What Book to Read?

Sue Grafton’s alphabet series of Kinsey Milhone detective stories needs no introduction. And yes, we really are up to U, published in 2009. V is expected next year.

I suspect that many readers like the books so much because Kinsey Milhone is such a sympathetic main character. The stories are usually very satisfying, but it’s Kinsey who sets them apart from more run-of-the-mill detective stories.

Kinsey’s life weaves its way through all the books, at least up to the last few, where Grafton takes a slightly different tack. As the series progresses, readers learn that Kinsey was born in 1950 in the fictional Santa Teresa, California. Kinsey’s mother was from a well-to-do family but became estranged from them when she married a postal worker. At the age of five, Kinsey survived an horrific car accident in which both of her parents were killed. She was brought up by an aunt who instilled in her the values of independence and self sufficiency. She knows little about the rest of her family but finds out more in some of the stories. A shy but rebellious child, she hated school, and only completed two semesters of junior college

When she was 20 she was accepted into the police academy, and then joined the Santa Teresa Police Department. She found the restrictions of police work frustrating, and didn’t like the mixture of ‘curiosity and scorn’ with which women police officers were treated. She tried an assortment of other jobs, but found them commonplace beside the ‘adrenal rush’ of police work. So she joined a small firm of private investigators to learn the business, and then went out on her own. Kinsey has had two brief marriages, but no children; both ex-husbands each come into one book. She has various romantic encounters, but only one looks likely to go the distance. Kinsey is 35 at the beginning of the series and does not age much; A is for Alibi takes place in 1985, and U is for Undertow is set in 1988.  

Kinsey uses conventional methods of detection, such as following up phone bills and car registrations. She has some useful contacts with the police, and with a credit agency. There are of course no mobile phones or internet, and Kinsey does not have a computer. Grafton explains that ‘Most of what I talk about in the story doesn’t have anything to do with technology anyway … I think the interesting thing about mysteries is not the technology but the study of human nature — which I think stays the same over time … I’d be willing to bet that much of the crime-solving process still comes down to skill, intuition, and experience’. These are what Kinsey relies on. She is a good observer of people and relationships. She spends a lot of time talking to people, and uses her interpersonal skills much more than threats or violence, though she can use a gun.

The world of Santa Theresa is a normal, every day world, and the crimes Kinsey is hired to solve tend to be ordinary everyday crimes such as finding missing family members or fraud investigations. These may lead to revelations that are violent and nasty but it is not a world of corruption or corporate greed. While not above telling lies in the course of an investigation, or doing a little breaking and entering, Kinsey is essentially a decent and honest person. In Grafton’s view, ‘The mystery novel offers a world in which justice is served. Maybe not in a court of law, but people do get their just desserts’. This is true of all her stories. Kinsey is an instrument of justice. And this is what people love about her.

 In her last three books, S is for Silence, T is for Trespass and U is for Undertow, Grafton has introduced the perspective of other characters, including the villain, into the story. I’m not sure why she thought this innovation necessary; perhaps there was a limit to what further aspects of Kinsey’s life could be injected into the stories. It’s true that knowing other perspectives makes for more suspense; the reader knows things that Kinsey doesn’t – will she find out in time? I’m very happy to read these stories, but if I had to choose a favourite, it would still be the very first one: A is for Alibi, where we first meet Kinsey.