novels A Caribbean Mystery and Sparkling Cyanide for television and co-wrote A Killer in the Family and Love on the Run. She is credited with the story upon which the screenplay for the made for TV movie Svengali (1983) was based. Her experience as a screenwriter taught her the basics of structuring a story, writing dialogue, and creating action sequences. Grafton then felt ready to return to writing fiction. While going through a "bitter divorce and custody battle that lasted six long years", Grafton imagined ways to kill or maim her ex-husband. Her fantasies were so vivid that she decided to write them down. Alphabet series Grafton had been fascinated by mysteries series whose titles were related, such as John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series, each of which included a color in the title, and Harry Kemelman's Rabbi Small series, each of which included a day of the week in the title. While reading Edward Gorey's The Gashlycrumb Tinies, a picture book with an alphabetized list of ways for children to die, Grafton decided to write a series of novels whose titles would follow the alphabet. She immediately sat down and made a list of all of the crime-related words that she knew. These became the series now known as the "alphabet novels", featuring sleuth and private investigator Kinsey Millhone. The series is set in Santa Teresa, a fictionalized version of Santa Barbara. Grafton followed the lead of Ross Macdonald, who created the fictional version of the city. Grafton described Kinsey Millhone as her alter ego, "the person I might have been had I not married young and had children." The series begins with "A" Is for Alibi, published and set in 1982. "B" Is for Burglar, followed, then "C" Is for Corpse, each novel's title combining a letter with a word, except X. After the publication of "G" Is for Gumshoe, Grafton was able to quit her screenwriting job and focus on her writing. Since the publication of "A" is for Alibi, a new episode was released each year or so. The name of each book was a source of speculation. In May 2009, Grafton told Media Bistro that she was "just trying to figure out how to get from "U" is for Undertow to "Z" Is for Zero" and that "just because she knows the endgame title for Z [...] doesn't mean she knows what V, W, X, and Y will be". Grafton said that the series would end with "Z" Is for Zero, but she died before she could begin writing it. Her daughter said Grafton would never allow a ghostwriter to write in her name and "as far as we in the family are concerned, the alphabet now ends at Y." Grafton's novels have been published in 28 countries and in 26 languages. She refused to sell the film and television rights, because writing screenplays "cured" her of the desire to work with Hollywood. (TV movies in Japan, however, were adapted from "B" is for Burglar and "D" is for Deadbeat.) Grafton told her children her ghost would haunt them if they sold the film rights after her death. The books in the series were on The New York Times Best Seller list for an aggregate of about 400 weeks. F is for Fugitive was the first, entering at number 10 on the paperback list; by 1995 "L" is for Lawless entered the best seller list at number one followed by ten more in the series. Writing style Grafton's style is characteristic of hardboiled detective fiction, according to the authors of 'G' is for Grafton, who describe it as "laconic, breezy, wise-cracking". The novels are framed as reports Kinsey writes in the course of her investigations, which are signed off in the epilogue of each novel. The first-person narrative allows the reader to see through the eyes of Kinsey, who chronicles various descriptions of "eccentric buildings and places", giving depth to the narrative. The repeated descriptions of the Santa Barbara shoreline (chronicled as Kinsey's early morning runs), are "skillful, evocative writing of a caliber that takes Grafton well beyond being categorized as 'merely' a writer of detective fiction and into the so-called mainstream o.... Discover the Sue Grafton popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Sue Grafton books.
Best Seller Sue Grafton Books of 2024
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The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook
Kate White, Harlan Coben, Gillian Flynn, Mary Higgins Clark & Brad MeltzerEnjoy over 100 recipes and murderously fun facts from legendary mystery authors like Sue Grafton, Louise Penny, Harlan Coben, and James Patterson! With art deco embellishments and...
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Spider Bones
Kathy ReichsDon’t miss this “whopper” (Publishers Weekly) of a thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs in her “cleverly plotted” (The New York Times) Temperance Brennan...
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V is for Vengeance
Sue GraftonPrivate detective Kinsey Millhone feels a bit out of place in Nordstrom’s lingerie department, but she’s entirely in her element when she puts a stop to a brazen shoplifting spree....
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Anonymous Sources
Mary Louise KellyA fastpaced international thriller in the vein of Janet Evanovich by former NPR anchor and correspondent Mary Louise Kelly, about a Pakistani terrorist’s nuclear threat to blow up ...
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Until the Darkness Comes
Kevin BrooksPI John Craine has come to Hale Island to get away from it all the memories and the guilt, and a past that just won't let go. But within hours he stumbles across the dead body of ...
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The Secret Chamber
Patrick WoodheadPeople have been disappearing in what the explorer Stanley called the black heart of Africa the impenetrable forests of northern Congo. But when a brilliant young English doctor v...
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Blindfold
Lyndon Stacey'The blindfold was a major hindrance. So much depended on body language with animals Without it, it felt uncomfortably like a game of Russian roulette.'Gideon Blake, artist and ani...
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206 Bones
Kathy Reichs#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs delivers another “outstanding” book (Publishers Weekly) in her “cleverly plotted” (The New York Times) Temperance Brennan series, ...
