RIP Sue Grafton

[mpcincal]

Author of the Alphabet series ("A is for Alibi," "B is for Burglar," etc.) and TV screenwriter before that.

Sue Grafton, mystery writer, dead at 77

This is a bit personal for me because, for one, her books were set in "Santa Teresa," which is obviously Santa Barbara, which is 50 miles away from my town, and because, up until about seven years ago, I wasn't a big reader, and never read any fiction.
However, my sister recommended her books to me, and after getting "A is for Alibi" at the library, I got hooked, and then moved on to other authors like Peter James and Carl Hiassen, among others, and books like the Millenium trilogy and, most recently, "Gone Girl," which I loved.
Along with her passing, I'm also disappointed we won't be getting "Z is for Zero," which Grafton had long said would wrap up the story of her protagonist, Kinsey Millhone.

 

[User 149557]

Is there anything that tells you life is really not fair than a woman who sets out to write a 26-novel series gets taken 25 books into that quest?

 

[Neutral Corner]

Try Thomas Perry. "The Butcher's Boy" won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for best first novel, and he only got better..

Donald Westlake has a ton of great comic crime novels, some made into criminally bad movies.

Elmore Leonard's novels are very good. Very few writers have his ear for dialogue.

 

[QYFW]

RIP is for Rest in Peace.

 

[mpcincal]

Try Thomas Perry. "The Butcher's Boy" won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for best first novel, and he only got better..

Donald Westlake has a ton of great comic crime novels, some made into criminally bad movies.

Elmore Leonard's novels are very good. Very few writers have his ear for dialogue.

I'll keep Perry and Westlake in mind; thanks for the heads up. I'm well aware of Leonard, but for whatever reason, I've only read "Get Shorty." I'll get to some others of his one of these days.

 

[Slacker]

If you want some seriously good crime fiction, read John Sandford's "Prey" series.

 

[DanOregon]

I'm a big fan of Robert Crais, though Ace Atkins is pretty good as well. A friend of mine has written a few mysteries and had a great tribute to her "The alphabet now ends at "Y."

 

[micropolitan guy]

"D is for Dead." Too soon?

Karin Slaughter's Will Trent series is good.

Still a big fan of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch/Mickey Haller series. I like Sandford's Virgil Flowers' series too, and Paul Doiron's Michael Bowditch series.

 

[SpeedTchr]

"D is for Dead." Too soon?

Karin Slaughter's Will Trent series is good.

Still a big fan of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch/Mickey Haller series. I like Sandford's Virgil Flowers' series too, and Paul Doiron's Michael Bowditch series.

That ****in' Flowers... Sandford is an ace.

Reading Connelly's newest Bosch now. Love his stuff.

 

[Pete]

That ****in' Flowers... Sandford is an ace.

Reading Connelly's newest Bosch now. Love his stuff.

Not to totally Connelly-threadjack, but you might also want to check out his other new book this year, "The Late Show." It introduces a new LAPD detective, Renee Ballard, and I believe it's intended to be the first of a series. Appropriately for these times, she's been assigned to "The Late Show" – overnight detective squad – in retribution for making a sexual harassment charge against a senior cop. I read it this week and enjoyed it, as I do every Connelly book.

 

[SpeedTchr]

Not to totally Connelly-threadjack, but you might also want to check out his other new book this year, "The Late Show." It introduces a new LAPD detective, Renee Ballard, and I believe it's intended to be the first of a series. Appropriately for these times, she's been assigned to "The Late Show" – overnight detective squad – in retribution for making a sexual harassment charge against a senior cop. I read it this week and enjoyed it, as I do every Connelly book.

Yup, read it a while back. Great new character, looking forward to the next installment.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

I'm a big fan of Robert Crais, though Ace Atkins is pretty good as well. A friend of mine has written a few mysteries and had a great tribute to her "The alphabet now ends at "Y."

I'm also a big Crais fan. I read one Ace Atkins book that I really liked -- "The Ranger," I think? -- and need to read more. (Atkins took over the Spenser series after Parker died. I read part of the first book. It was an odd experience. It was very similar to the rest of the series except that Atkins was actually making an effort. I swear, the last ten Spenser novels Parker wrote, I was pretty confident I spent more time reading them than Parker spent writing them.)

I'll second the recommendation of Michael Connelly, although I think he's kind of phoned it in on the last few Bosch novels. I need to give the new character a try.

One guy who I really like and should be better known: Wallace Stroby. He has a recurring character who is a female thief. The books are great. Stroby is a former newspaper guy in New Jersey.

 

[Slacker]

Lucas Davenport is the best badass cop, though. And 27 in the series so far. #johnsandford

 

[cranberry]

Is there anything that tells you life is really not fair than a woman who sets out to write a 26-novel series gets taken 25 books into that quest?

That was exactly my thought.

 

[justgladtobehere]

George Higgins.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

George Higgins.

"The Friends of Eddie Coyle" may be the best crime fiction I've ever read.

I struggled to get into his other stuff, though.

 

[micropolitan guy]

There's a good series where the guy is a Washington Post reporter. Somebody help me here? The author's or protagonist's name is Tucker or something like that, can't find it on Google.

 

[amraeder]

Try Thomas Perry. "The Butcher's Boy" won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for best first novel, and he only got better..

Donald Westlake has a ton of great comic crime novels, some made into criminally bad movies.

Elmore Leonard's novels are very good. Very few writers have his ear for dialogue.

Just made it through The Butcher's Boy series, and loved it. Thanks for the recommendation. Do the stand-alone books hold up as well, too?

 

[Neutral Corner]

I have yet to hit a clinker. The "Jane Whitfield" books are very solid and a different spin altogether (Native American woman who specializes in helping people who need to disappear for non-criminal reasons, ie domestic abuse, threatened witness, etc.) but the early books are a bit dated as they go back to a time before full computerized ID, the TSA, etc. Still very good for all of that.

I really liked "Metzger's Dog" and "Big Fish". To be honest, I don't know that I've read much of his stuff that came out after 2000 or so.

To come back to Sue Grafton for a second, I really liked that there will be no attempt to finish the Alphabet series from her outline or any such thing. The quote from the family was that "So far as we are concerned, the alphabet ends with Y."

 

[Neutral Corner]

Donald Westlake, like Elmore Leonard, had several good books made into middling to bad movies (The Hot Rock, Bank Shot). I always liked "Help, I'm Being Held Rrisoner", which is about a compulsive practical joker who puts a realistically painted sex doll on the trunk of his car, which is parked in the emergency lane of the freeway. The resulting multi-car pileup includes a U.S. Senator and he lands in prison. Unfortunately, he is utterly unable *not* to do practical jokes, and soon half the prisoners are itching to get their hands on the guy who puts ink on the telephone earpiece and spreads Saran wrap across the toilets... It goes from there. It's old and may be hard to find.

I think my favorite Leonard is "Swag" and its sequel, "Stick", which is about a professional armed robber. Solid plot, great dialogue. Early crime novels and not the obvious choice, but it is very good work indeed. "Fifty-Two Pickup" is good too.

Either one might be in your local library.

Elmore Leonard - Wikipedia