Kinsey Millhone
Created by Sue Grafton

"My name is Kinsey Millhone. I am a private investigator, licensed by the state of California. I am thirty-two years old, twice divorced, no kids. The day before yesterday I killed someone and the fact weighs heavily on my mind."
-- the opening lines of A is for Alibi

Can you dig the new breed?

Private eye KINSEY MILLHONE is probably the most popular, and certainly the best of the female gumshoes to make their big splash in the eighties -- or at least one of the top two (a case could certainly be made for Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski).

Kinsey's charm lies in the fact that she's a woman of "rare spunk and independence," and that not only does she think she's tougher and smarter than she is, but that she consistently surprises us by being smarter and tougher than we think she is. At first glance, she's an accident waiting to happen. She drives a decrepit Volkswagen, she cuts her own hair with toenail scissors, she lives in a garage with a closet full of neuroses and one dress, a remarkable piece of synthetic miracle fabric which seems more capable of handling the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune than Kinsey is. Oh, and she's seemingly permanently stuck in the eighties.

This is the private eye Annie Hall-era Diane Keaton was born to play.

Kinsey's turf is the sun-blinded streets of southern California's Santa Teresa (actually Santa Barbara -- the same streets Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer prowled).

Incidentally, Kinsey's creator, Sue Grafton, insists she only writes about crime -- she doesn't commit it. She confesses that she's a "law-abiding little bun." And she's the daughter of C.W. Grafton, whose own The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope is considered by many to be a classic of crime fiction.

NOVELS

............

SHORT STORIES

  • "She Didn't Come Home" (1985, Redbook; AKA "Long Gone")
  • "Between the Sheets" (1986, Redbook)
  • "The Parker Shotgun" (1986, Mean Streets)
  • "Non Sung Smoke" (1988, An Eye For Justice)
  • "Falling Off the Roof" (1989, Sisters in Crime)
  • "A Poison that Leaves No Trace" (1990, Sisters in Crime #2)
  • "Full Circle" (1991, A Woman's Eye)
  • "A Little Missionary Work" (1992, Deadly Allies)

COLLECTOR'S CORNER

  • Kinsey and Me (Bench Press, 1991)
    "C" is for Collectible, I guess. This rarity was published by Graftom herself, and collects her short stories and an intro on her writing. Only 300 copies were printed, each signed, numbered and slipcased, and was available only by mail order from Grafton herself. Dealers are currently asking $750.00 or even more for a copy.

RELATED WEB SITES

REFERENCE

  • Kaufman, Natalie Hevener, and Carol Mcginnis Kay
    "G is For Grafton: The World Of Kinsey Millhone    .. Buy this book
    New York: Henry Holt & Co.,1997.

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

Got a comment on this site? Drop me a line, and we'll talk.
"And I'll tell you right out that I'm a man who likes talking to a man who likes to talk."