Sun 2 Jan 2011
A Review by Tina Karelson: SUE GRAFTON – “A” Is for Alibi.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[23] Comments
SUE GRAFTON – “A” is for Alibi. Holt Rinehart & Winston, hardcover, April 1982. Bantam, paperback, 1982. Reprinted many times, in both hardcover and soft.
A classic, of course, but I hadn’t read it until now. It far outclasses the other two or three I’ve sampled in the series.
Alibi takes every hardboiled device and turns it inside out with a female protagonist. Sleeping with a sexy suspect? Check. Obsession with some kind of justice? Check.
Facing down sexy suspect, with no qualms? Check. But it’s not Sam Spade, it’s Kinsey Milhone. And that forces the reader to think about gender and genre expectations.
It’s not just the concept that’s excellent; craft is necessary for the concept to succeed. Here’s a nice passage from page 150 of the Bantam paperback (an edition riddled with typos):
While the 1980s time frame feels historic now, the story feels freshly told. And that’s what defines a classic.
January 2nd, 2011 at 7:50 pm
The most recent book in the series is U IS FOR UNDERTOW, out in paperback late in 2010. I do not believe that “V” has been announced yet, but one online site has said that Sue Grafton plans to finish the series in 2015.
There were only 7500 copies of the hardcover first edition printed, and I have one. Wrapped in plastic but not in a safety deposit box.
Like Tina had not until now, I’ve never read ALIBI. I’ve gone through the series hit or miss, and while I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read, perhaps I’ve been wrong in not starting with the first one and reading them straight through.
Of course, over the years I’ve been wrong about a lot of things, and I bet you have too.
January 2nd, 2011 at 7:52 pm
Browsing through the Internet, I see that #26 is definitely going to be called “Z” IS FOR ZERO.
I suppose the obvious title for V is VICTIM. I hope it’s not VAMPIRE instead.
January 2nd, 2011 at 8:20 pm
I’m kind of rooting for V IS FOR VAGRANCY…
Murder in a homeless encampment.
January 3rd, 2011 at 7:49 am
The X and Z books should be interesting.
X is for Xylophone?
Just imagine thirty years of Philo Vance murder cases.
January 3rd, 2011 at 9:32 am
I quit this series after “M” – but then, I hadn’t been enjoying the last few I’d read. Her whole (it seemed to me) out of proportion reaction at discovering she had a family after all (after all, she’s not a child anymore, she just acts like one) and her increasingly creepy attachment to her 90+ year old landlord just turned me off.
But maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, I’ve never been tempted to go back and see what Kinsey is up to these days. I just don’t care.
January 3rd, 2011 at 9:42 am
I have to admit that I had the same reaction as Jeff(comment #5). At first I bought and read every novel in the series but then I became jaded and tired with Kinsey. As with so many long running series the main character starts to annoy me and I get exasperated with the plots and characters.
January 3rd, 2011 at 10:30 am
She should’ve stopped after E IS FOR ENOUGH ALREADY.
January 3rd, 2011 at 12:12 pm
There’s a doctoral dissertation in here somewhere. Why is it that mystery fans seem to tire of a long-running series much faster than the general public does?
UNDERTOW came out in November in paperback, and its Amazon sales ranking is #1,155 in books, with a 4 Star ranking out of 5, with almost half of the reviewers giving it 5 stars.
These are really excellent numbers.
I’m not immune, by the way. As I said earlier, I’m only gone hit or miss through the series. I buy them all, but I never seem to get around to reading them.
January 3rd, 2011 at 12:57 pm
Excellent book. Read it back in the 80’s.
Did anyone ever see the movie version?
January 3rd, 2011 at 1:32 pm
Tim
There’s been no movie of ALIBI that I know of. Could you be thinking of the V. I. Warshawsky movie, with Kathleen Turner?
According to IMDB, there have been two movies made of the Milhone series, both Japanese:
1. Wangan ni kieta onna (1989) (TV) (novel “D Is for Deadbeat”)
2. Kako kara no koe (1988) (TV) (novel “B Is for Burglar”)
January 3rd, 2011 at 4:43 pm
One series that overstayed its welcome with just about everyone was the Lilian Jackson Braun “Cat” series. Check out the reviews of the last few on amazon, where even the long-time fans, who had a lot emotionally invested series apparently, were bailing.
January 4th, 2011 at 7:59 am
The Warshawski movie was surely the low point of Kathleen Turner’s career. It was just awful.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:19 am
Yes. It was the Kathleen Turner movie I was thinking about. Not all that good, but she’s managed to appear in much worse.
