WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.279 Okay, let's get into it. So I want you to picture 00:00:02.279 --> 00:00:05.519 this. It's 1982. You walk into a bookstore, one 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:08.279 of those old B. Dalton or Walden Books places. 00:00:08.599 --> 00:00:11.220 Oh, I remember those. The smell of paper. Exactly. 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:13.359 And you're in the mystery section. You see all 00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:15.859 the usual stuff, you know, the hard -boiled guys 00:00:15.859 --> 00:00:17.899 in trench coats on the covers, Agatha Christie 00:00:17.899 --> 00:00:20.519 reprints. But then you see this one hardcover, 00:00:20.679 --> 00:00:25.120 and the title is just, it's stark, it's simple, 00:00:25.260 --> 00:00:29.410 and it's so ambitious. A is for alibi. And you're 00:00:29.410 --> 00:00:30.789 just standing there. You have no idea what you're 00:00:30.789 --> 00:00:32.689 looking at. None. You don't know that you're 00:00:32.689 --> 00:00:35.189 looking at the first brick in a literary monument 00:00:35.189 --> 00:00:38.149 that is going to take decades to build. A monument 00:00:38.149 --> 00:00:40.649 built on, well, a foundation of rage, a lot of 00:00:40.649 --> 00:00:42.890 poison, and a very specific kind of California 00:00:42.890 --> 00:00:45.429 sunshine. It really is a landmark. It is. You 00:00:45.429 --> 00:00:47.969 know, when we look at mystery novels today, we 00:00:47.969 --> 00:00:49.729 totally take for granted that there are these 00:00:49.729 --> 00:00:52.890 confident, complex female detectives. They're 00:00:52.890 --> 00:00:55.289 everywhere. It's a staple of the genre now. 100%. 00:00:55.289 --> 00:00:58.850 But back in 1982... uh that landscape looked 00:00:58.850 --> 00:01:01.310 very very different this book it didn't just 00:01:01.310 --> 00:01:03.549 kick off a series it introduced us to kinsey 00:01:03.549 --> 00:01:07.790 milhone a character who i think really did redefine 00:01:07.790 --> 00:01:10.349 the female detective trope oh she absolutely 00:01:10.349 --> 00:01:13.469 did and honestly just the title itself starting 00:01:13.469 --> 00:01:16.569 with a it implies this promise doesn't it it's 00:01:16.569 --> 00:01:18.769 just audacious it's so audacious it's saying 00:01:18.769 --> 00:01:21.659 hey I'm not just writing one book. I'm starting 00:01:21.659 --> 00:01:23.340 a project that's going to take me the rest of 00:01:23.340 --> 00:01:26.019 my life. It is. It's a huge commitment right 00:01:26.019 --> 00:01:28.840 out of the gate. It suggests an order, a sequence. 00:01:29.299 --> 00:01:31.219 It's telling the reader, stick with me. We've 00:01:31.219 --> 00:01:34.159 got a long, long way to go. And, you know, tragically, 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:36.099 she did. She got all the way to Y before she 00:01:36.099 --> 00:01:38.640 passed away. Yeah. But today we're going all 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:39.879 the way back to the beginning. We're going to 00:01:39.879 --> 00:01:42.640 look at A. The first step. So our mission for 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:44.859 this deep dive is to unpack everything about 00:01:44.859 --> 00:01:47.400 this debut. We've got our sources and we're mainly 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:50.760 leaning on the comprehensive Wikipedia entry 00:01:50.760 --> 00:01:53.260 for the novel. It gives us the plot, the publication 00:01:53.260 --> 00:01:55.439 history, all the critical analysis. It's a map 00:01:55.439 --> 00:01:58.379 for our journey. Yeah. But we're going to go 00:01:58.379 --> 00:02:00.420 deeper than just a summary. We're going to explore 00:02:00.420 --> 00:02:03.379 the really intricate and frankly kind of messy 00:02:03.379 --> 00:02:06.140 plot. We'll look at the critical reception, which, 00:02:06.219 --> 00:02:09.159 spoiler alert, wasn't exactly a standing ovation 00:02:09.159 --> 00:02:11.520 at first. Which is so fascinating to look back 00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:13.919 on now, isn't it? Considering the legacy. It's 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:17.439 wild. And maybe the most interesting part, we're 00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:19.979 going to dig into the surprisingly dark origin 00:02:19.979 --> 00:02:23.099 story of this book. Because, and I didn't know 00:02:23.099 --> 00:02:25.560 this until I started prepping. This book wasn't 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:27.580 just born out of wanting to write a good mystery. 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:30.539 It was born out of pure rage. That's a very polite 00:02:30.539 --> 00:02:32.300 way to put it. It was born out of a specific, 00:02:32.460 --> 00:02:36.770 very targeted visceral anger. OK, so let's just 00:02:36.770 --> 00:02:39.250 dive right into that. The origin story, I guess 00:02:39.250 --> 00:02:41.810 you could call it A is for anger. Oh, A is definitely 00:02:41.810 --> 00:02:44.349 for anger in this case. So the source material 00:02:44.349 --> 00:02:46.229 points out this really crucial piece of context. 