Alphabet / Kinsey Millhone Mystery Series by Sue Grafton

Character's Personality: Cool, controlled, and no-nonsense. Highly competent and astute.  Independent.  A bit aloof.

Character's Occupation: Private investigator.  Ex-cop.

Character's Culture / Ethnicity: unspecified white person

Character - Other Notable Traits:

Location and Time Period: "Santa Teresa", a fictional town in California possibly based on Santa Barbara, in the 1980s. Time passes very slowly book-to-book: between A is for Alibi and S is for Silence, only five years pass whereas it took 23 years to write the series that far.

Mystery Subgenre: Private-Investigator, but mild enough for Cozy fans

Objectionable Material: Some profanity, and mild violence.

Series Description: Kinsey Millhone works as a private investigator in her small, picturesque California town. In the tradition of cozy mysteries, she has acquaintances (elderly landlord Henry who bakes bread and designs crossword puzzles, Lieutenant Con Dolan, and the occasional boyfriend); possessions (the garage apartment, the Volkswagen); and stomping grounds (Rosie's quasi-Hungarian restaurant) that recur in every installment.

In the tradition of the police procedural, Kinsey fills her days with piecework on a lot of different cases unrelated to the main one that drives the plot of each book; the result is an intriguingly detailed and realistic look at the life of a scrabbling freelancer. 

For a loner, Kinsey is very astute about people. It's a treat to watch Kinsey fade into the background and set the people of her latest investigation center-stage. In A is for Alibi, Kinsey unforgettably describes one woman's mouth (on page 119), "It was a mouth built for unnatural acts." In S is for Silence, Kinsey ruthlessly scans each suspect's dwelling as she is invited in, drawing painfully accurate inferences as to their taste, income, and character.

Why has Sue Grafton chosen to maroon Kinsey and the entire Alphabet series back in the 1980s without essential law-enforcement equipment like cell phones, advanced forensics, and the internet? I'm not complaining; it makes for an interesting period piece. I would suspect that Grafton wants to keep Kinsey Millhone in her thirties: a young private investigator decades away from retirement.

Series List: Purple date = I've read it.  Title links go to Amazon.com product pages.

1. "A" is for Alibi (1984) Kinsey gets hired by the wife of a divorce lawyer who is the prime suspect and wants her name cleared. A suspenseful read leads up to a shocking ending.
2. "B" is for Burglar (1985)
3. "C" is for Corpse (1986)
4. "D" is for Deadbeat (1987)
5. "E" is for Evidence (1988)
6. "F" is for Fugitive (1989)
7. "G" is for Gumshoe (1990)
8. "H" is for Homicide (1991)
9. I is for Innocent (1992)
10. J Is for Judgment (1993)
11. K Is for Killer (1994)
12. L Is for Lawless (1995)
13. M Is for Malice (1996)
14. N Is for Noose (1998)
15. "O" Is for Outlaw (1999)
16. P Is for Peril (2001)
17. Q Is For Quarry (2002)
18. R Is For Ricochet (2004)
19. S is for Silence (2005) - A woman wants Kinsey to find her mother who disappeared 34 years ago from a small town filled with secrets. A quiet story, but engrossing.
20. T is for Trespass (2007) – Kinsey's cranky, elderly neighbor gets exploited by his hired caretaker, a master manipulator.  Kinsey is so distracted by her hectic life that she almost fails to notice. A real nail-biter: disturbing but gripping.

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