Sue Grafton

Sue Taylor Grafton (April 24, 1940 – December 28, 2017) was an American author of detective novels, best known for her "alphabet series" featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional Santa Teresa, California. The daughter of detective novelist C. W. Grafton, she identified Ross Macdonald as the strongest influence on her crime fiction. Before her series success, she wrote screenplays for television movies.

Early life

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, to C. W. Grafton and Vivian Harnsberger, both children of Presbyterian missionaries, Grafton’s father was a municipal bond lawyer and mystery novelist, while her mother was a former chemistry teacher. Her father served in World War II from the time she was three until she was five, after which her home life deteriorated as both parents became alcoholics.

Grafton stated she was left to raise herself from age five. She attended Atherton High School and the University of Louisville, with intermediate years at Western Kentucky State Teachers College, graduating in 1961 with a bachelor’s in English literature and minors in humanities and fine arts. After college, she worked as a hospital admissions clerk, cashier, and medical secretary in California.

Writing career

Her father, who wrote detective fiction at night, taught her writing and editing, grooming her to be a writer. She began writing at 18 and finished her first novel four years later, completing seven novels total. Only two—Keziah Dane and The Lolly-Madonna War—were published; she later destroyed the manuscripts of the other five.

Turning to screenplays for fifteen years, she wrote for television movies including Sex and the Single Parent and Nurse, sold the film rights to The Lolly-Madonna War, and co-wrote its adaptation Lolly-Madonna XXX (1973). Her screenplay Walking Through the Fire won a Christopher Award in 1979. With husband Steven Humphrey, she adapted Agatha Christie novels for TV and co-wrote A Killer in the Family and Love on the Run.

Her screenwriting taught her story structure, dialogue, and action sequences. During a bitter divorce and custody battle, she imagined ways to harm her ex-husband, leading her to write those fantasies down. Inspired by Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies, she decided to create a series with alphabetized titles, listing crime-related words.