Best Selling Books by Sue Grafton

Title: A Is for Alibi (Kinsey Millhone Series #1)

A tough-talking former cop, private investigator Kinsey Millhone has set up a modest detective agency in a quiet corner of Santa Teresa, California. A twice-divorced loner with few personal possessions and fewer personal attachments, she's got a soft spot for underdogs and lost causes. Eight years ago, Nikki Fife was convicted of killing her philandering husband. Now she's out on parole and needs Kinsey's help to find the real killer. If there's one thing that makes Kinsey feel alive, it's playing on the edge. When her investigation turns up a second corpse, more suspects, and a new reason to kill, Kinsey discovers that the edge is closer―and sharper―than she imagined.

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780312353810
Pages: 320

This book is in (3) other book lists, learn more.

Title: B Is for Burglar (Kinsey Millhone Series #2)

Although business has been slow lately for P.I. Kinsey Millhone, she's reluctant to take on the case of locating Beverly Danziger's sister Elaine Boldt. It's a small matter that Beverly should be able to handle herself. So why is she enlisting Kinsey's services? Beverly claims she needs Elaine's signature on some documents so that she can collect a small inheritance. But the whole affair doesn't sit well with Kinsey. And if there's something she's learned in her line of work, it's to always follow your instincts… Kinsey's hunch proves true when she begins her inquiries into Elaine's whereabouts and discovers that the attractive widow was last seen in a flashy lynx coat boarding a plane for Boca Raton. But the more Kinsey searches for Elaine the more questions she encounters. Is Elaine's disappearance tied in to the brutal murder several months ago of one of her bridge partners? And what happened to Elaine's Persian cat who seems to have also vanished? Things take a turn for the worse when a stranger vandalizes the home of one of Elaine's neighbors and another neighbor turns up murdered. With her reputation and career on the line, Kinsey risks all to find a missing woman and a killer who's waiting in the shadows to strike again…

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780312939007
Pages: 320

Title: C Is for Corpse (Kinsey Millhone Series #3)

How do you go about solving an attempted murder when the victim has lost a good part of his memory? It's one of Kinsey's toughest cases yet, but she never backs down from a challenge. Twenty-three-year-old Bobby Callahan is lucky to be alive after a car forced his Porsche over a bridge and into a canyon. The crash left Bobby with a clouded memory. But he can't shake the feeling it was no random accident and that he's still in danger… The only clues Kinsey has to go on are a little red address book and the name "Blackman." Bobby can't remember who he gave the address book to for safekeeping. And any chances of Bobby regaining his memory are dashed when he's killed in another automobile accident just three days after he hires Kinsey. As Kinsey digs deeper into her investigation, she discovers Bobby had a secret worth killing for―and unearthing that secret could send Kinsey to her own early death…

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780312939014

Title: D Is for Deadbeat (Kinsey Millhone Series #4)

When Alvin Limardo walks into P.I. Kinsey Millhone's office, she smells bad news. He wants Kinsey to deliver $25,000. The recipient: A fifteen-year-old boy. It's a simple matter. So simple that Kinsey wonders why he doesn't deliver the money himself. She's almost certain something is off. But with rent due, Kinsey accepts Limardo's retainer against her better judgment… When Limardo's check bounces, Kinsey discovers she's been had big time. Alvin Limardo is really John Daggett―an ex-con with a drinking problem, two wives to boot, and a slew of people who would like to see him dead. Now Kinsey is out four hundred dollars and in hot pursuit of Daggett. When Daggett's corpse shows up floating in the Santa Teresa surf, the cops rule the death an accident. Kinsey thinks it's murder. But seeking justice for a man who everyone seemed to despise is going to be a lot tougher than she bargained for―and what awaits her at the end of the road is much more disturbing than she could've ever imagined…

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780312939021

Title: E Is for Evidence (Kinsey Millhone Series #5)

Being a twice-divorced, happily independent loner has worked like a charm for P.I. Kinsey Millhone―until holiday weekends like this one roll around. What she needs is a little diversion to ward off the blues. She gets her much-needed distraction with a case that places her career on the line. And if that isn't enough to keep her busy, her ex-husband, who walked out on her eight years ago, pops back on the radar... It all begins with a $5,000 deposit made into Kinsey's bank account. Problem is she's not the one who deposited the money. But when she's accused of being on the take in an industrial arson case, Kinsey realizes someone is framing her… Now Kinsey's working for herself. But with new evidence―and corpses―surfacing around her, she's going to have to act quickly to clear her name before she loses her career, her reputation―and quite possibly her life…

