Kinsey Millhone was everything I wanted to be: a crime-solving sleuth who had good friends, a running route on a beach, a tidy apartment, and an adorable car. She influenced me in ways she would never imagine, particularly since she was a fictional character and our worlds never intersected.
Of course, the credit here is all due to Sue Grafton, the mystery novelist who created the enduring character; the mystery novelist who died yesterday, so close to the end of 2017 that it’s probably too late for any end-of-the-year media memorials because, with two days still left in the year, all those stories were produced ten days earlier.
Here’s a brief list of things I loved and will continue to love about Kinsey and Sue:
The Decade: Kinsey Millhone investigated crimes in the 1980s. Maybe not everyone’s favorite decade, but for crime fighting, it was where she started – and where she stayed. An online world and cell phones didn’t get in the way of the action, nor did they provide easy answers for the seemingly easiest of questions (Google maps? Nope. Kinsey had a Thomas Guide in her trunk, quarters for a pay phone, and paper for taking notes.)
Her Decade: Kinsey was the 30-something PI who fueled my fantasies when I was younger, and then when I was older. I wanted (make that want) to be like her.
Her Car: Kinsey’s VW Bug was California beach cool perfection. You can’t have a car that classic in some place like, say, Seattle. I know this to be true because I tried, with a 1963 roll-top Beetle (think Herbie the Love Bug) that deserved a drier place and a better owner. If I were Kinsey, I could have pulled this off, maybe even in rain-soaked and rust-the-bottom-of-your-old-car Seattle.
Her Apartment: I may have drawn a floor plan or two of her apartment in the notebook I keep in my nightstand drawer (I have a thing for drawing floor plans). Kinsey’s garage apartment, both before and then after it was rebuilt post explosion, came to the forefront of my floor planning obsession recently when I briefly fantasized about building a backyard cottage (in my head: “And it will be just like Kinsey’s …”). I need to also mention and send a toast to Kinsey’s landlord/friend, Henry Pitts. This is who we all want to have next door – an 80-something retired baker. Who is your friend, with just the right amount of distance. And he bakes.
Her Town: I’ve been to Santa Barbara only three or four times, but I like to think I appreciated it even more because each time was soon after…
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