00:02:46.310 --> 00:02:48.750 When Sue Grafton was writing A is for alibi, 00:02:48.810 --> 00:02:51.370 she wasn't, you know, sitting in some cozy cottage, 00:02:51.449 --> 00:02:53.830 sipping tea and dreaming up puzzles. She was 00:02:53.830 --> 00:02:56.270 going through a divorce. And it was not an amicable 00:02:56.270 --> 00:02:58.770 let's stay friends kind of divorce. It was a 00:02:58.770 --> 00:03:01.770 six year custody battle. I mean, it was a war. 00:03:01.990 --> 00:03:05.900 The quote in the source is. It's just incredible. 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:08.759 She admitted that she would, and I'm quoting 00:03:08.759 --> 00:03:11.539 here, lie in bed at night thinking of ways to 00:03:11.539 --> 00:03:15.900 kill him, her husband. That is intense. It's 00:03:15.900 --> 00:03:18.180 so visceral. Right. But think about the psychology 00:03:18.180 --> 00:03:20.819 of that. You're feeling powerless. You're in 00:03:20.819 --> 00:03:23.300 this legal system that's just grinding you down. 00:03:23.460 --> 00:03:26.759 You are so angry, but you're a civilized person, 00:03:26.860 --> 00:03:30.039 so you can't act on that anger in the real world. 00:03:30.060 --> 00:03:32.039 So what do you do? You write a book where someone 00:03:32.039 --> 00:03:35.560 gets away with it. Or at least tries to. Exactly. 00:03:35.780 --> 00:03:38.479 It's a classic case of sublimation. You take 00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:41.060 this intense real -world emotion, this rage, 00:03:41.099 --> 00:03:42.919 and you channel it. You pour it into fiction. 00:03:43.300 --> 00:03:45.340 She was very open about the fact that the story 00:03:45.340 --> 00:03:47.419 came directly from these fantasies. So instead 00:03:47.419 --> 00:03:49.360 of actually committing a crime, she created this 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:51.819 whole universe where she could solve them. Or, 00:03:51.900 --> 00:03:53.939 in a way, commit them on paper and get away with 00:03:53.939 --> 00:03:56.120 it. It gives a whole new meaning to that old 00:03:56.120 --> 00:03:58.639 advice, write what you know. She knew exactly 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:01.080 what it felt like to want someone dead. And it 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:04.300 adds this layer of grit to the story that just 00:04:04.300 --> 00:04:08.280 feels so authentic. When Kinsey Mahone, the main 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:10.960 character, is talking about cynical relationships 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:13.400 or the dark side of people, the messiness of 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:16.959 divorce, that's not just a writer trying to sound 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:20.240 noir. That's Sue Grafton processing her own reality. 00:04:20.579 --> 00:04:23.180 It's basically therapy, but with a page count. 00:04:23.420 --> 00:04:26.100 So there's this shadow of the ex -husband, but 00:04:26.100 --> 00:04:29.379 there's another man. who had a massive influence 00:04:29.379 --> 00:04:32.000 on this book but in a totally different way we 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:34.180 have to talk about her father chip grafton yeah 00:04:34.180 --> 00:04:35.959 and this is the really heartbreaking part of 00:04:35.959 --> 00:04:39.279 the whole origin story if the ex -husband provided 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:42.949 the let's say the fuel for the plot Her father 00:04:42.949 --> 00:04:45.370 provided the map for the career. The book is 00:04:45.370 --> 00:04:47.490 dedicated to him. It is. The dedication says, 00:04:47.610 --> 00:04:49.930 who set me on this path? And he wasn't just, 00:04:49.930 --> 00:04:51.589 you know, a dad who happened to like books. He 00:04:51.589 --> 00:04:53.250 was in the game himself, right? Oh, yeah, he 00:04:53.250 --> 00:04:56.110 was in it. Chip Grafton was a municipal bond 00:04:56.110 --> 00:04:58.410 attorney in Kentucky during the day, which sounds 00:04:58.410 --> 00:05:01.250 incredibly dry. Very dry. But by night, he was 00:05:01.250 --> 00:05:04.250 a crime novelist. He had a whole secondary career 00:05:04.250 --> 00:05:07.250 writing mysteries. And he actually won some minor 00:05:07.250 --> 00:05:10.689 acclaim for four novels he wrote. So Sue Grafton 00:05:10.689 --> 00:05:13.439 grew up watching. this happen she saw the craft 00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:15.639 of mystery writing being practiced in her own 00:05:15.639 --> 00:05:18.579 home she saw that you could have a day job and 00:05:18.579 --> 00:05:21.180 still create these incredible worlds i mean talk 00:05:21.180 --> 00:05:23.500 about following in your father's footsteps it 00:05:23.500 --> 00:05:25.339 must have been such a huge way for them to connect 00:05:25.790 --> 00:05:28.089 Absolutely. But this is where the tragedy comes 00:05:28.089 --> 00:05:30.750 in. The source notes that Chick Grafton died 00:05:30.750 --> 00:05:35.029 on January 31st, 1982. He was 72. Okay, wait, 00:05:35.050 --> 00:05:36.709 let me check the timeline again. When was Is 00:05:36.709 --> 00:05:40.290 for Alibi published? April 15th, 1982. Oh, wow. 00:05:40.490 --> 00:05:42.750 That just hits you right in the chest. It does. 00:05:42.829 --> 00:05:45.129 Four months. He died just four months before 00:05:45.129 --> 00:05:47.129 his daughter's debut novel, the book that was 00:05:47.129 --> 00:05:49.610 going to turn their family name into this global 00:05:49.610 --> 00:05:52.769 brand. hit the shelves. That is just devastating. 