Kinsey and Me, Sue Grafton
Kinsey and Me, Sue Grafton
1 Rating(s)
List: $17.50 | Sale: $12.25
Club: $8.75

Kinsey and Me
Stories

Author: Sue Grafton

Narrator: Judy Kaye

Unabridged: 7 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 01/08/2013

Synopsis

In 1982, Sue Grafton introduced us to Kinsey Millhone. Thirty years later, Kinsey is an established international icon and Sue, a number-one bestselling author. To mark this anniversary year, Sue has given us stories that reveal Kinsey’s origins and Sue’s past.

“I've come to believe that Grafton is not only the most talented woman writing crime fiction today but also that, regardless of gender, her Millhone books are among the five or six best series any American has ever written.”—Patrick Anderson, The Washington Post

Kinsey and Me has two parts: The nine Kinsey stories (1986-93), each a gem of detection; and the And Me stories, written in the decade after Grafton's mother died. Together, they show just how much of Kinsey is a distillation of her creator’s past even as they reveal a child who, free of parental interventions, read everything and roamed everywhere. But the dark side of such freedom was that very parental distance.

The same feisty voice and witty apercus readers fell in love with in A Is for Alibi permeate the Kinsey stories. Those in the And Me section trace a remarkable voyage, from anger to understanding, from pain to forgiveness. They take us into a troubled family, dysfunctional as most families are, each in their own way, but Grafton’s telling is sensitive, delicate, and ultimately, loving. Enriching the way we see Kinsey and know Sue, these stories are deeply affecting.

About Sue Grafton

A contemporary American author of detective novels, Sue Taylor Grafton, was born in Louisville, Kentucky as the daughter of another detective novelist, C. W. Grafton. Even though her father had an influence, she has commented that her biggest influence came from author Ross MacDonald.

Sue received her bachelor's degree from University of Louisville in English literature, humanities, and fine art. Upon graduation, Sue worked as a hospital admissions clerk, cashier, and medical secretary. She wrote several novels that were not successful.

After moving into writing screenplays for television, Sue became interested in novels that carried a central theme through each title. She saw a book that alphabetized methods of murder, and immediately started writing what became her best-known works, "the alphabet novels". Each story is set around a fictional California town based on Santa Barbara. The novels are written from the perspective of a female investigator. After her G novel, Grafton was able to devote all of her time to writing her novels. She has given many refusals to those who wanted to buy her novels from which to make movies. She has no desire to work with Hollywood.

Reviews

Goodreads review by James

I picked this up from the library last week thinking I’d never read it. Two stories in, I realized I had already read it. So I’ll review what I can from memory. If you’ve never read a Grafton before, it’s a good one to cut your teeth on. If you love the detailed mystery it will fall short. If you ju......more

Goodreads review by Luanne

I read my first Sue Grafton book over twenty years ago. We had just moved to a small town and of course one of the first places I visited was the local library. It was housed on the main floor of an old house on Main Street at that time. The collection was small, but the enthusiasm of the librarian......more

Quotes

Praise for KINSEY AND ME
 
“Brutally honest, emotionally powerful, ‘Kinsey and Me’ is a revelatory triumph, a dance often macabre, but also a dance of celebration choreographed by a writer whose contemplations on justice never fail to offer rich rewards for legions of readers.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch
 
“[An] alternately hilarious and pitch-dark new collection . . . The Millhone pieces are sparkling little gems in which the more leisurely pace of the novels is compressed into a mere 20 pages or so; that Kinsey manages to introduce herself, establish the mystery and then solve it, credibly, in such a small span of time and space is nothing short of miraculous. The odd thing is that we don't feel slighted by the relative brevity of plot or even characterization; Grafton is a master of the quick, economical bit of detail, the phrase that tells (or, better, implies) everything. . . The Kit Blue stories are the book's dark heart, its bitter aftertaste, and may come as a grim surprise to many of the author's fans, whose impression of her is of a cheerful, indomitable woman more like the wisecracking Kinsey than the haunted Kit. Of course she is both, and she shares them with us here, bravely, in equal measure. Lucky us.”—Chicago Tribune
 
“Sue Grafton’s most insightful and revealing book to date is arguably ‘Kinsey and Me,’ . . . The catharsis of ‘Kinsey and Me’ is Grafton’s gift to her readers, who see that she is Kit Blue and Kinsey Milhone as well as a writer who, in creating both characters, has accepted and also transcended herself.  In identifying with Kit and Kinsey and Sue Grafton too, readers can better negotiate their own imperfect lives with humor and courage and strength.”—The Courier-Journal
 
"Terrific . . . The Kinsey stories and the Kit stories together open a window into Grafton's soul."—USA Today
 
“What could be better, while waiting for the twenty-third mystery in Grafton’s alphabet series, than this revelatory collection of stories featuring both Grafton’s alter ego, PI Kinsey Millhone, and the author herself? . . . Kinsey fanatics, sensing the coming end of the landmark series, will be thrilled to read this nonalphabetic extra.”—Booklist (starred review)
 
“Provides moving and surprising insights into the woman behind the bestsellers…fans will admire Grafton’s impressive output and feisty fictional detective all the more knowing the challenging beginnings from which both grew.”—Publishers Weekly
 
“Piercingly sensitive.”—Kirkus
 
"It's a pleasure just to be in Kinsey's company as she refreshes the formula conventions with her snappy wit and candid opinions."—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List