Kinsey and Me

This book collects a number of short stories by Sue Grafton; the first half of the book is devoted to Kinsey Millhone stories, followed by a number of more personal stories that Grafton wrote to deal with her own reaction to her mother's suicide (that would be the "and me" section). Separating the two is an essay on the nature of the hard boiled private investigator.

It's oddly disassociative to read the whole book; the two halves don't seem to go together. The Kinsey stories are little gems, and would make great episodes for a TV series; reading them made my husband regret that he'd once heard Grafton describe the measures she's taken to ensure that Kinsey never ever appears on screen. The "and me" stories are more like reflective vignettes, beautifully written but largely plotless and much darker in tone; and that's saying something when you consider I'm comparing them to hard-boiled detective stories where people are pushed off roofs and shot on the freeway.

I enjoyed the book; I'm just not sure what to make of the second part of it.