00:05:53.009 --> 00:05:54.709 And he obviously knew she was writing it. He 00:05:54.709 --> 00:05:57.170 probably read drafts, but he never saw the finished 00:05:57.170 --> 00:05:59.149 book. He never held it. Never saw the reviews. 00:05:59.389 --> 00:06:01.629 Never saw the success. He never saw the phenomenon 00:06:01.629 --> 00:06:05.129 that it became. He never saw B or C or D. Never. 00:06:05.290 --> 00:06:07.829 And I think that adds such a poignancy to the 00:06:07.829 --> 00:06:10.649 book. You've got this rage from the divorce fueling 00:06:10.649 --> 00:06:13.230 the plot, but then you have this beautiful, sad 00:06:13.230 --> 00:06:16.250 tribute to a lost father fueling the actual career 00:06:16.250 --> 00:06:20.329 path. It's a very... A very heavy emotional cocktail 00:06:20.329 --> 00:06:22.709 for a debut novel. It is. It's not just some 00:06:22.709 --> 00:06:25.069 commercial product. It's this vessel for her 00:06:25.069 --> 00:06:27.509 grief and her anger. Knowing that completely 00:06:27.509 --> 00:06:29.589 reframes the experience of reading it. It makes 00:06:29.589 --> 00:06:33.009 the stakes feel so much higher. Okay, so let's 00:06:33.009 --> 00:06:35.209 shift from the author to the character she created. 00:06:35.269 --> 00:06:37.490 Let's talk about Kinsey Mellon. The icon herself. 00:06:37.730 --> 00:06:40.329 The icon. So the source describes her as a private 00:06:40.329 --> 00:06:43.459 detective. Independent. Tough. And the whole 00:06:43.459 --> 00:06:45.439 book is written as a first person report. It's 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:47.620 not some narrator looking down from above. It's 00:06:47.620 --> 00:06:51.800 Kinsey talking directly to us. Why is that choice 00:06:51.800 --> 00:06:54.899 that I voice so important here? That first person 00:06:54.899 --> 00:06:57.120 perspective is just, it's everything. It creates 00:06:57.120 --> 00:06:58.800 this immediate intimacy. We're not just watching 00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:00.899 Kinsey. We are Kinsey. We're seeing the world 00:07:00.899 --> 00:07:03.939 through her cynical, super observant eyes. The 00:07:03.939 --> 00:07:06.680 source references this critical work Jesus for 00:07:06.680 --> 00:07:09.139 Grafton, which describes her tone as laconic, 00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:13.139 breezy, wisecracking. Laconic and wisecracking. 00:07:13.629 --> 00:07:16.389 I love that combination. It sounds very Bogart, 00:07:16.470 --> 00:07:19.050 you know. But she's a woman in the 80s. It does. 00:07:19.250 --> 00:07:21.189 And we have to remember the context of the genre 00:07:21.189 --> 00:07:23.790 here. This is hard -boiled detective fiction. 00:07:24.089 --> 00:07:26.750 And historically, who lives in that genre? Champ 00:07:26.750 --> 00:07:29.250 Spade. Yeah. Philip Marlowe. You know, gritty 00:07:29.250 --> 00:07:31.189 guys in trench coats smoking, drinking whiskey. 00:07:31.370 --> 00:07:33.509 And there's always a dame who walks into the 00:07:33.509 --> 00:07:35.870 office and spells trouble. Exactly. It was a 00:07:35.870 --> 00:07:39.189 completely male -dominated space. Women in hard 00:07:39.189 --> 00:07:41.569 -boiled novels, they were usually either the 00:07:41.569 --> 00:07:44.300 damsels in distress or... the femme fatale. They 00:07:44.300 --> 00:07:46.319 were objects. They were objects, not agents. 00:07:46.360 --> 00:07:48.519 They were there to be saved or to be snuffed 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:51.560 with or to trick the hero. Kinsey Milhone just 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:53.899 walked right into that space and claimed it. 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:56.600 She wasn't a girl detective like Nancy Drew. 00:07:56.800 --> 00:07:59.100 She wasn't some teenager solving fun puzzles. 00:07:59.339 --> 00:08:01.560 And she wasn't a cozy amateur sleuth like Ms. 00:08:01.660 --> 00:08:04.180 Marple either. Not at all. No knitting and solving 00:08:04.180 --> 00:08:06.740 crimes in a cute little village. She was a professional. 00:08:06.740 --> 00:08:09.379 That's a huge distinction. She charged a daily 00:08:09.379 --> 00:08:12.300 rate. She actually worries about paying her bills. 00:08:12.579 --> 00:08:15.939 Right. She carried a gun. Her love life was a 00:08:15.939 --> 00:08:18.660 mess. She lived in a converted garage apartment. 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:21.199 She cut her own hair with nail scissors because 00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:23.339 she didn't want to waste money on a salon. I 00:08:23.339 --> 00:08:25.339 love that detail about the nail scissors. It 00:08:25.339 --> 00:08:27.459 tells you everything you need to know about her 00:08:27.459 --> 00:08:29.660 vanity or, you know, her lack of it. She's all 00:08:29.660 --> 00:08:32.259 about function. Exactly. She ate peanut butter 00:08:32.259 --> 00:08:35.759 and pickle sandwiches. She was just unapologetically 00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:38.779 pragmatic and that functionality was revolutionary. 00:08:38.860 --> 00:08:42.080 She wasn't trying to be... one of the boys, but 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:44.320 she wasn't performing femininity either. She 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:46.940 was just doing her job. Now, she does her job 00:08:46.940 --> 00:08:49.460 in a very specific place. The book is set in 00:08:49.460 --> 00:08:52.159 Santa Teresa. Which sounds lovely, right? A nice 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:55.559 place to retire. It does. But as our source points 00:08:55.559 --> 00:08:58.480 out, Santa Teresa is a fictional city in Southern 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:00.740 California. It's a stand -in for Santa Barbara. 