Below is the complete list of Sue Grafton books in order. For each series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Kinsey Millhone Books
Publication Order of Kinsey Millhone Collections Books
Publication Order of Standalone Books
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas Books
- Between the Sheets (1986)
Published in 1986, Between the Sheets is listed as book #2 in the Short Stories/Novellas series. 
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
About Sue Grafton
Sue Grafton was an American crime novelist best known for creating private investigator Kinsey Millhone and the long-running Alphabet series. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1940, Grafton grew up with an early connection to detective fiction: her father, C. W. Grafton, was a lawyer who also published mystery novels. She studied English literature at the University of Louisville, graduating in 1961, and began writing seriously while still young.
Her first published novels, Keziah Dane and The Lolly-Madonna War, appeared in the 1960s. Neither established the career she wanted, and Grafton eventually shifted toward screenwriting. For roughly fifteen years, she worked on television films and adaptations, learning the practical disciplines of dialogue, pacing, scene construction, and narrative economy. She later regarded that period as valuable training, although the collaborative demands of screen production strengthened her preference for the independence of writing novels.
Grafton returned decisively to crime fiction with “A” Is for Alibi in 1982. The novel introduced Kinsey Millhone, a twice-divorced former police officer working as a private investigator in the fictional California city of Santa Teresa. The setting drew heavily on Santa Barbara while also acknowledging the Santa Teresa created by Ross Macdonald, one of Grafton’s strongest literary influences. Kinsey’s independence, dry humor, physical resilience, and resistance to conventional domestic expectations made her a distinctive presence in a field historically dominated by male detectives.
The alphabetical titles gave the series an immediately recognizable structure, but its longevity depended on more than the naming device. Grafton combined hardboiled investigation with careful attention to character, routine, landscape, and the practical labor of detective work. Kinsey follows paper trails, interviews reluctant witnesses, checks public records, drives long distances, and repeatedly revises her understanding of a case. The novels are told largely through her first-person reports, giving the series a direct, observant voice that can be funny, skeptical, and morally serious without turning Kinsey into an invulnerable action hero.
Rather than allowing the books to advance in step with their publication dates, Grafton kept Kinsey’s world largely within the 1980s. This preserved the investigative conditions on which the series had been built, before mobile phones, internet searches, and digital databases transformed private detection. It also allowed Kinsey to age gradually while her relationships, personal history, and knowledge of Santa Teresa accumulated across the novels.
Grafton completed twenty-five Alphabet mysteries, progressing from “A” Is for Alibi to “Y” Is for Yesterday. The sequence ended unfinished when she died in Santa Barbara in December 2017 at the age of seventy-seven. Her family made clear that no other writer would complete “Z”, leaving the series permanently associated with Grafton’s own voice and control. Beyond the main novels, Kinsey and Me combines short Kinsey Millhone cases with more personal stories featuring the autobiographically inflected character Kit Blue.
Her contribution to crime fiction was recognized with major honors, including designation as a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America and lifetime achievement awards from several mystery organizations. Grafton’s bibliography is dominated by one central creation, yet its range lies in the many kinds of crimes, families, communities, and moral compromises Kinsey encounters. Across more than three decades, Grafton demonstrated how a consistent detective, setting, and narrative voice could support continual reinvention without losing the identity that made the series enduring.