G Is for Grafton: The World of Kinsey Millhone

The authors should retitle the book The Essential Kinsey Millhone! They have done a thorough and masterful job deconstructing the heroine of Sue Grafton's successful detective series, analyzing her traits (both physical and spiritual), her preferences, her work habits, her milieu, and her history. This book does what similar companion books somehow fail to do, presenting Kinsey in a logically organized snapshot that somehow embraces every facet of her contradictory and compelling character. Reading this book is like finding a treasure chest of information on someone you only thought that you knew well. If anyone has left a negative review, I would attribute their disenchantment to a disparity between the reader's own expectations and the structure or function of this book. In other words, dissatisfied readers must have expected or desired something other than an impossibly thorough, finely tuned, extraordinarily detailed, carefully categorized, and fully documented dossier on the details that turn Kinsey from a two-dimensional paper heroine into Grafton's virtually three-dimensional creation.I will grant that the meticulousness of the case study could become tiresome for someone only lukewarm about Kinsey. Mild fans beware! However, for the many readers who wait eagerly for the next installment of the alphabet series, your satisfaction with this companion book is all but guaranteed. I myself was intrigued by the relevant minutiae that abounded page by page, and I approached the end of the book with thrill as well with regret; I hope the authors continue expanding their study as Grafton begins the last third of the series.This document gives blood and bone to a fictitious series of narrative mysteries, and it's a joy to read!

This is a great closer look at Kinsey Millhone and the mind who has created her and all her many acquaintences. My only wish is that the maps were more detailed.

One of my proudest days as a mystery writer came the July day that I participated on the same MWA/UCLA mystery literature program as Sue Grafton. Ms. Grafton was the event's keynote speaker. I was one of a couple of dozen other author-presenters. Sue Grafton is the reigning queen of American mystery fiction, and G IS FOR GRAFTON proves that point conclusively. In this book, Natalie Hevener Kaufman & Carol McGinnis Kay have written a biography of Ms. Grafton's lead character, Kinsey Millhone. Kaufman and Kay had Ms. Grafton's cooperation in preparing this work, and they have done a terrific job. Everything you ever wanted to know about Kinsey but didn't know enough to ask, is covered here. Kaufman and Kay have achieved a remarkable accomplishment. This book is must read for any serious Grafton fan or informed reader of the mystery genre. I especially enjoyed the "photographic record" of Kinsey's life, including snapshots of her home, her offices, her car, her jogging path, and several other scenes from Santa Teresa. G IS FOR GRAFTON is a great book.

I loved revisiting one of my favorite characters through this unique text that combines literary criticsm with prose that is like a visit with your next door neighbor( if you had a next door neighbor as interesting as Kinsey). One of the most vexing things about the content of this book is that I learned that my mental images of Kinsey's apartment and it's spatial relationship to Henry's house are incorrect. I've decided to stay with my own mental imagery, rather than changing to the "correct" versions offered in the schmatic drawings in the book. I also loved the photographs of Kinsey's jogging path and her office. G is for Grafton might more correctly be titled, K is for Kinsey. It is a wonderful read that reminds one of a conversation with a long, lost friend. I loved revisiting her cases and recalling how much I enjoyed reading each of them. I will continue to refer to the charting of her cases as I read O,P,Q...Kaufman and Kay are to be congratulated on their careful treatment of Kinsey and Grafton's body of work.