00:09:00.860 --> 00:09:03.300 Which is where Sue Grafton actually lived. Exactly. 00:09:03.300 --> 00:09:05.740 And using a standard city like that, it's such 00:09:05.740 --> 00:09:08.000 a clever move. It lets you use the whole atmosphere 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:10.500 of a real place. You get the ocean, the wealth, 00:09:10.620 --> 00:09:13.279 that specific California vibe, the bog rolling 00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:15.340 in. But you can move streets around. You can 00:09:15.340 --> 00:09:17.740 invent buildings. Yeah. And most importantly. 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:21.200 You can fill it with a statistically improbable 00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:23.759 number of murders without the local tourism board 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:25.919 getting too upset with you. Come to Santa Barbara. 00:09:26.019 --> 00:09:28.460 Please ignore the ever -increasing murder rate. 00:09:28.620 --> 00:09:31.440 Exactly. It creates a whole universe. Santa Teresa 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:34.000 becomes a character in itself. It's sun -drenched, 00:09:34.100 --> 00:09:36.519 but there are these long, dark shadows. That's 00:09:36.519 --> 00:09:39.080 what people call sunshine noir. It's not the 00:09:39.080 --> 00:09:42.379 dark, rainy streets of London or the grimy alleys 00:09:42.379 --> 00:09:45.360 of New York. It's bright sunshine, blue ocean, 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:49.519 jogging trails. And poison. That contrast is 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:51.700 so effective. Evil doesn't just happen in the 00:09:51.700 --> 00:09:54.259 dark. It happens in these beautiful villas with 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:56.919 amazing ocean views. Right. So we have the detective. 00:09:57.039 --> 00:09:59.039 We have the setting. Now, let's get into the 00:09:59.039 --> 00:10:02.179 case itself. Because this plot, boy, does it 00:10:02.179 --> 00:10:04.740 have layers. It starts, as all good detective 00:10:04.740 --> 00:10:07.320 stories do, with a client. Enter Nikki Fyfe. 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:09.799 So Nikki Fyfe, she has just been released from 00:10:09.799 --> 00:10:12.019 prison. She served eight years. What was she 00:10:12.019 --> 00:10:14.679 in for? She was convicted of killing her husband, 00:10:14.899 --> 00:10:17.679 Lawrence Fyfe. And Lawrence was. Let me guess, 00:10:17.720 --> 00:10:19.980 not a great guy. Well, he was a prominent divorce 00:10:19.980 --> 00:10:23.980 lawyer. And in the world of noir, prominent divorce 00:10:23.980 --> 00:10:26.440 lawyer is basically shorthand for a guy with 00:10:26.440 --> 00:10:29.919 a lot of enemies. And let's not forget our origin 00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:33.500 story. The prominent divorce lawyer as the victim. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:36.559 I wonder where Grafton got that idea from. It's 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:39.460 not exactly subtle, is it? Not at all. It's the 00:10:39.460 --> 00:10:41.360 ex -husband avatar getting killed right there 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:43.940 on page one. It really is. So Nikki's out. She 00:10:43.940 --> 00:10:45.879 served her time, but she swears she didn't do 00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:48.919 it. She claims she was framed or just wrongly 00:10:48.919 --> 00:10:52.240 convicted. So she hires Kinsey to find the real 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:55.080 killer and finally clear her name. It's a classic 00:10:55.080 --> 00:10:58.059 cold case setup. The trail is eight years old. 00:10:58.159 --> 00:11:00.279 Which is a complete nightmare for a detective. 00:11:00.620 --> 00:11:02.659 I mean, physical evidence is gone. Witnesses 00:11:02.659 --> 00:11:05.139 have moved away or maybe they've died. Memories 00:11:05.139 --> 00:11:07.759 have faded or they've been rewritten by time. 00:11:08.059 --> 00:11:10.559 Kinsey is basically digging into ancient history. 00:11:10.740 --> 00:11:12.580 Let's talk about how Lawrence Fife died. Yeah. 00:11:13.100 --> 00:11:16.279 of murder is it's oddly specific it's not a gun 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:19.039 it's not a knife it is he was poisoned but not 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:21.059 with arsenic or cyanide you know the usual suspects 00:11:21.059 --> 00:11:24.019 he was killed using oleander oleander that's 00:11:24.019 --> 00:11:26.679 a flower right good plant yeah it's a very common 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:29.240 ornamental shrub especially in california you 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:31.559 see it growing everywhere along highways and 00:11:31.559 --> 00:11:34.279 in people's gardens it has these beautiful pink 00:11:34.279 --> 00:11:37.480 or white flowers but it's poisonous every single 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:40.240 part of