In-between, Kinsey Millhone was one of the most popular fictional characters of all time, a down-to-earth, eccentric woman in her 30s who survives a traumatic event in her childhood (being trapped in a wrecked car with her dead parents for hours), is a bit of a delinquent as a teenager, spends a brief period of time as a police officer before becoming a private investigator. In what may be her most unsettling novel to date, Sue Grafton's "T" is for Trespass is also her most direct confrontation with the forces of evil. Probably homeless. Those are sentiments that hit home for Grafton's readers. She is, however, very particular about her teeth, and even mentions other people's good teeth (especially men to whom she might be attracted). Over the years, he quietly settled her many scrapes with the law, but he wasn't there for her when she was convicted of embezzlement and sent to the California Institute for Women. The last thing she needed in the morning mail was a letter from her bank recording an erroneous $5,000 deposit in her account. Although she often flew under the radar, she was a master of her craft and left behind twenty-five novels and several shorter works that will continue to delight and entertain for years to come. The first was a local PI of suspect reputation. Not long after, the tape goes missing and the suspected thief, a fellow classmate, is murdered. Welcome Letter Five years ago, when Jaffe's thirty-five-foot Fuji ketch was found drifting off the Baja coast, it seemed a sure thing he'd gone overboard. The new Kinsey Millhone novel from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author. https://www.thoughtco.com/sue-grafton-alphabet-novels-ranked-4157627 X: The number ten. [8], Kinsey Millhone is featured in cameo appearances in crime novels by other authors. Beginning slowly with the day-to-day life of a private eye, Grafton suddenly shifts from the voice of Kinsey Millhone to that of Solana Rojas, introducing readers to … He has a preppy air about him and looks as if he'd be carded if he tried to buy booze, but Michael Sutton is 27, an unemployed college drop-out. A great premise has Kinsey trying to figure out if a man’s recovered memory that might be the key clue to a decades-old crime—or the imagination of an unreliable weirdo. Kinsey is hired to search for a missing sister, traveling to Florida to check out her part-time home only to find it occupied by a man claiming to be a tenant. And to any other. Mailing List. The most graphically dramatic letter. "J" is for Jaffe: Wendell Jaffe, dead these past five years. Kinsey had never believed in Santa Claus and she wasn't about to change her mind now. More... Floral Beach wasn't much of a town: six streets long and three deep, its only notable feature a strip of sand fronting the Pacific. She also suffers from tinnitus, caused when she shot an attacker from inside a trash can. The cops suspected homicide, but they could find neither motive nor suspect. I've suffered way too many in my day and I don't like the sensation. Over the years, he quietly settled her many scrapes with the law, but he wasn't there for her when she was convicted of embezzlement and sent to the California Institute for Women. The darkest and most disturbing case report from the files of Kinsey Millhone, Y is for Yesterday begins in 1979, when four teenage boys from an elite private school sexually assault a fourteen-year-old classmate—and film the attack. Kinsey finds herself turning 33 while being hunted by goons hired by a crime boss, so she hires a bodyguard that turns out to be more than she bargained for. She was a "Jane Doe," an unidentified white female whose decomposed body was discovered near a quarry off California's Highway 1. It's April, 1988, a month before Kinsey Millhone's 38th birthday and she's alone in her office doing paperwork when a young man arrives unannounced. Grafton’s bestselling Kinsey Millhone series suffered from that sort of publicity-blindness. More... Dr. Dowan Purcell had been missing for nine weeks when Kinsey got a call asking her to take on the case. This one would be perfect if not for a few lapses in logic—but none are big enough to do much harm, really. Kinsey Millhone is a fictional character who was created by American author Sue Grafton (1940–2017) for her "alphabet mysteries" series of best-selling novels which debuted in 1982 and feature 25 volumes. Kinsey has had several relationships in the series, beginning with Charlie Scorsoni, then Jonah Robb, a police officer, and Robert Dietz, another private eye, until the later novels in which she began an affair with longtime friend Cheney Phillips, a police detective. In what may be her most unsettling novel to date, Sue Grafton's "T" is for Trespass is also her most direct confrontation with the forces of evil. Meanwhile, her side adventure with her landlord is given way too much attention. More... His name was Parnell Perkins, and until shortly after midnight, he'd been a claims adjustor for California Fidelity. More... Floral Beach wasn't much of a town: six streets long and three deep, its only notable feature a strip of sand fronting the Pacific. Five years ago, when Jaffe's thirty-five-foot Fuji ketch was found drifting off the Baja coast, it seemed a sure thing he'd gone overboard. Maybe that's what killed her. Thirty years later, Kinsey is an established international icon and Sue, a number-one bestselling author. That absorbing mystery is undercut a bit by a host of other points-of-view and a desultory subplot involving Kinsey’s extended family, but in the end this is solid entry.