Sue Grafton Sold Out

By Linda L. Richards
Sue Grafton, the internationally bestselling author of the Alphabet Mysteries (who died in 2017), hated Hollywood. And it wasn’t a random dislike: Prior to her success as a novelist, Grafton spent years working in the film industry, an experience that led to her making an oath that she would never sell Kinsey Millhone, the ex-cop private eye who was the protagonist in her 25-book series, to Hollywood.

When I interviewed her in 1997, Grafton was emphatic on this point. “I will never sell [Kinsey] to Hollywood,” she declared. “And, I have made my children promise not to sell her. We’ve taken a blood oath, and if they do so I will come back from the grave: which they know I can do. They’re going to have to pass the word on to my grandchildren: we do not sell out our grandma. I just will not let them touch her.”

That interview was widely quoted last week, when the announcement came that Kinsey had, in fact, been sold out. From Deadline:

In a very competitive situation with multiple bidders, A+E Studios has landed the exclusive rights to #1 New York Times-bestselling author Sue Grafton’s alphabet book series featuring private investigator protagonist Kinsey Millhone. Under the pact, the studio can develop and produce the entire library of Grafton’s wildly popular alphabet mysteries for television.

This marks the first time the screen rights to the book series has been made available, with Steve Humphrey, Grafton’s husband for more than 40 years, serving as executive producer on the adaptations.

Humphrey himself spoke to this decision in a statement posted on Grafton’s Facebook page and in a statement from A+E: “Television has greatly evolved since Sue was writing in Hollywood in the 1980s. From her experience then, she was concerned that her stories and characters would be diminished when they were adapted. But as the power of television has transformed over time, so too has the quality from writing and acting to the production values and viewing experience.”

I’m guessing Grafton’s descendants are now ducking and running, wary of her spirit making a reproachful appearance.

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Linda L. Richards, the author of Endings, is also a Rap Sheet contributing editor.

Grafton, L.A. Times Awards Due Soon

The Mystery Writers of America organization has announced that it will present the inaugural Sue Grafton Memorial Award on April 25, during this year’s Edgar Awards festivities in New York City. That new commendation is, of course, named in honor of Grafton, the creator of fictional private investigator Kinsey Millhone, who died in December 2017 at age 77, following a battle with cancer. According to a news release, the Sue Grafton Memorial Award will celebrate “the Best Novel in a Series featuring a female protagonist in a series.” The five nominees have reportedly been “chosen by the 2019 Best Novel and Best Paperback Original Edgar Award judges from the books submitted to them throughout the year.” They are:

• Perish, by Lisa Black (Kensington)
• Shell Game, by Sara Paretsky (Morrow)
• City of Secrets, by Victoria Thompson (Berkley)
• A Forgotten Place, by Charles Todd (Morrow)
• To Die But Once, by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper)

By the way, the awarding date—April 25—is one day after what would have been Southern California author Grafton’s 79th birthday.

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Meanwhile, finalists for the 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Awards have been announced in 10 categories. Here are the novels contending in the Mystery/Thriller section:

• Give Me Your Hand, by Megan Abbott (Little, Brown)
• Green Sun, by Kent Anderson (Mulholland)
• November Road, by Lou Berney (Morrow)
• My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Doubleda)
• The Perfect Nanny, by Leila Slimani (Penguin)

Winners will be declared on April 12, the evening before the opening of this year’s L.A. Times Festival of Books, which is to held on the University of Southern California campus (April 13-14).

(Hat tip to In Reference to Murder.)

Finding Success, One Hurdle at a Time

Sue Grafton was so well known for her Kinsey Millhone private-eye series, that I’d quite forgotten she composed any books prior to A Is for Alibi. The Gumshoe Site’s Jiro Kimura reminded me of the truth in his succinct obituary of the author:

Sue Grafton died of [cancer of the appendix] on December 28 at a hospital in Santa Barbara, California. The younger daughter of mystery writer-lawyer C.W. Grafton was miserable with her second husband and wrote novels at night after her day job (at a hospital in L.A.) and housework (at home in Santa Barbara). Two of her written novels were published (Keziah Dane, Macmillan U.S., 1967; and The Lolly-Madonna War, Owen UK, 1969) before A Is for Alibi (Holt, 1982). The Lolly-Madonna War was turned into the movie Lolly-Madonna XXX (1973) with her co-written script, resulting in her working in Hollywood. She co-wrote for TV programs such as Rhoda and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and [scripted] two TV movies based on Agatha Christie's novels (A Caribbean Mystery and Sparkling Cyanide, both in 1983). To her, A Is for Alibi, the first in the Kinsey Millhone series, “was a ticket out of Hollywood.” She received three Lifetime Achievement Awards: one from the Private Eye Writers of America [PWA] in 2003 (The Eye); second from the Crime Writers Association of Britain in 2008 (The Diamond Dagger): and third from the Mystery Writers of America in 2009 (The Grand Master). She won three PWA Shamus awards—for B Is for Burglar (1985), G Is for Gumshoe (1990), and K Is for Killer (1994), as well as the 1991 Falcon Award from the Maltese Falcon Society Japan for F Is for Fugitive. Her last novel was Y Is for Yesterday (Putnam, 2017), and her alphabet series has ended at Y because she would not allow any movies or TV shows or continuation sequels. She was 77.

That last note, about how she forbade the publication of any “continuation sequels,” surprises me. I’d assumed, after hearing of Grafton’s demise just one novel short of her filling out the alphabet, that some writer friend of hers or other author would push to concoct a 26th Millhone investigation. But it sounds like that won’t happen.

SEE MORE: “Remembering Sue Grafton: Sparkling Cyanide (1983),” by Elizabeth Foxwell (The Bunburyist).

“Letter Writer” Grafton Signs Off

From Kentucky’s Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper:

The death of internationally acclaimed author Sue Grafton means at least one mystery will remain unsolved.

Grafton, a Louisville native, was known globally for her alphabet detective series featuring investigator Kinsey Millhone. She died Thursday night [at age 77] following a battle with cancer.

Grafton’s series began with “A Is for Alibi” in 1982 and continued through “Y Is for Yesterday,” released in August 2017.

Her last book, “Z Is for Zero,” was scheduled for release in fall 2019, according to the author’s website. But her husband, Steve Humphrey, said Grafton had yet to start writing the novel.

“She was trying to come up with an idea, but she never got one she liked,” Humphrey said. “With chemo, she didn’t have much energy or interest in that anyway. There will just be a 25-letter alphabet, I’m sorry to say.”

Our condolences go out to Grafton’s family on their loss.

READ MORE: “Sue Grafton, Whose Detective Novels Spanned the Alphabet, Dies at 77,” by Neil Genzlinger (The New York Times); “Sue Grafton, Best-Selling Author of Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries, Dies at 77,” by Laura Wamsley (National Public Radio); “Sue Grafton: R.I.P.,” by Janet Rudolph (Mystery Fanfare); “R.I.P., Sue Grafton,” by Ken Levine; “Sue Grafton Remembered,” by Ruth Jordan (Crimespree Magazine); “Sue Grafton, Whose ‘Alphabet Mysteries’ Became Best Sellers, Dies at 77,” by Matt Schudel (The Washington Post); “Mourning Sue Grafton” (Literary Hub); “Sue Grafton: A Remembrance (of Sorts),” by Art Taylor; “S Is for Sad,” by Lee Goldberg; “Thinking About Sue Grafton,” by Bill Selnes (Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan); “In Memoriam,” by Ayo Onatade (Shots).

Whatever You Say, Masters

Strangely, I don’t see word about this yet on the Mystery Writers of America Web site, but an MWA news release is already up at MarketWatch and Bill Crider’s blog. Apparently, authors James Lee Burke and Sue Grafton will be named as the organization’s latest two Grand Masters in 2009. The last time the MWA named more than one Grand Master in a year was back in 1978, when the honor was jointly bestowed upon the already much-applauded Daphne du Maurier, Dorothy B. Hughes, and Ngaio Marsh.

In announcing these awards, current MWA president Harry Hunsicker (Crosshairs) is quoted as saying: “One of the great pleasures of my tenure at the helm of MWA has been informing two of the most talented writers on the planet that they have been selected as Grand Master. As a longtime fan of both, I cannot think of two more deserving individuals.”

These dual Grand Master Awards will be given out during the 63rd annual Edgar Awards banquet, scheduled to be held on April 30 of next year in New York City.

Last year’s Grand Master was Bill Pronzini.

W Is for Winner

Mike Stotter of Shotsmag Confidential was first out with this news, it seems. Living several time zones behind London, I’m only catching up with it now: American private-eye novelist Sue Grafton, creator of the Kinsey Millhone series, has been chosen to receive the 2008 Cartier Diamond Dagger Award. This commendation is presented annually by the British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) to authors whose careers have been “marked by sustained excellence,” and who have “made a significant contribution to crime fiction published in the English language, whether originally or in translation.” Grafton follows Brit John Harvey as a recipient of this coveted prize.

In its press release announcing Grafton’s win, the CWA notes:

Sue Grafton was born in Kentucky in 1940, the daughter of mystery writer C.W. Grafton. After receiving a bachelors degree in English Literature from the University of Louisville, she worked as a TV scriptwriter before her Kinsey Millhone alphabet series of P.I. mystery novels found success. The first in the series, A Is for Alibi [1982] was famously inspired by her own divorce. “For months I lay in bed and plotted to kill my ex-husband, but I knew I’d bungle it and get caught so I wrote it in a book instead.”

Three of Ms. Grafton’s novels have won the Anthony Award at the annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention; she has won three Shamus Awards, and in 2004 received the Ross Macdonald Literary Award given to a California writer whose work raises the standard of literary excellence.

All the books in the Kinsey Millhone series are set in the fictional Santa Teresa, [California], which Ross Macdonald used as an alternative name for Santa Barbara in his novels. Ms. Grafton plans to carry the series all the way through to Z. The latest number one best-seller, T Is for Trespass, was published in the U.S. in December 2007 and will be out in Macmillan hardback in the UK in April 2008. Ms. Grafton’s novels are published in 28 countries and in 26 languages, including Bulgarian and Indonesian, although she has consistently refused to sell the film and television rights, claiming her experience as a screenwriter “cured” her of the desire to work with Hollywood.

Grafton is the 23rd recipient of the Diamond Dagger. In addition to the aforementioned Harvey, other previous winners have included Peter Lovesey, Sara Paretsky, Robert Barnard, Lawrence Block, Elmore Leonard, and Ed McBain.