January 4th, 2011 at 1:13 pm
I think it was the beginning of the end of Kathleen Turner’s career! Did she ever do anything good after that? I saw Body Heat when I was fifteen: va-va-voom!
January 4th, 2011 at 3:45 pm
It is starting to sound as though I’m the only one in the world who enjoyed V. I. WARSHAWKI, the movie. I thought Kathleen Turner was perfect for the role (Paretsky reportedly agreed with me on this) and I only wish that the film had been done well enough that more of them had been made. I suspect the budget was awfully small. I agree with you, Curt, that it was no BODY HEAT, but then again, so few movies are.
— Steve
January 4th, 2011 at 4:45 pm
V is for Vaporize
W is for Weary
X is for X-hausting
Y is for Yawn
Z is for Zzzzz
In honor of Sue Grafton’s silly alphabetic title sequence my partner and I have created a ranking system for the numerous book sales we attend. We are always making snide jokes about the quality of the books by me saying something like “This is beginning to look like D is for Dreadful” And he retorts: “More like S is for $%&*” Never read any of the series. Although we do have perhaps the world’s most ridiculous collection of her books. Multiple copies of every single title. Don’t ask!
John
January 4th, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Re Grafton’s titles, I think we’ve all been there and done that. They’re easy to make fun of, but from a marketing point of view, sheer genius!
And I certainly hope she makes it all the way to the end. I can’t think of another sequential list of mystery titles that’s gone on as long as hers has.
Contenders lost in the dust include:
M. J. ADAMSON
* Not Till a Hot January
* A February Face
* Remember March
* April When They Woo
* May’s New Fangled Mirth
and
NEIL ALBERT
* The January Corpse
* The February Trouble
* Burning March
* Cruel April
* Appointment in May
* Tangled June
but creeping up quickly are the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich:
1. One for the Money (1994)
2. Two for the Dough (1995)
3. Three to Get Deadly (1997)
4. Four to Score (1998)
5. High Five (1999)
6. Hot Six (2000)
7. Seven Up (2001)
8. Hard Eight (2002)
9. To the Nines (2003)
10. Ten Big Ones (2004)
11. Eleven on Top (2005)
12. Twelve Sharp (2006)
13. Lean Mean Thirteen (2007)
14. Fearless Fourteen (2008)
15. Finger Lickin’ Fifteen (2009)
16. Sizzling Sixteen (2010)
17. Smokin’ Seventeen (2011)
Having not read any of these, I shouldn’t comment, so I won’t, but having read a lot about them, let me ask: Are these the literary equivalent of comfort food?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_food
January 4th, 2011 at 10:26 pm
Grafton’s titles are a little more creative than Erle Stanley Gardner’s “The Case of….” books.
Then there are those cozies set in Wales, with the detective named Evans, that all use “Evans” in the title in a cute way (e.g., Evans Above).
I give John Street credit for avoiding the title crutch while publishing over 140 crime novels (though admittedly some of the titles are quite dull).
You could string some of them together sequentially, however, to start a fake series:
Death of a Godmother
Death of Two Brothers
Three Cousins Die
Unfortunately there’s no Murder of My Four Aunts.
January 5th, 2011 at 10:38 am
Francis Beeding did a number title series but did it in descending order which often bamboozles less than careful bibliographers (like Vincent Starrett who once listed them from one to seven as what he thought was the proper sequence).
The Seven Sleepers (1925)
The Six Proud Walkers (1928)
The Five Flamboys (1929)
The Four Armourors (1930)
The Three Fishers (1931)
The Two Undertakers (1933)
The One Sane Man (1934)
Then to further confuse bibliographers the two writers resumed the series in proper numerical order taking up where they left off. Or, rather, where they started:
The Eight Crooked Trenches (1936)
The Nine Waxed Faces(1936)
The Ten Holy Horrors(1939)
Eleven Were Brave (1940)
The Twelve Disguises (1942)
There are Thirteen (1946)
January 7th, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Grafton has a huge following who will read the series right to the end. But at the pace she’s publishing them in the last decade, you have to wonder if she’s going to run out of time…
January 7th, 2011 at 5:04 pm
I’ve been reading Parker’s Sunny Randall series again, and enjoying it more, so it may be time to give A a try.
May 22nd, 2012 at 5:46 pm
MARTIN CLUNES APPEARED IN A MOVIE CALLED A IS FOR ALIBI. I DO NOT KNOW IS THIS WAS THE SUE GRAFTON STORY.
May 22nd, 2012 at 8:48 pm
Joan
Clunes was in a made for British TV movie called A IS FOR ACID. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327392/
Is this the one you’re thinking of?
— Steve