Sue Grafton: Kinsey and Me (USA 2013)

From the Publisher:
In 1982, Sue Grafton introduced Kinsey Millhone. Today, Kinsey is an icon of detective fiction and her creator is at the top of her form. This collection is both a look at Sue Grafton's own early life in the guise of the character Kit Blue, and a fascinating glimpse of Kinsey Millhone in nine tales featuring "the spunkiest, funniest, and most engaging private investigator [in] the entire detective novel genre." -- Entertainment Weekly

Sue Grafton: Kinsey and Me. Putnam's, ISBN: 9780425267790 (December, 2013), 286 p., $9.99.

Sue Grafton: Kinsey and Me (UK 2013)

From the Publisher:
My name is Kinsey Millhone. I'm a private investigator, licensed, bonded, insured; white, female, age thirty-two, unmarried, and physically fit. That Monday morning, I was sitting in my office with my feet up, wondering what life would bring, when a woman walked in and tossed a photograph on my desk. 'Somebody killed my husband.'

Published thirty one years after A is for Alibi, Sue Grafton's Kinsey and Me, is her first compendium of short stories. It features nine Kinsey Millhone short stories, each a gem of detection, as well as autobiographical pieces written in the decade after Grafton's mother died. Together, they show just how much Kinsey Millhone is a distillation of her creator's past, even as they reveal a child who, free of parental discipline, read everything and roamed everywhere. But the dark side of such freedom was that very parental distance...

This dazzling and often moving collection displays the depth and range of Grafton's writing and reminds us of her unique talent as a storyteller.

Sue Grafton: Kinsey and Me. Stories. Mantle, ISBN: 9781447237655 (September, 2013), 283 p., £7.99.

Sue Grafton: Kinsey and Me (UK 2013)

From the Publisher:
My name is Kinsey Millhone. I'm a private investigator, licensed, bonded, insured; white, female, age thirty-two, unmarried, and physically fit. That Monday morning, I was sitting in my office with my feet up, wondering what life would bring, when a woman walked in and tossed a photograph on my desk. 'Somebody killed my husband.'

Thirty one years since A is for Alibi was first published, Sue Grafton presents Kinsey and Me, her first compendium of short stories. It features nine Kinsey Millhone short stories, each a gem of detection, as well as autobiographical pieces written in the decade after Grafton's mother died. Together, they show just how much Kinsey Millhone is a distillation of her creator's past, even as they reveal a child who, free of parental discipline, read everything and roamed everywhere. But the dark side of such freedom was that very parental distance...

Kit walked through the empty house, listening to her footsteps resounding against the pale dead floors... the windows stood open to the summer heat and a wind that smelled of lilacs touched at the screens. From her bedroom, she could look out into the side yard where the cherry tree had blossomed every April since time began... And now the house was being sold and the land, their mother was dead, their father remarried: all of life, everything was breaking apart, breaking down, being levelled, destroyed, razed, rendered obsolete, that childhood, that life, that family as odd and unhappy as it had been...

Published in the UK for the first time, this dazzling and often moving collection displays the depth and range of Grafton's writing and reminds us of her unique talent as a storyteller.

Sue Grafton: Kinsey and Me. Stories. Mantle, ISBN: 9780230771444 (January, 2013), 286 p., £16.99.

Sue Grafton: Kinsey and Me (USA 2013)

From the Publisher:
In 1982, Sue Grafton introduced us to Kinsey Millhone. Thirty years later, Kinsey is an established international icon and Sue, a number-one bestselling author. To mark this anniversary year, Sue has given us stories that reveal Kinsey's origins and Sue's past.

"I've come to believe that Grafton is not only the most talented woman writing crime fiction today but also that, regardless of gender, her Millhone books are among the five or six best series any American has ever written." -- Patrick Anderson, The Washington Post

Kinsey and Me has two parts: The nine Kinsey stories (1986-93), each a gem of detection; and the And Me stories, written in the decade after Grafton's mother died. Together, they show just how much of Kinsey is a distillation of her creator's past even as they reveal a child who, free of parental interventions, read everything and roamed everywhere. But the dark side of such freedom was that very parental distance.

The same unique voice and witty insights readers fell in love with in A Is for Alibi permeate the Kinsey stories. Those in the And Me section trace a remarkable voyage, from anger to understanding, from pain to forgiveness. They take us into a troubled family, dysfunctional as most families are, each in their own way, but Grafton's telling is sensitive, delicate, and ultimately, loving. Enriching the way we see Kinsey and know Sue, these stories are deeply affecting.

Sue Grafton: Kinsey and Me. Marian Wood Books / Putnam, ISBN: 9780399163838 (January, 2013), 286 p., $27.95.