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S is for Silence
Sue GraftonThe latest repackage in Sue Grafton's #1 New York Times bestselling series. Cases don't get much colder than that of Violet Sullivan, who disappeared from her rural California to...
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Double Take
Elizabeth BreckA 2022 SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD Nominee When a young journalist goes missing in sunny San Diego , P.I. Madison Kelly learns the true price of knowing too much.It'...
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A Dance of Ghosts
Kevin BrooksPI John Craine is struggling to cope with the weight of his past. Sixteen years ago his wife, Stacy, was brutally murdered. Craine found her body in their bed. And since then, to e...
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The Strange Crime of John Boulnois
G. K. ChestertonThe colossus of crime leaned over to the little rustic priest with a sort of sudden interest.'You have heard of it?' he asked. 'Where have you heard of it?''Well, I mustn't tell yo...
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Full Disclosure
Beverley McLachlin#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE ARTHUR ELLIS AWARDSFrom the former Chief Justice of Canada comes a riveting thriller starring Jilly Truitt, a rising, young defense attor...
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Idyll Threats
Stephanie GayleIn the summer of 1997, Thomas Lynch arrives as the new chief of police in Idyll, Connecticuta town where serious crimes can be counted on one hand. So no one is prepared when Cecil...
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Y is for Yesterday
Sue GraftonTHE FINAL INSTALLMENT IN SUE GRAFTON'S ALPHABET SERIES WINNER OF THE ANTHONY/BILL CRIDER AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL IN A SERIES Private investigator Kinsey Millhone confr...
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Flash and Bones
Kathy ReichsKathy Reichs#1 New York Times bestselling author and producer of the FOX television hit Bonesreturns with a riveting new novel set in Charlotte, North Carolina, featuring America’s...
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Kinsey and Me
Sue GraftonFrom the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Alphabet series comes a collection of stories that “combines glimpses of her series detective, Kinsey Millhone, with ...
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Postmortem
Patricia CornwellDiscover the “dazzling…fascinating” (Los Angeles Times) forensic thriller that launched the New York Times bestselling Kay Scarpetta series from #1 bestselling crime writer Patrici...
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Runner
Tracy Clark“Exceptional…The action builds to an exciting showdown. Those who like their crime novels with a social conscience will be amply rewarded.” Publishers Weekly, STARRED review Former...
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T is for Trespass
Sue GraftonPrivate Investigator Kinsey Millhone embarks on a terrifying but alltooreal ride that will reveal not everyone is who they say they are.
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Bare Bones
Kathy Reichs“Fans of TV’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation should be in heaven” (People) stepping into the world of forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennanshe works with the dead, but she...
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R Is For Ricochet
Sue GraftonReba Lafferty was a daughter of privilege, the only child of an adoring father. Nord Lafferty was already in his fifties when Reba was born, and he could deny her nothing. Over the...
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Fire and Bones
Kathy Reichs#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with a twisty, unputdownable thriller featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, who finds herself at the cente...
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A Tourist Guide To Lancre
Stephen Briggs & Terry PratchettNot only an artistic and breathtaking view of Lancre but also an interesting and informative guide to one of the Discworld's more, er, picturesque kingdoms.Granny Weatherwax, Nanny...
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Q Is For Quarry
Sue GraftonSue Grafton delivers an intensely gripping mystery based on an actual unsolved murder in this #1 New York Times bestseller featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone.She was a ...
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U is for Undertow
Sue GraftonEyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable. Even more so when Kinsey Millhone's only lead is a grown man dredging up a repressed childhood memoryof something that may never hav...
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It Had to Be You
Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair BurkeIn the latest thrilling entry of the bestselling Under Suspicion series by Queen of Suspense Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke, television producer Laurie Moran investigates the...
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W Is for Wasted
Sue GraftonThe first victim was a local PI of suspect reputation who’d been gunned down near the beach at Santa Teresa. The other body was found on the beach six weeks latera homeless man wit...
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Secrets Typed in Blood
Stephen SpotswoodA NEW YORK TIMES BEST CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR In the newest entry into the Nero Awardwinning Pentecost & Parker Mystery series, Lillian and Will are hot on the trail of a...
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X
Sue Grafton“An inventive plot and incisive character studies elevate MWA Grand Master Grafton’s twentyfourth Kinsey Millhone novel...This superior outing will remind readers why this muchlove...
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Four Sue Grafton Novels
Sue GraftonA collection of four novels in the #1 New York Times bestselling Alphabet series starring private investigator Kinsey Millhone.In these chilling mysteries Kinsey Millhone reopens a...
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A Secret Place
Patricia RainsfordGina Brennan is on the run from a lot of things ... Especially prison. She and two cellmates have escaped and it looks like they're nearly home free. That's until wealthy solicitor...
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P Is for Peril
Sue GraftonKinsey Millhone ventures into the darker side of the human soul in this gripping novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton.Kinsey Millhone never sees it coming. S...
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The Doll Princess
Tom BennWinner of the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year AwardIt's Manchester, July 1996, the month after the IRA bomb, and the Evening News is carrying reports of two ...
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Stephanie Plum One, Two, Three
Janet EvanovichThree complete novels: One for the Money, Two for the Dough, and Three to Get Deadly, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author, Janet Evanovich!Here’s where it all beganthe th...