Who is the author of the 'Kinsey Millhone' alphabet series?

Sue Grafton created the Kinsey Millhone alphabet series.

Grafton’s mystery novels follow Kinsey Millhone, a tough and independent private investigator working in the fictional California city of Santa Teresa. The series began with A Is for Alibi in 1982 and uses titles arranged alphabetically, a structure that gave the books their familiar name.

Grafton drew inspiration from earlier mystery series whose titles followed a pattern, including John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels. She also acknowledged the influence of Ross Macdonald and Marcia Muller, especially in developing a modern female hard-boiled investigator.

The novels were written between 1982 and 2017 but are set in the 1980s, with Kinsey’s cases unfolding in close chronological order. Grafton completed the series through Y Is for Yesterday, published in 2017. She did not write a Z novel before her death, and her family has said the unfinished letter would not be continued by another author.