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780312939038

Title: F Is for Fugitive (Kinsey Millhone Series #6)

When Kinsey Millhone first arrives in Floral Beach, California, it's hard for her to picture the idyllic coastal town as the setting of a brutal murder. Seventeen years ago, the body of Jean Timberlake―a troubled teen who had a reputation with the boys―was found on the beach. Her boyfriend Bailey Fowler was convicted of her murder and imprisoned, but he escaped. After all this time, Bailey's finally been captured. Believing in his son's innocence, Bailey's father wants Kinsey to find Jean's real killer. But most of the residents in this tight-knit community are convinced Bailey strangled Jean. So why are they so reluctant to answer Kinsey's questions? If there's one thing Kinsey's got plenty of it's persistence. And that's exactly what it's going to take to crack the lid on this case. As Kinsey gets closer to solving Jean's murder, the more dirty little secrets she uncovers in a town where everyone has something to hide―and a killer will kill again to keep the past buried...

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780312939045

Title: G Is for Gumshoe (Kinsey Millhone Series #7)

For #1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton's PI Kinsey Millhone, danger comes with the job―but she never expects to find herself at the top of a hit man's list… G IS FOR GAME… When Irene Gersh asks PI Kinsey Millhone to locate her elderly mother Agnes, whom she hasn't heard from in six months, it's not exactly the kind of case Kinsey jumps for. But a girl's gotta pay her bills, and this should be easy money―or so she thinks. Kinsey finds Agnes in a hospital. Aside from her occasional memory lapses, the octogenarian seems fine. And frightened. G IS FOR GUN… Kinsey doesn't know what to make of Agnes's vague fears and bizarre ramblings, but she's got her own worries. It seems Tyrone Patty, a criminal she helped put behind bars, is looking to make a hit. First, Kinsey's car is run off the road, and then days later, she's almost gunned down, setting in motion a harrowing cat and mouse game… G IS FOR GUMSHOE So Kinsey decides to hire a bodyguard. With PI Robert Dietz watching her 24/7, Kinsey is feeling on edge…especially with their growing sexual tension. Then, Agnes dies of an apparent homicide, Kinsey realizes the old lady wasn't so senile after all―and maybe she was trying to tell her something? Now Kinsey's determined to learn the truth…even if it kills her.

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780312946203

Title: H Is for Homicide (Kinsey Millhone Series #8)

#1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton's PI Kinsey Millhone tackles insurance fraud in her latest outing―and finds that she'll have to commit some deceit of her own to catch a cold-blooded killer… H IS FOR HUSTLER… When PI Kinsey Millhone's good friend and colleague Parnell Perkins is found murdered in the parking lot behind California Fidelity Insurance, she can't believe he had any enemies. The only clue that raises a red flag for Kinsey is one of Parnell's files on a Bibianna Diaz, who appears to have made a lucrative career out of scamming insurance companies with phony claims… H IS FOR HAZARDOUS… Taking an alias, Kinsey goes undercover to befriend Bibianna, hoping she'll get close enough to catch the con artist at her own game. But Kinsey never dreams that hanging out with Bibianna will get them both thrown in jail. And when they're released, Bibianna's very jealous, very dangerous ex-fiancé Raymond Maldonado is waiting for them. H IS FOR HOMICIDE Kinsey soon discovers the short-tempered thug is the kingpin behind Bibianna's and countless other phony insurance claims. But was Raymond also responsible for Parnell's death? All Kinsey knows is that she'll have to think quick to nab one of the most treacherous criminals she's come face to face with―and keep herself alive…

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780312945657

Title: I Is for Innocent (Kinsey Millhone Series #9)

Five years ago David Barney was acquitted of the murder of his rich wife, Isabelle. Now, Isabelle's ex-husband, Ken Voigt―who is suing Barney for her estate―is claiming the jury made a fatal mistake... Enter P.I. Kinsey Millhone, who takes the Barney case over from a former colleague…and comes up with more questions than answers. Why are Mr. Barney's witnesses denying ever having spoken to him? Why did Isabelle have so many enemies―including but not limited to her best friend, Voight's second wife, and her own twin sister? But the most troubling question of all is: Why is it that everything David Barney has to say about his beloved Isabelle still checks out? Now it's up to Kinsey to figure out who's getting away with murder….before she courts her own.

