WRITER

Sue Grafton

1940 - 2017

Photo of Sue Grafton

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Sue Taylor Grafton (April 24, 1940 – December 28, 2017) was an American author of detective novels. She is best known as the author of the "alphabet series" ("A" Is for Alibi, etc.) featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, California. The daughter of detective novelist, C. W. Grafton, she said the strongest influence on her crime novels was author Ross Macdonald. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Sue Grafton has received more than 1,857,681 page views. Her biography is available in 37 different languages on Wikipedia. Sue Grafton is the 4,761st most popular writer (down from 3,709th in 2019), the 6,509th most popular biography from United States (down from 4,955th in 2019) and the 523rd most popular American Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.9M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 48.23

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 37

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 2.23

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 5.02

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

B Is for Burglar
Fiction, Kinsey Millhone (Fictitious character), Women private investigators
J Is for Judgment
Fiction, Kinsey Millhone (Fictitious character), Women private investigators in fiction
S Is for Silence
Mystery, Open Library Staff Picks, Women private investigators
A Is for Alibi
Kinsey Millhone (Fictitious character), Women private investigators, Fiction
U is for undertow
Mystery, Girls, Women private investigators
Calling T is for Trespass "taut, terrifying, transfixing and terrific," USA Today went on to ask, "What does it take to write twenty novels about the same character and manage to create a fresh, genre-bending novel every time?" It's a question worth pondering. Through twenty excursions into the dark side of the human soul, Sue Grafton has never written the same book twice. And so it is with this, her twenty-first. Once again, she breaks genre formulas, giving us a twisting, complex, surprise-filled, and totally satisfying thriller.It's April, 1988, a month before Kinsey Millhone's thirty-eighth birthday, and she's alone in her office doing paperwork when a young man arrives unannounced. He has a preppy air about him and looks as if he'd be carded if he tried to buy booze, but Michael Sutton is twenty-seven, an unemployed college dropout. Twenty-one years earlier, a four-year-old girl disappeared. A recent reference to her kidnapping has triggered a flood of memories. Sutton now believes he stumbled on her lonely burial when he was six years old. He wants Kinsey's help in locating the child's remains and finding the men who killed her. It's a long shot but he's willing to pay cash up front, and Kinsey agrees to give him one day. As her investigation unfolds, she discovers Michael Sutton has an uneasy relationship with the truth. In essence, he's the boy who cried wolf. Is his current story true or simply one more in a long line of fabrications?Grafton moves the narrative between the eighties and the sixties, changing points of view, building multiple subplots, and creating memorable characters. Gradually, we see how they all connect. But at the beating center of the novel is Kinsey Millhone, sharp-tongued, observant, a loner—"a heroine," said The New York Times Book Review, "with foibles you can laugh at and faults you can forgive."
R is for ricochet
Mystery, Detectives, Fictitious Character

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Sue Grafton ranks 4,761 out of 7,302Before her are Louise Otto-Peters, Lucius Shepard, Edward James, Milo Yiannopoulos, Hans Werner Richter, and Zeruya Shalev. After her are Mikhail Kheraskov, Graciliano Ramos, R. J. Palacio, Dun Karm Psaila, Peter Scholl-Latour, and Abdulla Shaig.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1940, Sue Grafton ranks 364Before her are Ole Ernst, Billy McNeill, Jurandir de Freitas, Tilo Prückner, Imre Komora, and Zvonko Bego. After her are Mirjam Pressler, Mukhu Aliyev, Steve Swallow, Benoni Beheyt, Silvester Takač, and Daniel Quillen. Among people deceased in 2017, Sue Grafton ranks 341Before her are Karl-Erik Nilsson, Eduard Mudrik, Kim Joo-hyuk, Mervyn Rose, Redha Malek, and Sandra Reemer. After her are Paul J. Weitz, Roberto Ferreiro, Karl Stotz, Vladimir Shainsky, Robert Guillaume, and Josef Musil.

Others Born in 1940

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Others Deceased in 2017

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Sue Grafton ranks 6,509 out of 20,380Before her are Donovan Scott (1947), Christina Hendricks (1975), Bobby Cannavale (1970), Harry Blanchard (1929), Cornel West (1953), and Brian Hyland (1943). After her are Archie Mayo (1891), R. J. Palacio (1963), Kurt Angle (1968), Medgar Evers (1925), Bob Backlund (1949), and Betty Gilpin (1986).

Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, Sue Grafton ranks 523Before her are Rod Serling (1924), Damon Knight (1922), Aaron Sorkin (1961), Jacqueline Susann (1918), James Salter (1925), and Robert Ettinger (1918). After her are R. J. Palacio (1963), Susan Brownmiller (1935), Gloria E. Anzaldúa (1942), John D. MacDonald (1916), James Lee Burke (1936), and Irving Wallace (1916).