Sue Grafton was born on the 24th of April in 1940 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Her father, despite his alcoholism, taught Sue about writing fiction, and guided her through the editing process. Inspired by her father’s writing and guidance, Sue Grafton started her first novel at the age of 18 and finished it about 4 years later.
Before finding success in her novels, Sue Grafton worked as a screenwriter. This experience helped train Grafton in the art of writing dialogue, and she soon returned to writing fiction. After an awful divorce, Sue used the anger and bitterness to fuel her imagination and used much of her fantasy mariticide to influence her detective thriller novels.
Sue Grafton died on the 28th of December 2017 after battling cancer, aged 77.
Sue Grafton is best known for her ‘alphabet series’ of novels that follow the private investigator Kinsey Millhone. The novels are based in the 1980s, and set in a fictional city in California. Grafton began the series in 1982, and had worked her way through the alphabet, with the latest novel being ‘Y is for Yesterday’. Unfortunately, despite already starting the final novel in the series- ‘Z is for Zero’, Sue died, leaving her series incomplete. Her family stated that they would not be hiring a ghostwriter to finish the series and as far as they are concerned the series ends at Y.
This may be a little poignant and sad, however in a poetic sort of way it seems right. The alphabet series will be Sue Grafton’s unfinished symphony. Fans will be able to imagine all the ‘what ifs’ and ‘I wonders’, and in their own minds they can finish the Kinsey Millhone stories for themselves.
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