the plant is highly toxic so someone 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:42.820 didn't just go out and buy poison they made it 00:11:43.070 --> 00:11:46.029 That's the implication. The killer took these 00:11:46.029 --> 00:11:48.950 poisonous oleander capsules and substituted them 00:11:48.950 --> 00:11:51.570 for his allergy pills. So it wasn't just, you 00:11:51.570 --> 00:11:53.750 know, poison in the soup. It was a capsule swap. 00:11:53.990 --> 00:11:57.370 That is incredibly intimate. It is. Just think 00:11:57.370 --> 00:11:59.129 about what that requires. You have to be able 00:11:59.129 --> 00:12:01.450 to get into their private bathroom. You have 00:12:01.450 --> 00:12:03.610 to open their medicine cabinet. You have to handle 00:12:03.610 --> 00:12:06.610 their pill bottle. You have to prepare the capsules 00:12:06.610 --> 00:12:08.929 so they look exactly like the real medication. 00:12:09.389 --> 00:12:11.590 It suggests someone who lives with him. Or at 00:12:11.590 --> 00:12:13.889 least someone who had unrestricted access to 00:12:13.889 --> 00:12:16.370 his most private spaces. Which is why the wife, 00:12:16.529 --> 00:12:19.269 Nikki, was the perfect suspect. The police looked 00:12:19.269 --> 00:12:21.590 at that level of intimacy and just said, it has 00:12:21.590 --> 00:12:25.129 to be her. It makes sense. So Kinsey takes the 00:12:25.129 --> 00:12:28.129 job. She starts poking around the ashes of this 00:12:28.129 --> 00:12:30.629 eight -year -old fire. And pretty quickly, she 00:12:30.629 --> 00:12:33.250 runs into a man named Charlie Scorsone. Who is 00:12:33.250 --> 00:12:36.240 he? Charlie Scorsone was Lawrence Fife's former 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:39.039 law partner. Okay, so he's successful. He's connected 00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:41.840 to the victim. And Kinsey, being the ultimate 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:44.419 professional, she maintains a strict professional 00:12:44.419 --> 00:12:48.460 distance from him, right? Oh, not exactly. This 00:12:48.460 --> 00:12:51.379 is where Kinsey reveals she's flawed. She gets... 00:12:51.629 --> 00:12:55.169 involved with Charlie. Involved. A romantic entanglement. 00:12:55.269 --> 00:12:57.970 They start sleeping together, which, again, is 00:12:57.970 --> 00:13:00.409 a staple of the hard -boiled genre. The detective 00:13:00.409 --> 00:13:02.649 getting too close to the case. Right, but usually 00:13:02.649 --> 00:13:04.470 it's the male detective falling for the femme 00:13:04.470 --> 00:13:08.029 fatale. Exactly. And Grafton just flips it. Kinsey 00:13:08.029 --> 00:13:09.909 is the one who has to navigate this attraction 00:13:09.909 --> 00:13:12.549 while trying to solve the murder. That complicates 00:13:12.549 --> 00:13:14.769 things massively. I mean, is she sleeping with 00:13:14.769 --> 00:13:18.730 a witness, a suspect, a friend? An enemy? Exactly. 00:13:18.789 --> 00:13:21.370 It blurs all the lines and it makes her vulnerable. 00:13:21.490 --> 00:13:23.690 She's letting someone inside her defenses, which 00:13:23.690 --> 00:13:26.789 is dangerous in her line of work. So while she's 00:13:26.789 --> 00:13:29.769 getting cozy with the law partner, the investigation 00:13:29.769 --> 00:13:33.210 starts to expand. She finds a link to another 00:13:33.210 --> 00:13:36.009 death. This is the big breakthrough. She discovers 00:13:36.009 --> 00:13:38.970 that a woman in Los Angeles, the law firm's accountant 00:13:38.970 --> 00:13:42.110 Libby Glass, also died around the same time as 00:13:42.110 --> 00:13:45.659 Lawrence Veith. And let me guess. Oleander. Oleander 00:13:45.659 --> 00:13:49.159 capsules substituted for her pills. Wow. OK, 00:13:49.220 --> 00:13:50.679 so that's a signature. That's not a coincidence. 00:13:50.779 --> 00:13:53.480 That connects the two deaths definitively. Right. 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:55.700 Lightning doesn't strike twice like that. This 00:13:55.700 --> 00:13:58.159 changes everything. Because if Nikki Fife was 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:00.480 in prison or dealing with her husband's murder, 00:14:00.679 --> 00:14:03.259 did she really have a motive to go all the way 00:14:03.259 --> 00:14:05.779 to L .A. and kill an accountant? Probably not. 00:14:05.940 --> 00:14:08.440 Or does this suggest some kind of broader conspiracy? 00:14:08.940 --> 00:14:11.759 It widens the scope from a domestic dispute to 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:13.539 something potentially corporate or professional. 00:14:14.200 --> 00:14:16.940 So Kinsey starts following this new trail. She 00:14:16.940 --> 00:14:19.299 tracks down the accountant's parents, her former 00:14:19.299 --> 00:14:21.299 boyfriend. She's trying to figure out what the 00:14:21.299 --> 00:14:24.100 accountant knew. Why was she a target? And then 00:14:24.100 --> 00:14:26.340 the investigation takes her to Las Vegas. She 00:14:26.340 --> 00:14:28.379 goes to interview a woman named Sharon Napier. 00:14:28.440 --> 00:14:31.200 This was Lawrence Fife's former secretary. And 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:33.720 the secretaries in these novels, they always 00:14:33.720 --> 00:14:36.179 know where the bodies are buried. Sometimes literally. 