SUE GRAFTON Returns to BookPeople with X!

Have you ever wished there were more letters in the alphabet? With only two books left, legendary crime author Sue Grafton is bringing her Kinsey Millhone “Alphabet” series to BookPeople! She will speak and sign copies of X, the series’ 24th installment, in our store Monday, August 31st.

X: The number ten. An unknown quantity. A mistake. A cross. A kiss.

X: The shortest entry in Webster’s Unabridged. Derived from Greek and Latin and commonly found in science, medicine, and religion. The most graphically dramatic letter. Notoriously tricky to pronounce: think xylophone.

X: The twenty-fourth letter in the English alphabet.

Perhaps her darkest and most chilling novel yet, Sue Grafton’s X features a remorseless serial killer who leaves no trace of his crimes. Once again breaking the rules and establishing new paths, Grafton wastes little time identifying this sociopath. The test is whether Kinsey can prove her case against him before she becomes his next victim.

“Just beneath the extroverted mask she presents at bookstore appearances is the deeply contemplative writer still determined to stretch her chops and chart territory that removes any semblance of a comfort zone.” —Sarah Weinman, Los Angeles Times

The speaking portion of this event is free and open to the public. Tickets are required for the signing and only available from BookPeople.

Sue Grafton entered the mystery field in 1982 with the publication of A Is for Alibi, which introduced female hard-boiled private investigator, Kinsey Millhone, operating out of the fictional town of Santa Teresa, (a.k.a. Santa Barbara) California. B is for Burglar followed in 1985 and the series is still going strong. In addition to her books, Sue’s published several Kinsey Millhone short stories, and with her husband, Steven Humphrey, has written numerous movies for television, including A Killer in the Family (starring Robert Mitchum), Love on the Run (starring Alec Baldwin and Stephanie Zimbalist) and two Agatha Christie adaptations

Always a hoot, Sue Claims she spent a lot of time brainstorming murder methods while going through a bitter divorce and custody battle. But there really was an “aha” moment for the alphabet series.

Sue had always been a fan of mysteries with related titles, like those of John D. MacDonald or Harry Kemelman, but it was while reading Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies, an alphabetical picture book of children who die by various means, that she immediately sat down and made an alphabetical list list of all of the crime-related words that she knew, upon which she was determined to write a series.

Congratulations, Sue! We’re thrilled to celebrate with you (and Kinsey) once again.

Are you a mystery writer? Check out Sue’s personal site. She’s amazingly open and generous toward her fans and has even made several volumes of her notes public. See what was going through her mind in January of 1989 when she was working on G is for Gumshoe.

And if you’re curious about the impact of Sue’s upbringing on her work: