William Marling,Ph.D. Professor of English, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
Sue Grafton
Classic Writers
Ross Macdonald (Kenneth Millar)
Development of Hard-Boiled Narrative
Early Female Authors of Hard-Boiled Writing
Chester Himes and Early Afro-American Detectives
Major Works
Red Harvest (1927) by Dashiell Hammett
The Maltese Falcon (1929) by Dashiell Hammett
The Glass Key (1931) by Dashiell Hammett
The Big Sleep (1939) by Raymond Chandler
Farewell, My Lovely (1940) by Raymond Chandler
The Long Goodbye (1953) by Raymond Chandler
The Galton Case (1959) by Ross Macdonald
The Underground Man (1971) by Ross Macdonald
Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965) by Chester Himes
Characteristics of the Genre
Imagery in Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction
Criticism, 1930 to the Present
Detective Fiction in Comics, Radio, and Television
Film Noir
Reactions against Early Crime Movies
More Film Noir (brief takes on The Glass Key (1942), Murder, My Sweet (1944), Farewell, My Lovely (1975), The Big Sleep (1946), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946, 1981), The Lady in the Lake (1947), The Lady From Shanghai (1949), Criss Cross (1949), D.O.A. ((1950), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Touch of Evil (1958), Chinatown (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Body Heat (1981), and The Ususual Suspects (1995).
Like Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton (b. 1940 -- ) developed a tough, feminist detective, in this case named Kinsey Millhone. The two authors' first novels appeared within months of each other in 1982. Like Ross Macdonald, Grafton's territory is Santa Barbara, California, depicted as "Santa Theresa." However, Kinsey Millhone lives in the converted garage of octogenarian Henry Pitts, drives a beat-up Volkswagen, dresses in jeans and turtlenecks (she owns only one dress), eats junk food, and jogs for exercise.
Grafton was born in Louisville, daughter of a mystery writing attorney who stayed late at work to turn out his three novels. She grew up in the same neighborhood as "gonzo journalist" Hunter Thompson and was a few years behind him in the same school. She attended the U. of Louisville ( B.A. 1961) and worked as a hospital clerk, cashier and secretary before achieving literary success. She wrote two mainstream novels in the 1960s (Keziah Dane, 1967; The Lolly-Madonna War, 1969) and adapted the latter for M.G.M. in 1973. She did three other screen and tele-plays in the 1970s (including Rhoda, 1975), before writing her first mystery, A Is for Alibi
More conventional than Paretsky's, Grafton's detective is a traditional heroine: a loner, with a code, who works for just causes. Vincent Patrick wrote in the New York Times that"Chandler's concept of a detective hero was that 'he must be the best man in his world, and a good enough man for any world.' Gender aside, Kinsey fills that prescription perfectly." Nor has Grafton redefined the genre, writes Ed Weiner in the Times Book Review: she plays "it fairly safe and conventional." 1 She is sometimes contrasted with Robert B. Parker for her lack of violence; more significant, however, is the fact that in her revealed plots Grafton questions the received wisdom about gender-specific character traits. Other than this, most critics agree, she is not overtly feminist. Several recent novels, L Is for Lawless
Kinsey Millhone has collected a wide readership and is translated into Dutch, Russian, Polish, Spanish, and French. When Grafton's novels were late to press in the early 1990s, because of the author's illness and plotting problems, readers even called bookstores to complain. By 2007 the alphabet of Grafton novels had reached T: A is for Alibi, (1982);B is for Burglar (1985);C is for Corpse (1986);D is for Deadbeat (1987);E is for Evidence (1988);F is for Fugitive (1989);G is for Gumshoe (1990);H is for Homicide (1991);I is for Innocent (1992);J is for Judgment (1993);K is for Killer (1994);L is for Lawless (1995);M is for Malice (1996);N is for Noose (1998);O is for Outlaw (1999);P is for Peril (2001);Q is for Quarry (2002);R Is for Ricochet (2004);S Is for Silence (2005); T Is for Trespass (December, 2007).
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1 Vincent Patrick, in Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, vol. 55, p. 200; original in New York Times Book Review, n.d., n.p. Ed Weiner, ibid. 2 Jean Swanson, "Sue Grafton," in Mystery & Suspense Writers, editor Robin Winks (New York: Charles Scribner's Son, 1998), vol. I, 446.
