"A" Is for Alibi

1982 novel by Sue Grafton March 2025 "A" Is for Alibi Image:A is for Alibi.jpg A book cover with a glass, playing cards, pills and a red phone. First edition cover Sue Grafton United States English Alphabet Mysteries Mystery Henry Holt and Company April 15, 1982 Print Hardcover 274 first edition 978-0-8050-1334-4 7835758 "B" Is for Burglar "A" Is for Alibi is the first mystery novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series, and was published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston in 1982. Featuring sleuth Kinsey Millhone, it is set in the southern California city of Santa Teresa, a stand-in Santa Barbara. She wrote the book during a divorce and admits about her husband that she "would lie in bed at night thinking of ways to kill him". The New York Times gave the book a mediocre review. Plot summary Kinsey Millhone, a private detective, investigates the death of a prominent divorce lawyer Laurence Fife. His murder eight years earlier was blamed on his wife, Nikki Fife. Upon being released from prison, Nikki hires Kinsey to find the real murderer. In the course of the investigation, Kinsey becomes involved with Charlie Scorsoni, the late Mr. Fife's former law partner. She discovers Fife's death has been linked to a woman in Los Angeles, his law firm's accountant. Both died after taking poisonous oleander capsules, which had been substituted for allergy pills. Kinsey tracks down the accountant's parents and former boyfriend. She then goes to Las Vegas to interview Fife's former secretary, Sharon Napier, who is killed minutes before Kinsey arrives. Back in California, Kinsey is mystified that Nikki's son, Colin, recognizes Laurence's first wife, Gwen, in a photograph. Kinsey determines that Gwen was having an affair with her ex-husband at the time of his death. She accuses Gwen, who confesses. Shortly afterwards, she too is dead, killed in a hit-and-run crash. Kinsey has solved the case she was hired to investigate; but in a plot twist, she discovers that her previous notions about the accountant's death were entirely wrong: in fact, it was Scorsoni who killed her when she discovered he was skimming dividend money from estate accounts under his management. Scorsoni used the same method that Gwen used to kill Fife, so it would be assumed the same person committed both murders. In a final confrontation, he chases Kinsey across the beach, armed with a knife. Kinsey hides in the shore line, and she is forced to remove her shoes and pants. Before Scorsoni can kill her, she shoots him dead. A secondary storyline involves Millhone's surveillance of Marcia Threadgill, suspected of insurance fraud in a trip-and-fall case. Although Millhone believes she has successfully documented Threadgill's deception, the insurance firm that contracted Millhone to investigate Threadgill moves to pay her claim anyway, citing potential legal costs and complications, including the risk of reprisal. Publication history The first printing of "A" Is for Alibi was 7,500 copies,Steve Paul The Kansas City Star 'N Is for Novelist,' not mystery writer; Sue Grafton has arrived, thanks to Kinsey Millhone May 11, 1992 D1 with initial sales of about 6,000. Critical analysis Grafton openly admitted that she conceived the story from her own "fantasies" of murdering her husband while going through a divorce.Barney Brantingham Santa Barbara Independent W Is for Writers Conference; Sue Grafton Is Kinsey Millhone http://www.independent.com/news/2008/jul/01/w-writers-conference/ July 1, 2008 August 2, 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20120918120451/http://www.independent.com/news/2008/jul/01/w-writers-conference/ September 18, 2012 dead mdy-all The novel's style is typical hardboiled detective fiction, according to the authors of 'G' is for Grafton, who describe it as "laconic, breezy, wise-cracking".Kaufman (1997), 385 Grafton frames the narrative as a report Kinsey Millhone writes during the course of her investigation, written in the first-person narrative.Kaufman (1997), 386 "A" is for Alibi is dedicated to author Chip Grafton, Sue Grafton's father, "who set me on this path".Sue Grafton "A" is for Alibi 1982 5 9781410406811 Thorndike Press Large Print Famous Authors, 2008, in arrangement with Henry Holt & Company Chip Grafton was a municipal bond attorney in Kentucky who pursued a secondary career as a crime novelist, winning minor acclaim for four novels. He died on January 31, 1982 at age 72, four months before 'A' is for Alibi was published. Reviews Writing when the book was released, Kirkus Reviews said this was a "shakily plotted but otherwise terrific start for a new detective series".https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sue-grafton/a-is-for-alibi/ Review: 'A' IS FOR ALIBI Kirkus Reviews September 24, 2011 April 1, 1982 January 10, 2018 The reviewer looked forward to the rest of the Alphabet Series, "fine dialogue, a great eye for people and places", if the author can tighten up her plots. Looking back at the series soon after the author's death, Library Journal Reviews remarked on the slow build up to successful reviews, including a quote from its own review: "Critic Sarah Weinman notes that pseudonymous New York Times critic Newgate Callendar dismissed A Is for Alibi as 'competent enough, but not particularly original.'" Alas, LJ's reviewer was equally unenthusiastic in an April 1, 1982, review, waving the book aside as "nothing to take it out of the ordinary."http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2018/01/in-the-bookroom/authors/from-a-to-y-sue-grafton-remembered/ From A to Y: Sue Grafton Remembered January 5, 2018 January 10, 2018 Library Journal Reviews Williams Wilda https://web.archive.org/web/20180111075133/http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2018/01/in-the-bookroom/authors/from-a-to-y-sue-grafton-remembered/ January 11, 2018 dead Library Journal 'A' Is for Alibi April 1, 1982 107 7 747 Before those less enthusiastic words, they had said, "The female detective is well drawn and the plot moves at a fast clip". References Sources Natalie Hevener Kaufman Carol McGinnis Kay "G" Is for Grafton: The World of Kinsey Millhone Henry Holt and Company 0-8050-5446-4 Hardcover 1997 registration https://archive.org/details/gisforgraftonwor00kauf Further reading January 3, 2018 Sue Grafton Obituary https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/03/sue-grafton-obituary The Guardian January 16, 2018 Genzlinger Neil Sue Grafton, Whose Detective Novels Spanned the Alphabet, Dies at 77 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/obituaries/sue-grafton-dies-best-selling-mystery-author.html The New York Times December 30, 2017 December 29, 2017 External links Sue Grafton Alphabet Series official site Category:1982 American novels Category:1982 English-language novels Category:American mystery novels Category:Articles with quotation marks in the title Category:Kinsey Millhone novels Category:Henry Holt and Company books Category:Mystery novels set in California Category:1980s mystery novels