An alphabet of learning and delight

I am working through Sue Grafton's books, again

Sur Grafton was an undisputed master of the private eye novel. Her Kinsey Millhone stories, each titled with a consecutive letter of the alphabet, began with A is for Alibi. It’s a sadness Grafton did not complete the sequence, with what she said would be Z is for Zero. She died in 2017, and the last book she published was Y is for Yesterday.

I’m pretty sure I’ve read them all, at one time or another. My current audio-binge is to listen to the volumes available as digital loans through our local libraries. They make my occasional long drives and bicycle rides a pleasure.

I appreciate the careful continuity from book to book, the consistency of characterization and description, and the measured progression of characters and situations through time. Each case takes place shortly after the last, and if Kinsey was injured in the previous story, we hear about her recovery in the current one.

She used a smaller cast of recurring characters than Louise Penny has in her Three Pines books, which suits her protagonist, who self-identifies as a loner. Even so, it is fun to get to know them and watch their lives become more closely inter-woven with Kinsey’s, over time. I like that this does not happen quickly.

The stories are more “noir” than I remembered. Kinsey is cut from the same cloth as other rough talking, hard-boiled, gun wielding private eyes, even though she lives and works in a sleepy, sunny small town in California.

Kinsey has a clear moral code, a conscience, and a lot of opinions. As a pastor and a mystery author, it is particularly interesting when she gets going on organized religion.

Kinsey is also humble, and remarkably free of judgement about the variety of human specimens she encounters.

Grafton crafted a back-story for her protagonist that she revealed in small portions, usually at moments when Kinsey displays empathy and compassion for someone who has done something terrible. Kinsey is able to relate to the person without letting them off the hook for their misdeeds.

There are many lessons here for a writer who wants to build a series.