A was for A New Romance
The first time I read a mystery I was visiting my aunt and uncle’s house in Aptos, California, a small town just south of Santa Cruz. They had a sunroom on the west side of the house with a wall of bookshelves. Filled with books. For some reason I picked up A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton.
Although the book was a cozy mystery with a murder victim no one really cared about and a simple plot, I fell in love with the characters, most of all Kinsey Milhoun. Kinsey is a private detective who drives a Volkswagen beetle (so do I!) who hates to exercise (so do I!) but she does it anyway, running along the beach every morning and complaining the whole time (if I were a runner, this is how I would run). She owns one little black dress for the occasional occasions and has cobbled together a family that includes her neighbor Henry, an elderly man with twinkly blue eyes who reminds me of my granddad—if my granddad had been a baker—and Rosie, the Hungarian who runs the local restaurant/bar where Kinsey gets many of her meals. She lives in Southern California (so did I!) and is a no muss no fuss kind of woman, the kind I imagine myself to be.
I found myself binge reading—this is what we did before Netflix. My aunt had several of Grafton’s books and I read them all: B is for Burglar, C is for Corpse, D is for Deadbeat and so on. And once home, I finished reading what was available at my local library. By mid alphabet Grafton’s plots were more complex, her characters were drawn more clearly, and I eagerly awaited the next letter, eager to know what was going to happen next with the wacky cast of characters. There were love interests here and there but nothing ever took. I resorted to buying the books at about M (for Malice) as I was impatient for the library to acquire the most recent title from Grafton.
Like many others, I was saddened to hear this past December that Sue Grafton had died. I’ve not yet read Y is for Yesterday. I think I held off because I didn’t want the series to end. Someday soon I may pick up Y is for Yesterday and I may re-read the series. I’ll have to imagine Z, the series was left unfinished….
Grafton may be gone, but her characters will live on. And maybe I’ll get back to that mystery I started writing last year, The Body at the Bus Stop…. featuring a no muss, no fuss woman detective who drives a Volkswagen and has cobbled together a family featuring an old guy named Ed and a coffee shop in the neighborhood.
Join our mailing list for semi-regular updates: News of our venture, Plume-Approved submission opportunities, information about our Plume featured writers, and all more writerly things.