And if Kinsey is supposed to have her shit together, then why is she the dumbest bitch EVER?!?!?! I mean, do y’all remember what happens in this book???? The book is narrated by Kinsey Millhone herself and opens with a perfect intrpoduction of who she is....

Paul, Steve (May 11, 1992). " 'N Is for Novelist,' not mystery writer; Sue Grafton has arrived, thanks to Kinsey Millhone". The Kansas City Star. p.D1.Kim, Victoria (December 30, 2017). "Famed mystery writer Sue Grafton loses battle against cancer". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved April 6, 2018. 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. urn:lcp:aisforalibi00graf:epub:0cacc403-415f-48e8-adc5-a9744c56e82e Foldoutcount 0 Identifier aisforalibi00graf Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t1xd1jt0b Isbn 0553279912 Kinsey is mostly a good character. Her attitude is sometimes a little annoying. She is still learning her job to some degree... not quite as good as VI Warshawski, but not as silly as Stephanie Plum. Lots to like about her too... except no real family to speak of. She eventually has Henry, but not enough for me.

Other characters are poor. Arlette is treated like a stupid fat person. Nikki is as unemotional and unreachable as Kinsey. Charlotte is a drunk. Gwen is a little better but not much. Charlie drove me up the wall, and the others are just too minor. Even as recently as 2017, when announcing Grafton’s death, her daughter Jamie vocally upheld the promise to never let Grafton’s books be adapted. “[Sue] was adamant that her books would never be turned into movies or TV shows, and in that same vein, she would never allow a ghost writer to write in her name,” Jamie wrote on Facebook. “Because of all those things, and out of the deep abiding love and respect for our dear sweet Sue, as far as we in the family are concerned, the alphabet now ends at Y.” Maybe you’ve heard this one before,” she went on, “but I didn’t kill Laurence and I want you to find out who did.” Grafton’s daughter Jamie Clark reaffirmed her mother’s vow when announcing her death four years ago, but the author’s husband and executive producer of the series, Steve Humphrey, says he and the family have agreed that the times — and the medium — have changed.Kinsey and Me (2013) – a collection of nine Kinsey Millhone short stories along with 12 other short stories about Grafton's own mother. The Kinsey Millhone stories, with one exception, appeared in magazines and mystery anthologies between 1986 and 1991. The dozen other stories, none previously published, feature Kit Blue, who, Grafton said, "is simply a younger version of myself." [40] The book also includes a preface, introductions to the two separate story collections, and a previously published essay on hard-boiled private investigators. I had been sitting at 2 Stars, but that ending? HELL NAH! 1 Star it is. I mean, I thought I had the whodunit it figured out right away, but I kept trying to convince myself I was wrong. I just had to be wrong. Sadly I wasn’t. As for the rest of this series? Well, it can . . . While this is Kinsey’s story, her female compatriots—Gwen and Nikki Fife and Sharon Napier and even Marcia Threadgill, whose boobs “sagged down like flesh melons bursting through the bottom of a string bag”—proved more interesting than the male counterparts, who always seemed about a half mile behind and rather worse for wear.

I went through an interesting series of feelings about this book. My overall impression which did not change even as I finished is the mirror reflection of a typical PI murder mystery, with gender reversed. I don't know if her style evolved as her writing continued, as this is the first I've read. Why wait this long? You could have initiated an investigation from prison and maybe saved yourself some time." Kinsey had been to the trial eight years previously and formed an opinion then – she felt that Nikki was innocent but with the length of time since it had all happened, the case was definitely a cold one. She would be starting from scratch on her very first case. As she began digging into the lives of the people who had been connected to the divorce lawyer – his ex-wife, his children, his law partner – she was frustrated. She couldn’t get anything to gel; nothing felt right. She travelled from California to LA, to Vegas, to the various places that she deemed necessary; but it seemed she had a lot of paperwork and not much else.Shanklin, Sherlene (December 29, 2017). "Hometown Hero, local author Sue Grafton dies at 77". WHAS-TV. Archived from the original on December 29, 2017 . Retrieved December 30, 2017. The first book in the Kinsey Millhone series. Though I love the series, the first book did have some issues. I think at times the book's flow got a bit rough. And the characters are not very developed yet. Grafton gives a short description of Kinsey. It takes a lot of books to find out about her last, how she came to live with her aunt, and her past marriages. Getting the build up to all of that is wonderful though. Alright, so I've had this book since childhood and decided now was the perfect time to read it. Yes, my TBR pile is slightly unruly....

A” Is for Alibi gets an A+ for continuing perfection three decades later. I’m certain Lew Archer is resting easy knowing Santa Teresa remains in good hands. Kim, Victoria (December 29, 2017). "Famed Mystery writer Sue Grafton loses battle against cancer". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved January 16, 2018. Grafton never wanted her novels to be turned into movies or TV shows. According to her family she would never allow a ghost writer to write in her name. Because of these things, and out of respect for Sue’s wishes, the family announced the alphabet now ends at “ Y” a b Fenno, Christine (October 28, 2007). " The Office: See Spot Not Run". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved December 3, 2008.a b c White, Claire E. "A Conversation with Sue Grafton". Writers Write . Retrieved February 8, 2007. Look, they needed a conviction. I was it,"she said with the first sign of energy. "I've just spent the last eight years with killers of one kind or another and believe me, the motive isn't apathy. You kill people you hate or you kill in rage or you kill to get even, but you don't kill someone you're indifferent to. By the time Laurence died, I didn't give a damn about him. I fell out of love with him the first time I found out about the other women. It took me a while to get it all out of my system . . ." My own mystery, unplumed, undetected, was sorted into files that were neatly labeled but really didn't say much.” Grafton died at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara on December 28, 2017, after a two-year battle with cancer of the appendix. [1] [22] [38] [10] 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. [17] Grafton followed the lead of Ross Macdonald, who created the fictional version of the city. [18] Grafton described Kinsey Millhone as her alter ego, "the person I might have been had I not married young and had children." [9]