'G' Is for Grafton : The World of Kinsey Millhone [Hardcover]

Natalie Hevener Kaufman (Author), Carol McGinnis Kay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1997

For Sue Grafton's legion of readers, and written with her full cooperation--including access to her working journals and personal memorabilia--"G" Is for Grafton is a must for those many fans who regularly write, e-mail, and Internet each other with questions about her intrepid heroine, Kinsey Millhone. Maps & diagrams. of illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you need help picturing Kinsey Millhone's sweats and tousled hair; listing her personality traits; modeling your dietary habits on hers; or reviewing her early childhood, education, career and marriages, pick up G Is for Grafton. Coauthors Kaufman and McGinnis--a political scientist and an English professor, respectively--have, with the cooperation of Sue Grafton, delved into the writer's working journal to flesh out this fictional biography. Once and for all, those nagging questions that keep fans pacing and tooth-gnashing between the M-N and O of Grafton's series will have something to keep their heroine alive between mysteries. How old is Kinsey, exactly? Why do her car and her home need to be so small? Why did she become a PI--was it the wardrobe?

Included in this monument to Millhone is a delightful spread of black-and-white photos of Kinsey's Santa Teresa haunts: her offices, the marina, and, yes, the jogging path. Readers are also treated to Sue Grafton's discussion on the creation of her famous character: "Kinsey is my alter ego--the person I might have been had I not married young and had children.... While our biographies are different, our sensibilities are the same.... I think of us as one soul in two bodies, and she got the good one." G is for Grafton will grab Kinsey Millhone fans.

From Library Journal

Kaufman and Kay (both Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, who have served on panels on women in detective fiction for the Popular Culture Association, are great admirers of Sue Grafton and her fictional heroine, Milhone. Their new work does include biographical information on Grafton, but is primarily devoted to discussions of Grafton's fictional detective and her world. The book should prove interesting to some of Grafton's many fans, but mystery readers who have not read all of the Kinsey Milhone books should be forewarned that it contains many spoilers regarding whodunit. The authors state that the book is meant to be read as an organic whole, but it could also be used as a reference work to answer trivia and reference questions on Grafton and her work. Fervid fans will enjoy this book, but many readers will find it repetitive since the same examples and situations are mentioned in several of the book's sections. Recommended for public libraries.?Denise Johnson, Bradley Univ. Lib., Peoria, Ill.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 364 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; 1st edition (November 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805054464
• ISBN-13: 978-0805054460
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,098,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars G is for Grafton elevates the mystery genre, June 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: 'G' Is for Grafton : The World of Kinsey Millhone (Hardcover)

I loved revisiting one of my favorite characters through this unique text that combines literary criticsm with prose that is like a visit with your next door neighbor( if you had a next door neighbor as interesting as Kinsey). One of the most vexing things about the content of this book is that I learned that my mental images of Kinsey's apartment and it's spatial relationship to Henry's house are incorrect. I've decided to stay with my own mental imagery, rather than changing to the "correct" versions offered in the schmatic drawings in the book. I also loved the photographs of Kinsey's jogging path and her office.

G is for Grafton might more correctly be titled, K is for Kinsey. It is a wonderful read that reminds one of a conversation with a long, lost friend. I loved revisiting her cases and recalling how much I enjoyed reading each of them. I will continue to refer to the charting of her cases as I read O,P,Q...

Kaufman and Kay are to be congratulated on their careful treatment of Kinsey and Grafton's body of work.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely fascinating exploration of Kinsey and Grafton., November 24, 1997

By 

A H - See all my reviews

This review is from: 'G' Is for Grafton : The World of Kinsey Millhone (Hardcover)

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."

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE ULTIMATE BIOGRAPHY OF A FICTIONAL CHARACTER, August 30, 2001

By 

Kent Braithwaite (Palm Desert, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: "G" Is for Grafton: The World of Kinsey Millhone (Paperback)

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.