Book Review: Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: The short stories are great

Cons: The back section is very heavy

The Bottom Line:

Story collection

Kinsey; insights to author

Glad I picked it up

Short Stories and Essays

At some point while working my way through the Kinsey Millhone Mysteries, I knew I’d want to tackle Kinsey and Me.  This is not a typical entry in the series, and it many ways it could be an introduction to the character of Kinsey Millhone and her creator, Sue Grafton.

The book is broken into two sections.  The first section is made up of nine stories featuring PI Kinsey Millhone and some of the cases she has worked in her town of Santa Teresa, California.  These have all appeared elsewhere before being collected here, but if you weren’t reading short story magazines in the 1980’s and 1990’s (when most of these were originally published), then they will all be new to you.

Just what kind of trouble does Kinsey get into?  A woman comes to Kinsey’s office to report a dead body in her daughter’s bed, only for the body to vanish before Kinsey can show up.  Then she’s hired to find a missing wife.  Did a man fall off his roof, or was he pushed?  A woman insists that her sister was murdered, but there is no evidence.  And Kinsey gets pulled in when an actor is kidnapped.

The last story in the collection, involving killer twins, is a bit weak, but the rest are fun.  No, they don’t have the full development of a novel, but for a quick visit with Kinsey, they will fit the bill.  It is obvious that these stories appeared elsewhere originally since Kinsey introduces herself in every story.  We could have done without that, but it’s a minor complaint.  As I said earlier, if you haven’t met Kinsey before, you can easily jump in here because these stories are all Kinsey.  Only one other character from the series actually appears, but for the part she plays in the story, you don’t need to know more about her than you get here.

These short stories take up about 70% of the book.  After a brief essay about PI novels in general, we move into the back section of the book where Sue Grafton gets personal.  She was raised by two alcoholics, a functioning alcoholic father and a self-destructive alcoholic mother.  In this section, we get thirteen vignettes that she has written about her family and their relationships.  Yes, she has given the characters names, calling herself Kit, for examples, but these are highly autobiographical.  I’m sure this was therapeutic for Sue when she wrote them, and I can see them being useful for others in her situation, but I’ll admit, I found them rather depressing.  I’d been looking forward to the essay section when I picked up the book, but I was quickly glad it was a minority of the pages.

Yes, they did do an audio version of this book, and Judy Kaye is the narrator again.  I will admit, it was a little hard to hear the voice I associate with Kinsey narrating some things that were written by Sue Grafton as Sue, but I quickly got used to it.  And, it made me glad that the back section was about “Kit” and not Sue writing about herself since that would has seemed weird as well.  None of this is a slight on Judy Kaye’s narration – she does a good job as always.

Any fan of Sue Grafton’s work will be happy they picked up this book for the short stories alone.  Kinsey and Me includes some fun stories and insight into the life of the author behind the beloved PI.

Check out the rest of the Kinsey Millhone Mysteries.