of mystery novelist C. W. Grafton, Sue Taylor Grafton (1940–2017) unsurprisingly became a detective novelist as well. She had two major inspirations: Ross Macdonald, the writer she admired more than any other, and her ex-husband, with whom she engaged in a bitter divorce and child custody battle that lasted six years. As the ugly war proceeded, she kept thinking of new ways to kill him and finally put them down on paper, unplanned research for future novels.
After graduating from the University of Louisville, the city in which she was born and raised, Grafton took jobs as a hospital admissions clerk, cashier, and medical secretary before turning to writing. After producing seven novels (only two of which were published) and screenplays for television, either on her own or with her future husband, Steven Humphrey, she began the work that made her an international bestseller: the “alphabet novels” featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone, each book beginning with a letter of the alphabet in sequential order. The novels, beginning with “A” Is for Alibi (1982), were one of the major contributing elements of the boom of female writers producing tougher, more hard-boiled detective fiction that began in the 1980s.
Although Grafton has described her series character as “a younger, smarter, and thinner” version of herself, that is not entirely accurate. While Millhone is a loner who prefers not to have intense relationships, the relentlessly charming Grafton was married to Humphrey for nearly forty years. The series is set in Santa Teresa (a fictionalized Santa Barbara) as an homage to Macdonald, whose Lew Archer novels were also set there.
One of the most honored authors of her time, Grafton was given lifetime achievement awards by the Mystery Writers of America, the (British) Crime Writers’ Association, the Private Eye Writers of America, and Malice Domestic.
“A Poison That Leaves No Trace” was originally published in Sisters in Crime 2, edited by Marilyn Wallace (New York, Berkley, 1990); it was first collected in Kinsey and Me (Santa Barbara, California, Bench Press, 1991).