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Summary: THE ULTIMATE BIOGRAPHY OF A FICTIONAL CHARACTER
Review: One of my proudest days as a mystery writer came the July day that I participated on the same MWA/UCLA mystery literature program as Sue Grafton. Ms. Grafton was the event's keynote speaker. I was one of a couple of dozen other author-presenters. Sue Grafton is the reigning queen of American mystery fiction, and G IS FOR GRAFTON proves that point conclusively. In this book, Natalie Hevener Kaufman & Carol McGinnis Kay have written a biography of Ms. Grafton's lead character, Kinsey Millhone. Kaufman and Kay had Ms. Grafton's cooperation in preparing this work, and they have done a terrific job. Everything you ever wanted to know about Kinsey but didn't know enough to ask, is covered here. Kaufman and Kay have achieved a remarkable accomplishment. This book is must read for any serious Grafton fan or informed reader of the mystery genre. I especially enjoyed the "photographic record" of Kinsey's life, including snapshots of her home, her offices, her car, her jogging path, and several other scenes from Santa Teresa. G IS FOR GRAFTON is a great book.
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Summary: The Essential Kinsey Millhone
Review: The authors should retitle the book The Essential Kinsey Millhone! They have done a thorough and masterful job deconstructing the heroine of Sue Grafton's successful detective series, analyzing her traits (both physical and spiritual), her preferences, her work habits, her milieu, and her history. This book does what similar companion books somehow fail to do, presenting Kinsey in a logically organized snapshot that somehow embraces every facet of her contradictory and compelling character. Reading this book is like finding a treasure chest of information on someone you only thought that you knew well. If anyone has left a negative review, I would attribute their disenchantment to a disparity between the reader's own expectations and the structure or function of this book. In other words, dissatisfied readers must have expected or desired something other than an impossibly thorough, finely tuned, extraordinarily detailed, carefully categorized, and fully documented dossier on the details that turn Kinsey from a two-dimensional paper heroine into Grafton's virtually three-dimensional creation. I will grant that the meticulousness of the case study could become tiresome for someone only lukewarm about Kinsey. Mild fans beware! However, for the many readers who wait eagerly for the next installment of the alphabet series, your satisfaction with this companion book is all but guaranteed. I myself was intrigued by the relevant minutiae that abounded page by page, and I approached the end of the book with thrill as well with regret; I hope the authors continue expanding their study as Grafton begins the last third of the series. This document gives blood and bone to a fictitious series of narrative mysteries, and it's a joy to read!
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Summary: Don't waste your money.
Review: There is a lot of useful information in this book. But the glorification of feminism sounds too much like men-bashing. Stick with reading the Grafton novels themselves and leave this one alone. It isn't worth the price of admission.
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Summary: Absolutely fascinating exploration of Kinsey and Grafton.
Review: This excellent book provides keen literary analysis of a popular detective mystery series, something most elite literary snobs would never condescend to do. But Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone mysteries shine far above and beyond the rest of the pack, and this book explains why. Fully the first three-fourths of the book provides a detailed biography of Kinsey, her background, her personality traits, her setting, her work, and her values. Only the last few chapters are actually about Grafton, but we readers sense that we have already gotten to know Grafton's sensibilities through encountering her alter ego. The authors do a remarkable job of suggesting why Grafton's novels have become so popular, noting that she has elevated the genre from mere "whodunit" to providing coherent psychological depictions of why someone might have committed a crime. The book is filled with quotes from the novels, all of which are carefully referenced. One imagines that the coauthors might have made their notes from the books on little index cards and rearranged them to make sense, just as Kinsey would have. Most fascinating were the chapters where the authors assess Grafton's writing style and overall themes, arguing that the series is wrapped around the general theme of "the harm families do." They isolate specific examples illustrating Grafton's stellar literary excellence, demonstrating that she transcends the confines of the genre and should be acknowledged as one of the great contemporary authors, not only of mysteries, but of any fiction. I rarely buy a book at full price (even at Amazon.com's discounts :-) but this one was well worth it. It is an indispensable companion to the series. Kaufman and Kay have done Grafton's fans a remarkable service. We can only hope they will write a sequel once Grafton completes "N" through "Z."
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Summary: Magnifying Kinesy
Review: This is a great closer look at Kinsey Millhone and the mind who has created her and all her many acquaintences. My only wish is that the maps were more detailed.
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