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780312945268

Title: J Is for Judgment (Kinsey Millhone Series #10)

Wendell Jaffe looks great for a dead man! He's been six feet under for five years ago―until his former insurance agent spots him at a dusty resort bar in Mexico. Now California Fidelity wants its insurance money back. Can P.I. Kinsey Millhone get on the case? Just two months earlier, Jaffe's widow pocketed $500,000 in insurance benefits after Jaffe went overboard. Was his "pseudocide" a last-ditch effort to do right by his beloved wife? Perhaps. But how would that explain the new woman in Jaffe's second life? Kinsey is in for the long haul as she delves deeper into the mystery surrounding Jaffe's life and death…and discovers that, in family matters as in crime, sometimes it's better to reserve judgment…

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780312945275

Title: K Is for Killer (Kinsey Millhone Series #11)

Lorna Kepler was beautiful and willful, a loner who couldn't resist flirting with danger. Maybe that's what killed her. Her death had raised a host of tough questions. The cops suspected homicide, but they could find neither motive nor suspect. Even the means were mysterious: Lorna's body was so badly decomposed when it was discovered that they couldn't be certain she hadn't died of natural causes. In the way of overworked cops everywhere, the case was gradually shifted to the back burner and became another unsolved file. Only Lorna's mother kept it alive, consumed by the certainty that somebody out there had gotten away with murder. In the ten months since her daughter's death, Janice Kepler had joined a support group, trying to come to terms with her loss and her anger. It wasn't helping. And so, leaving a session one evening and noticing a light on in the offices of Millhone Investigations, she knocked on the door. In answering that knock, Kinsey Millhone is pulled into the netherworld of unavenged murder, where only a pact with the devil will satisfy the restless ghosts of the victims and give release to the living they have left behind. Eleven books into the series that has won her readers around the world, Sue Grafton takes a darkside turn, pitching us into a shadow land of pain and grief where killers still walk free, unaccused, unpunished, unrepentant. With "K" is for Killer she offers a tale that is dark, complex, and deeply disturbing.

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780312373122

Title: L Is for Lawless (Kinsey Millhone Series #12)

When Kinsey Millhone’s landlord asks her to help deceased World War II vet Johnnie Lee’s family find out why the military has no record of his service, she thinks it’ll be a cinch. But she is about to meet her match in world-class prevaricators who take her for the ride of her life.

When Lee’s apartment in burgled and a man named Ray Rawson, who claims to be an old friend of Lee’s, is beaten up, Kinsey soon finds herself on the trail of a pregnant woman with a duffel bag. Soon the intrepid P.I. is following leads halfway across the country and encountering another man from Lee’s past—a vengeful psychopath.

Stalked by a new enemy and increasingly suspicious of Rawson—not to mention running out of time and money—now Kinsey must steer a collision course to solve a decades-old mystery that some would like better left unsolved.…

Kinsey Millhone's latest is her most spellbinding mystery yet--and her biggest book to date! When Kinsey agrees to do a favor for her elderly landlord, she finds herself on the trail of a decades-old crime.

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780312373139
Pages: 343

Title: M is for Malice (Kinsey Millhone Series #13)

Brace yourself for an "Electrifying and thoroughly satisfying" read (Publishers Weekly) from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton M is for MONEY… Malek Construction is a mega-million-dollar company that grew out of modest soil to become one of the big three in California construction―and one of the few still in family hands. Today, the three Malek sons stand to inherit a fortune, but in order for any one of them to claim his share, the missing fourth brother must be found. M is for MISSING… Now it's up to Kinsey Millhone to find the man who, eighteen years ago, vanished without a trace. Did he run away―or was he abducted? Did he intend to make something of himself on his own, apart from the wealth and prowess of his family, or were his motives something more sinister? M is for MALICE The ties that bind. The rivalries of brotherhood. The fall of an empire… As Kinsey tries to unravel the mystery of the missing Malek brother she finds herself in a heart-stopping race against time in which loyalties are tested, greed is rampant, and no one―including Kinsey herself―is safe…

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9781250041890
Pages: ooks#volumes

Title: N Is for Noose (Kinsey Millhone Series #14)

 “SMART AND SASSY” (New York Times) P.I. Kinsey Millhone is at it again in yet another thrilling adventure from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton

Tom Newquist has died. A detective in the Nota Lake sheriff’s office, Tom was tough, honest, and respected by all. He was also a heavy drinker and a workaholic, much to his wife Selma’s distress. And now that Tom is gone, Selma can’t help but wonder what it really was that was troubling him….

