2014 USA Fiction Challange: California

The next entry in the 2014 USA Fiction Challenge is the state of California. Since California is the United States' most populous state, one would expect loads of settings in the literary world. I can do this challenge one of a few different ways. My favorite author (Carter Brown) spotlights four of his characters in California:  Al Wheeler works out of the fictional city of Pine City. Randall Roberts worked out of San Fransisco, Rick Holman out of Hollywood, and Mavis Seidlitz out of Los Angeles. His other character, Danny Boyd made two appearances.  There is one series that I enjoyed that was set in another fictional city on California, the Kinsey Milhone series, set in Santa Teresa. Kinsey is the fiction character in Grafton's alphabet series. From A is For Alibi (1982) to W is For Wasted (2013).  

A little info on Kinsey. Her parents were killed in a car accident when she was 5. Her name is taken after the maiden name of her mother and her father's last name. In high school Kinsey was a  pot-smoking delinquent. After high school she went to a the local community college where she spent three semesters until she realized that academic life was not for her and joined the Santa Teresa police force. Two years later she decided life in uniform was not cut out for her and quit the police force to become an investigator for California Fidelity, the insurance company where her aunt had worked. The series starts off where Kinsey is 32 years old and by V is For Vengeance she is 38 years of age.  

The Novels

  

1. "A" Is for Alibi (1982) 
2. "B" Is for Burglar (1985)
3. "C" Is for Corpse (1986)
4. "D" Is for Deadbeat (1987)
5. "E" Is for Evidence (1988)
6. "F" Is for Fugitive (1989)
7. "G" Is for Gumshoe (1990)
8. "H" Is for Homicide (1991)
9. "I" Is for Innocent (1992)
10. "J" Is for Judgment (1993)
11. "K" Is for Killer (1994)
12. "L" Is for Lawless (1995)
13. "M" Is for Malice (1996)
14. "N" Is for Noose (1998)
15. "O" Is for Outlaw (1999)
16. "P" Is for Peril (2001)
17. "Q" Is for Quarry (2002)
18. "R" Is for Ricochet (2004)
19. "S" Is for Silence (2005)
20. "T" Is for Trespass (2007)
21. "U" Is for Undertow (2009)
22. "V" Is for Vengeance (2011)
23. "W" Is for Wasted (2013)

 Series Written by 

Sue Grafton (1940- )

Crime Fiction Alphabet: Letter O

We are rambling along in the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme, this week the Letter O is featured. Kerrie over at Mysteries in Paradise is keeping us in line.

"O" Is for Outlaw is the fifteenth novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels which features  Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California. The novel’s plot has its roots in the Vietnam War, and features information about Kinsey’s previously unnamed first husband, Mickey, and their brief marriage 14 years before, although there is no interaction between them in the present because Mickey is in a coma throughout the novel's action.

 Once Mickey Magruder was a cop with a wild streak. And Kinsey Millhone was a younger cop who adored and married him. Then Mickey was implicated in a fatal beating, and Kinsey walked out. Now, fourteen years later, she comes face-to-face with those tragic years and Mickey's harrowing downward spiral after he lost the job he loved--and the marriage he loved a little less.

 

For Mickey lies dying in an L.A. hospital. Trying to find out how Mickey got there, Kinsey uncovers evidence that he was innocent of the beating charge. But as she searches through the lives that swirled around Mickey's lives gone wrong and lives gone well, Kinsey must also search the blind spots of her own life, including one that hides a killer.

Printing History

Written by Sue Grafton

Henry Holt and Co.

1st edition (October 12, 1999)

Ballantine Books

January 2001