Sue Grafton is the author of a lighthearted mystery series. They are called the "Alphabet Mysteries" because each book starts with a different letter of the alphabet and are written in alphabetical order. They feature a private investigator named Kinsey Millhone. Grafton has written 20 Kinsey Millhone mysteries, starting with “A” for "Alibi" and ending with "T" for "Trespass."
Ms. Grafton was born in 1940, the daughter of author, C. W. Grafton, and Vivian Harnsberger. Her parents were missionaries to China and were both children of Presbyterian ministers. Sue was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky and that is where she received her degree in English Literature. Her mother committed suicide when Sue was 20, after a long battle with cancer. Sue has been married twice and is currently married to Steven Humphrey. She has three children from her first marriage.
The first book she ever got published was actually the fourth book she had written. She hadn't been having much success as an author so she turned to writing scripts in Hollywood. While there, she went through a very bitter divorce with her first husband. Seeking revenge for all the pain he was putting her through, she began to imagine ways to kill him off. Knowing that she could never actually go through with her plans, she began writing down her ideas on paper. She soon came up with the idea of writing novels around her fantasies. Inspired by an alphabetical picture book by Edward Gorey, which shows children who die in different ways, she wrote her first Kinsey Millhone book.