What made Tom so restless during the last six weeks of his life? Why was he up all night and brooding all day long? What—or who—was at the heart of his dark moods? With the coroner’s report in hand, Selma decides to enlist the help of Kinsey Millhone to find the truth about what happened to her husband.

But the residents of Nota Lake keep their secrets close—and their enemies closer. And the deeper Kinsey’s investigation goes, the closer she comes to confronting the most dangerous outcome of all: the truth…

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9781250006493
Pages: 352

Title: O Is for Outlaw (Kinsey Millhone Series #15)

The call comes on a Monday morning from a guy who scavenges defaulted storage units at auction. The weekend before, he'd bought a stack of cardboard boxes. In one, there was a collection of childhood memorabilia with Kinsey's name all over it.

Though she's never been one for personal possessions, curiousity is a power force. What she finds among the items is an old undelivered letter to her that will force her to reexamine her beliefs about the breakup of her first marriage...about the honor of her first husband...and about an unsolved murder. It will put her life in the gravest peril.

Through fourteen books, listeners have been fed short rations when it comes to Kinsey Millhone's past: a morsel here, a dollop there. We know about the aunt who raised her, the second husband who left her, the long-lost family up the California coast. But husband number one has remained a blip on the screen. Until now. "O" Is for Outlaw: a revealing excursion into Kindey's past.

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780449003787
Pages: 368

Title: P Is for Peril (Kinsey Millhone Series #16)

Kinsey Millhone never sees it coming. She is mired in the case of a doctor who disappeared, his angry ex-wife, and beautiful current one–a case that is full of unfinished business, unfinished homes, and people drifting in and out of their own lives. Then Kinsey gets a shock. A man she finds attractive is hiding a fatal secret–and now a whole lot of beauty, money, and lies are proving to be a fatal distraction from what Kinsey should have seen all along: a killer standing right before her eyes. . . .

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780449003794
Pages: 384

Title: Q Is for Quarry (Kinsey Millhone Series #17)

"She was a "Jane Doe," an unidentified white female whose decomposed body was discovered near a quarry off California's Highway 1. The case fell to the Santa Teresa County Sheriff's Department, but the detectives had little to go on. The woman was young, her hands were bound with a length of wire, there were multiple stab wounds, and her throat had been slashed. After months of investigation, the case remained unsolved." "That was eighteen years go. Now, the two men who found the body, both nearing the end of long careers in law enforcement, want one last shot at the case. Old and ill, they need someone to do the legwork for them, and they turn to Kinsey Millhone. They will, they tell her, find closure if they can just identify the victim. Kinsey is intrigued with the challenge and agrees to work with them." But revisiting the past can be a dangerous business, and what begins with the pursuit of Jane Doe's real identity ends in a high-risk hunt for her killer.

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780425192726
Pages: 368

Title: R Is for Ricochet (Kinsey Millhone Series #18)

Reba Lafferty was a daughter of privilege. Abandoned by her rebellious mother when she was an infant, she was the only child of a rich man already in his mid-fifties when she was born, and her adoring father thoroughly spoiled her. Now, at thirty-two, having had many scrapes with the law, she is about to be released on probation from the California Institution for Women, having served twenty-two months of a four-year sentence for embezzlement. Though Nord Lafferty could deny his daughter nothing, he wasn’t there for her when she was brought up on this charge. Now he wants to be sure she stays straight, stays at home and away from the drugs, the booze, the gamblers. It seems a straightforward assignment for Kinsey: babysit Reba until she settles in, make sure she follows all the niceties of her parole. Maybe a week’s work. Nothing untoward—the woman seems remorseful and friendly. And the money is good. But life is never that simple, and Reba is out of prison less than twenty-four hours when one of her old crowd comes circling round. R is for Ricochet. And R is for romance: love gone right, love gone wrong, and matters somewhere in between.