00:14:36.500 --> 00:14:38.620 They see everything. The appointments, the phone 00:14:38.620 --> 00:14:41.379 calls, all the secrets. So Kinsey drives out 00:14:41.379 --> 00:14:44.090 to Vegas. She's expecting a... Pretty standard 00:14:44.090 --> 00:14:45.990 interview. But she doesn't get much of a chance 00:14:45.990 --> 00:14:48.570 to chat, does she? No. This is where the pacing 00:14:48.570 --> 00:14:50.570 just kicks into high gear. It goes from this 00:14:50.570 --> 00:14:54.370 slow burn cold case to a thriller. Sharon Napier 00:14:54.370 --> 00:14:56.789 is killed just minutes before Kinsey arrives 00:14:56.789 --> 00:14:59.509 at her door. Literally minutes. Kinsey basically 00:14:59.509 --> 00:15:01.509 walks in on the crime scene while it's still 00:15:01.509 --> 00:15:04.269 fresh. Exactly. So the killer isn't just a ghost 00:15:04.269 --> 00:15:07.700 from the past. The killer is active. The killer 00:15:07.700 --> 00:15:09.960 is cleaning up loose ends right now. Exactly. 00:15:09.960 --> 00:15:12.700 The whole stakes have shifted. It's gone from 00:15:12.700 --> 00:15:16.580 solving a puzzle to surviving a hunt. Someone 00:15:16.580 --> 00:15:18.379 knows Kinsey's asking questions, and they are 00:15:18.379 --> 00:15:20.679 killing anyone who might have the answers. Okay, 00:15:20.740 --> 00:15:22.460 so we have a dead lawyer, a dead accountant, 00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:25.179 and now a dead secretary. And Kinsey is running 00:15:25.179 --> 00:15:28.519 out of leads. But then we get to the twists. 00:15:28.940 --> 00:15:31.360 And this book, it seems to have what they call 00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:34.679 a false solution structure. It does. Which is 00:15:34.679 --> 00:15:36.899 a very clever structural trick. It gives the 00:15:36.899 --> 00:15:38.539 reader exactly what they think they want and 00:15:38.539 --> 00:15:40.679 then pulls the rug out. It starts with a photograph. 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:44.679 Nicky's son, Colin, he sees a photo and he recognizes 00:15:44.679 --> 00:15:47.279 someone. He points to a woman in a picture and 00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:50.259 identifies her as Gwen. And Gwen was Lawrence 00:15:50.259 --> 00:15:53.419 Fife's first wife. The ex -wife. The first ex 00:15:53.419 --> 00:15:55.659 -wife. So now we have this whole geometry problem. 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:58.840 You've got Lawrence, the victim, the first wife, 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:02.120 Gwen. And the second wife, Nikki, who is Kinsey's 00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:04.840 client. And Kinsey puts together a theory. She 00:16:04.840 --> 00:16:06.799 surmises that Gwen was having an affair with 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:09.100 Lawrence, her ex -husband, at the time of his 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:11.139 death. Which gives us a motive, right? Jealousy. 00:16:11.480 --> 00:16:14.399 Passion. A lover's quarrel gone horribly wrong. 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:16.019 Maybe Lawrence was going to dump her again for 00:16:16.019 --> 00:16:18.659 someone new. So Kinsey confronts Gwen. She lays 00:16:18.659 --> 00:16:21.340 it all out for her. She accuses her. And what 00:16:21.340 --> 00:16:23.179 does Gwen do? She confesses. Just like that? 00:16:23.299 --> 00:16:26.159 She admits to killing Lawrence. Wow. Okay, well, 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:29.200 case closed then. Roll the credits. The bad guy, 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:31.440 or the bad woman, is caught. Well, that's what 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:33.740 the reader is supposed to think. Because Gwen 00:16:33.740 --> 00:16:36.899 confesses, and then, very, very shortly after 00:16:36.899 --> 00:16:39.159 that, Gwen dies in a hit -and -run crash. That 00:16:39.159 --> 00:16:41.620 is convenient. Extremely convenient. A little 00:16:41.620 --> 00:16:44.299 too convenient, maybe. So, from the outside, 00:16:44.620 --> 00:16:47.440 it looks like this clean wrap -up. Nikki, the 00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:50.539 client, is cleared because Gwen confessed. The 00:16:50.539 --> 00:16:54.379 killer, Gwen, is dead, so... Justice of a sort 00:16:54.379 --> 00:16:57.379 has been served. Kinsey can collect her fee and 00:16:57.379 --> 00:16:59.759 go home. But this is a mystery novel, and if 00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:01.519 you look at the page count, you realize you've 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:04.140 still got a good chunk of pages left. A confession 00:17:04.140 --> 00:17:06.079 that comes out easily, followed by the super 00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:08.319 convenient death of the confessor. That's a massive 00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:11.660 red flag. It's very suspicious. So Kinsey isn't 00:17:11.660 --> 00:17:13.680 satisfied. Kinsey starts pulling at this one 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:16.460 loose thread, and the realization hits her, the 00:17:16.460 --> 00:17:19.759 accountant. Right, the other victim. The woman 00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:22.539 in L .A. Gwen's confession covers Lawrence Fife. 00:17:22.660 --> 00:17:25.140 She admitted to killing her ex -husband. Emotionally, 00:17:25.140 --> 00:17:27.920 that makes sense. But why would Gwen, the first 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:30.619 wife, kill the law firm's accountant in Los Angeles? 