Sue Grafton was born on April 24, 1940 in Louisville, Kentucky, where she and her sister were also raised. Her parents were attorney CW Grafton and Vivian Harnsberger Grafton. Her father also wrote that in her spare time she had published four mysteries.

After graduating with a BA in English Literature from the University of Louisville in 1961, Sue worked at

Santa Monica and Santa Barbara, California, cashier, medical secretary, and hospital admitting officer. Although she began writing when she was 18, she was not published until 1967.

Sue is married to Steven F. Humphries and has three children from previous marriages. She was in the midst of a divorce in the 1980s when she began writing her own books on Kinsey Millhone. She jokes, “Your homicidal impulses can turn into a good thing in this world. Don’t let that ex-husband get you down! Just start a new job.”

Sue Grafton lives in Santa Barbara, where her leading lady Kinsey Millhone lives, but has renamed it Santa Theresa in the books. Many years ago, another author, Ross Madonald, also placed her protagonist, Lew Archer, in Santa Theresa.

Sue says that when she first did book signings, most of the people in line were women, but now there are at least as many men, if not more. She is not a gender neutral writer.

Sue was writing a book a year but decided it was too much, so now she publishes a book every eighteen months. She says that when she dies, she will leave all her papers to Boston University. She adamantly refuses to let Hollywood get Kinsey Millhone.

Sue Grafton Books:

Kinsey Million Series:

A is for Alibi (1982)

B is for Thief (1985)

C is for Corpse (1986)

Dis for Deadbeat (1987)

E is for Evidence (1988)

F is for Runaway (1989)

G is for Gumshoe (1990)

His for Homicide (1991)

I is for Innocent (1992)

J is for Judgment (1993)

K is for Killer (1994)

L is for Lawless (1995)

M is for Malice (1996)

N is for Rope (1998)

Or is it for Outlaws (1999)

P is for Danger (2000)

Q is for Quarry (2002)

R for Ricochet (2004)

S for Silence (2005)

T is for Trespassing (2007)

U for Undertow (2009)

Kinsey Millhone Bus:

Three Complete Novels 1: A, B, and C (1990)

Three Complete Novels 2: D, E, and F (2001)

Three Complete Novels 3: G, H, and I (2002)

Three Complete Novels 4: J, K and L (2007)

Three Complete Novels 5: M, N, and O (2008)

Standalone novels:

Keziah Dane (1967)

The Lolly-Madonna War (1998)

Edited anthologies:

The Greatest American Mysteries: 1998 (1998) with Otto Penzler

Non-fiction:

Writing Mysteries: A Handbook of America’s Mystery Writers (2002)

Sue Grafton is well known for the painstaking and painstaking research she does for each book. The entire series of hers takes place in the 1980s, so she has to make sure she’s not getting ahead of herself (hmm… no cell phones…). Of course, that means Kinsey Millhone is also staying in her 30s.