We Will Miss You Sue Grafton

We will miss you, Sue Grafton. I have read her stories since the 1980s when she was first published the Kinsey Milhone Series. I loved the series then and have enjoyed each new addition as it was available. She is very well known and respected for her ABC Female Private Investigator series for keeping it set in the 80’s, aging her characters very slowly and because the stories are well-written and enjoyable. She made it all the way through to Y and we will always wonder about the letter Z. What would the title have been? Would the main character finally get married, quit her business and move to the islands or some other way of completing the series?

I haven’t had a chance to read the Y is for Yesterday story yet but it is on my new must-read list for 2018. Below is a listing of each of these so you can get your own copies for yourself. I tried to list all of them in order without cheating by looking at another website for the exact name for each and got all the way down to the end but forgot to put the “X”! I did really well. Of course, it could have something to do with the fact that I have read and re-read the series every year since the 1990s. Even re-reading the stories again is fun as you will invariably miss something or forget the storyline so it’s nice to be able to read them once more.

She was a firm advocate for women writers, was one of the founding members of the national Sisters in Crime writers organization and supported a lot of literacy programs around the country. Over the years she has edited or contributed to a number of books about mystery writing that you might want to read. I have read the Mystery Writers book from 2002 and it has some great advice for those of us who might want to write a mystery book or series in the future.

Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America
Edited by Sue Grafton 1992

Writing Mysteries
Edited by Sue Grafton 2002
Has interviews with different writers than the first above

The Mystery Writers (Interviews and Advice) 2012
Interview with Sue Grafton and others

The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook: Wickedly Good Meals and Desserts to Die For 2015
Sue Grafton contributed Kinsey Milhone’s Peanut butter and Pickle Sandwich Recipe

Below is a great interview with her at the Nashville Public Library that is well worth the view as it talks about her writing journey and getting published.