00:17:30.839 --> 00:17:32.839 What's the motive there? The Oleander method 00:17:32.839 --> 00:17:35.220 linked the two murders, but the motive doesn't 00:17:35.220 --> 00:17:38.720 link them to Gwen. Exactly. Kinsey realizes her 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:40.859 theory about the accountant's death was totally 00:17:40.859 --> 00:17:43.960 wrong. Gwen didn't kill the accountant. So who 00:17:43.960 --> 00:17:46.960 did? Kinsey digs back into the financials, and 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:49.339 she finds out the accountant had discovered something. 00:17:49.759 --> 00:17:52.539 She'd found someone skimming dividend money from 00:17:52.539 --> 00:17:55.640 estate accounts. Embezzlement. The white -collar 00:17:55.640 --> 00:17:58.599 crime that so often leads to red -blooded murder. 00:17:58.900 --> 00:18:00.859 And who had access to those accounts? Who was 00:18:00.859 --> 00:18:03.859 the partner managing all of that? Oh, no. Don't 00:18:03.859 --> 00:18:06.539 say it. It's Charlie Scorsone. The guy Kinsey 00:18:06.539 --> 00:18:08.980 is sleeping with. The very same. Oh, that is 00:18:08.980 --> 00:18:11.740 cold. That is so cool. It's the ultimate betrayal. 00:18:11.799 --> 00:18:14.640 The villain was right there in the bed next to 00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:16.740 her the whole time. So let's break this down. 00:18:16.779 --> 00:18:19.079 Let's break down Scorsone's whole scheme. This 00:18:19.079 --> 00:18:21.900 is pretty complex. He was embezzling money. The 00:18:21.900 --> 00:18:24.400 accountant, Libby Glass, found out about it. 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:27.019 So Scorsone had to kill the accountant to silence 00:18:27.019 --> 00:18:30.559 her. But, and this is the really devious part, 00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:33.859 he knew that Gwen had killed Lawrence Fife with 00:18:33.859 --> 00:18:36.359 oleander. Or at least he figured it out. Wait, 00:18:36.420 --> 00:18:38.640 so the source says Scorsone used the same method 00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:40.519 Gwen used just to make it look like it was the 00:18:40.519 --> 00:18:43.460 same killer? Right. It's a copycat murder, but 00:18:43.460 --> 00:18:46.519 it's designed to frame someone else. If the accountant 00:18:46.519 --> 00:18:49.740 dies by Iliander, everyone is going to assume 00:18:49.740 --> 00:18:52.319 it's connected to Lawrence Fife's killer, who 00:18:52.319 --> 00:18:55.099 they think is either Gwen or Nikki. It deflects 00:18:55.099 --> 00:18:57.380 all suspicion away from the embezzlement and 00:18:57.380 --> 00:18:59.319 points it directly toward the personal drama 00:18:59.319 --> 00:19:03.220 of the Fife family. That is diabolical. He piggybacked 00:19:03.220 --> 00:19:06.079 on a murder to hide his own murder. It's incredibly 00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:09.819 smart. Evil, but smart. It camouflages a financial 00:19:09.819 --> 00:19:13.099 crime as a crime of passion. So Kinsey figures 00:19:13.099 --> 00:19:16.099 all this out. She realizes her boyfriend is a 00:19:16.099 --> 00:19:19.220 double murderer. And then Scorsone must realize 00:19:19.220 --> 00:19:21.440 that she knows. And that leads us to the final 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:23.500 confrontation. And where does this take place? 00:19:23.779 --> 00:19:26.279 Not in a grimy alley, I'm guessing. No, in true 00:19:26.279 --> 00:19:28.460 California fashion, it all goes down at the beach. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:30.859 But this is not a romantic walk on the beach 00:19:30.859 --> 00:19:33.859 at sunset. Not at all. Scorsone chases her. He's 00:19:33.859 --> 00:19:35.539 armed with a knife. He's going to kill her just 00:19:35.539 --> 00:19:37.500 like he killed the others, or at least silence 00:19:37.500 --> 00:19:39.960 her permanently. A knife chase on a beach. That 00:19:39.960 --> 00:19:41.980 sounds exhausting. I mean, sand is hard to run 00:19:41.980 --> 00:19:44.559 in. It is. And Kinsey has to resort to these 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:47.599 desperate tactics. She runs into the ocean. She 00:19:47.599 --> 00:19:49.539 tries to hide in the shoreline in the waves. 00:19:49.779 --> 00:19:52.240 And the source mentions this one specific detail 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:54.539 here that really stood out to me. It says she 00:19:54.539 --> 00:19:57.769 has to remove her shoes and her pants. Yes. To 00:19:57.769 --> 00:20:00.490 move in the water and the wet sand, to keep from 00:20:00.490 --> 00:20:03.869 being weighed down by heavy, wet denim, she strips 00:20:03.869 --> 00:20:06.349 off her clothing. She takes off her shoes and 00:20:06.349 --> 00:20:09.009 pants. There is something so incredibly vulnerable 00:20:09.009 --> 00:20:12.950 about that image. You're being hunted by a man 00:20:12.950 --> 00:20:16.410 with a knife, and you are half -naked, freezing 00:20:16.410 --> 00:20:19.690 in the cold Pacific Ocean. It heightens the tension 00:20:19.690 --> 00:20:22.410 so much. It just strips away all of the detective 00:20:22.410 --> 00:20:24.250 armor. She doesn't have her car. She doesn't 00:20:24.250 --> 00:20:26.190 have her metaphorical trench coat. She's just 00:20:26.190 --> 00:20:28.490 a human body trying to survive. It's primal. 