Sue Grafton’s mysteries are among the few I read straight through without pausing to study technique. It does no good trying to pin her down—I get completely sucked into the story, and before I know it, I’m surprised by the ending. She had a brilliant way of planting her clues along the way.
Grafton died on December 28 in Santa Barbara, and I will miss her alphabetical series forevermore.
It’s always fun to read a novel set in a place you recognize. Hers took place in the fictional town of Santa Teresa—though most Southern Californians knew it was Santa Barbara. G Is for Gumshoe even took her heroine, Kinsey Millhone, to Slab City, a place I’ve always wanted to write about.
Slab City sits in the Sonoran Desert, miles from anywhere—south of East Jesus—and it’s completely free for the people who squat there. There’s a kind of community: retirees over here, hippies to the west, families in their own section, and snowbirds who stay only for the winter. Super interesting, as far as I’m concerned. I may still write about that place yet.