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Sue Grafton is published in 28 countries and 26 languages—including
Estonian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian. She’s an international bestseller
with a readership in the millions. She’s a writer who believes in the
form that she has chosen to mine: "The mystery novel offers a world
in which justice is served. Maybe not in a court of law," she has
said, "but people do get their just desserts." And like
Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald, Robert Parker and the John D.
MacDonald—the best of her breed—she has earned new respect for that
form. Her readers appreciate her buoyant style, her eye for detail, her
deft hand with character, her acute social observances, and her abundant
storytelling talents.
But who is the real Sue Grafton? Many of her readers think she is
simply a version of her character and alter ego Kinsey Millhone. Here
are Kinsey’s own words in the early pages of N Is for Noose:
"So there I was barreling down the highway in search of
employment and not at all fussy about what kind of work I’d take. I
wanted distraction. I wanted some money, escape, anything to keep my
mind off the subject of Robert Deitz. I’m not good at good-byes. I’ve
suffered way too many in my day and I don’t like the sensation. On the
other hand, I’m not that good at relationships. Get close to someone
and the next thing you know, you’ve given them the power to wound,
betray, irritate, abandon you, or bore you senseless. My general policy
is to keep my distance, thus avoiding a lot of unruly emotion. In
psychiatric circles, there are names for people like me."
Those are sentiments that hit home for Grafton’s readers. And
she has said that Kinsey is herself, only younger, smarter, and thinner.
But are they an apt description of Kinsey’s creator? Well, she’s
been married to Steve Humphrey for more than twenty years. She has three
kids and two grandkids. She loves cats, gardens, and good cuisine—not
quite the nature-hating, fast-food loving Millhone. So: readers and
reviewers beware. Never assume the author is the character in the book.
Sue, who has a home in Montecito, California ("Santa Theresa")
and another in Louisville, the city in which she was born and raised, is
only in her imagination Kinsey Millhone—but what a splendid
imagination it is. |
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