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780399575198
Pages: 432

Title: S is for Silence (Kinsey Millhone Series #19)

Thirty-four years after Violet Sullivan's unexplained disappearance, Daisy--the not-quite-seven-year-old daughter she left behind--enlists the assistance of private detective Kinsey Millhone to help her find the truth.

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780425212691
Pages: 352

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Title: T Is for Trespass (Kinsey Millhone Series #20)

A miser and a hoarder, Gus Vronsky is so crotchety that after he takes a bad fall, his only living relative is anxious to find him some hired help and get back home as soon as she can. In an effort to help, Gus's neighbor, private investigator Kinsey Millhone, runs a check on an applicant for the job, Solana Rojas. Social Security, driver's license, nursing certification: It all checks out. And it sounds like she did a good job for her former employers. So Kinsey gives her the thumbs-up, figuring Gus will be the ideal assignment for this diligent, experienced caregiver. And the real Solana Rojas was indeed an excellent caregiver. But the woman who has stolen her identity is not, and for her, Gus will be the ideal victim...

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780425224847

Title: U Is for Undertow (Kinsey Millhone Series #21)

It’s April, 1988, a month before Kinsey Millhone’s thirty-eighth birthday, and she’s alone in her office doing paperwork when a young man arrives unannounced. He has a preppy air about him and looks as if he’d be carded if he tried to buy booze, but Michael Sutton is twenty-seven, an unemployed college dropout. Twenty-one years earlier, a four-year-old girl disappeared. A recent reference to her kidnapping has triggered a flood of memories. Sutton now believes he stumbled on her lonely burial when he was six years old. He wants Kinsey’s help in locating the child’s remains and finding the men who killed her. It’s a long shot but he’s willing to pay cash up front, and Kinsey agrees to give him one day. As her investigation unfolds, she discovers Michael Sutton has an uneasy relationship with the truth. In essence, he’s the boy who cried wolf. Is his current story true or simply one more in a long line of fabrications?

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780399575228
Pages: 496

Title: V is for Vengeance (Kinsey Millhone Series #22)

A spiderweb of dangerous relationships lies at the heart of V is for Vengeance, Sue Grafton's daring new Kinsey Millhone novel. A woman with a murky past who kills herself-or was it murder? A spoiled kid awash in gambling debt who thinks he can beat the system. A lovely woman whose life is about to splinter into a thousand fragments. A professional shoplifting ring working for the Mob, racking up millions from stolen goods. A wandering husband, rich and ruthless. A dirty cop so entrenched on the force he is immune to exposure. A sinister gangster, conscienceless and brutal. A lonely widower mourning the death of his lover, desperate for answers, which may be worse than the pain of his loss. A private detective, Kinsey Millhone, whose thirty-eighth-birthday gift is a punch in the face that leaves her with two black eyes and a busted nose. And an elegant and powerful businessman whose dealings are definitely outside the law: the magus at the center of the web. V: Victim. Violence. Vengeance.

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780399575235
Pages: 544

Title: W is for Wasted (Kinsey Millhone Series #23)

Two dead men changed the course of my life that fall. One of them I knew and the other I’d never laid eyes on until I saw him in the morgue. The first was a local PI of suspect reputation. He’d been gunned down near the beach at Santa Teresa. It looked like a robbery gone bad. The other was on the beach six weeks later. He’d been sleeping rough. Probably homeless. No identification. A slip of paper with Millhone’s name and number was in his pants pocket. The coroner asked her to come to the morgue to see if she could ID him.

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780399575242
Pages: 576

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Title: X Is For (Kinsey Millhone Series #24)

Of #1 New York Times–bestselling author Sue Grafton, NPR’s Maureen Corrigan said, “Makes me wish there were more than 26 letters.” With only two letters left, Grafton’s many devoted readers will share that sentiment. 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. Sue Grafton’s X: Perhaps her darkest and most chilling novel, it 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.

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780399163845
Pages: 416

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Title: Kinsey and Me

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

Author(s): Sue Grafton

ISBN 13: 9780425267790
Pages: 304