00:20:28.529 --> 00:20:30.630 But she does have one thing. She has her gun. 00:20:30.750 --> 00:20:33.349 She managed to keep the gun dry. Or at least 00:20:33.349 --> 00:20:36.130 keep a hold of it. She has it. And when Scorsone 00:20:36.130 --> 00:20:39.329 finally closes in on her, expecting an easy kill. 00:20:39.490 --> 00:20:42.230 How does it end? Before Scorsone can stab her, 00:20:42.269 --> 00:20:45.210 Kinsey shoots him dead. Boom. Just like that. 00:20:45.329 --> 00:20:48.400 No rest. No reading him his rights. No trial. 00:20:48.700 --> 00:20:51.000 He's dead on the beach. What's your take on that 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:53.059 resolution? I mean, it's pretty violent for a 00:20:53.059 --> 00:20:56.500 debut novel. It is, but it establishes Kinsey's 00:20:56.500 --> 00:20:59.039 morality and her reality right from the start. 00:20:59.380 --> 00:21:02.880 She's not a superhero who neatly ties the bad 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:05.890 guy up for the police to collect. She survives. 00:21:06.109 --> 00:21:08.809 And sometimes survival means you have to kill 00:21:08.809 --> 00:21:12.170 the bad guy. It's messy. It also, you know, closes 00:21:12.170 --> 00:21:14.549 the book on that romance in the most definitive 00:21:14.549 --> 00:21:17.710 way possible. Yeah, I shot my boyfriend is a 00:21:17.710 --> 00:21:20.430 pretty final breakup text. It certainly is. And 00:21:20.430 --> 00:21:22.069 she feels the weight of it. She doesn't just 00:21:22.069 --> 00:21:24.170 shrug it off and move on. In the later books, 00:21:24.289 --> 00:21:26.670 that moment really sticks with her. Okay, now 00:21:26.670 --> 00:21:28.930 before we get to the reception of the book, we 00:21:28.930 --> 00:21:31.660 have to talk about a subplot. Because there is 00:21:31.660 --> 00:21:34.019 this whole secondary storyline running parallel 00:21:34.019 --> 00:21:37.259 to all this murder and mayhem. The Marcia Threadgill 00:21:37.259 --> 00:21:39.960 case. Right. And this seems totally unconnected 00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:42.559 at first. Kinsey is doing a surveillance job 00:21:42.559 --> 00:21:44.880 on a woman named Marcia Threadgill. It's an insurance 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:47.160 fraud case, right? A classic trip and fall. Exactly. 00:21:47.819 --> 00:21:50.460 Kinsey gets hired to prove that Marcia is faking 00:21:50.460 --> 00:21:52.960 an injury just to get a big payout from an insurance 00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:57.059 company. And Kinsey is good at her job. She documents 00:21:57.059 --> 00:21:59.400 the deception. She gets the pictures, the proof. 00:21:59.539 --> 00:22:01.859 She wins the investigative part of the battle. 00:22:01.960 --> 00:22:04.359 She hands this airtight case over to the insurance 00:22:04.359 --> 00:22:07.539 firm and she's thinking, OK, job done. Fraud 00:22:07.539 --> 00:22:10.700 exposed. Justice will be served. What? But the 00:22:10.700 --> 00:22:12.980 insurance firm pays the claim anyway. Why? That 00:22:12.980 --> 00:22:15.480 makes absolutely no sense. They cite potential 00:22:15.480 --> 00:22:18.079 legal costs. They say it's actually cheaper to 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:19.960 just pay her off, even though they know she is 00:22:19.960 --> 00:22:22.700 lying, than it is to fight it in court. They 00:22:22.700 --> 00:22:25.819 also mention the risk of reprisal. That is so 00:22:25.819 --> 00:22:28.220 cynical. It is perfectly cynical, and that is 00:22:28.220 --> 00:22:30.980 exactly why it is in the book. Ah, okay. So it's 00:22:30.980 --> 00:22:33.339 not just filler to pad out the pages. No, not 00:22:33.339 --> 00:22:36.319 at all. It serves a huge thematic purpose. It 00:22:36.319 --> 00:22:38.500 shows the difference between the truth and the 00:22:38.500 --> 00:22:41.380 system. Kinsey is great at finding the truth, 00:22:41.500 --> 00:22:44.539 but she can't fix the system. The corporate world 00:22:44.539 --> 00:22:48.519 is pragmatic. not moral. It just adds this deep 00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:52.039 layer of noir realism. I see. In a cozy mystery, 00:22:52.440 --> 00:22:54.460 the fraudster would be arrested and the whole 00:22:54.460 --> 00:22:58.000 village would cheer. In Kinsey's world, the fraudster 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:00.059 gets a check because it's better for the company's 00:23:00.059 --> 00:23:03.039 bottom line. It really grounds the story, doesn't 00:23:03.039 --> 00:23:04.960 it? And it reminds us that Kinsey is just working 00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:07.200 for a paycheck in a world that doesn't always 00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:09.900 care about right and wrong. It reinforces that 00:23:09.900 --> 00:23:12.460 she's this individual fighting against a machine 00:23:12.460 --> 00:23:15.480 that is totally indifferent to her. Or to justice. 00:23:15.700 --> 00:23:18.380 Exactly. It's a very sophisticated theme for 00:23:18.380 --> 00:23:21.240 a debut mystery novel. Okay, so the book comes 00:23:21.240 --> 00:23:24.940 out. It's April 1982. The plot is twisty. The 00:23:24.940 --> 00:23:27.599 protagonist is fresh. The ending is explosive. 00:23:28.119 --> 00:23:30.059 It must have been an instant bestseller, right? 00:23:30.220 --> 00:23:32.440 Yeah, it's not quite. Let's look at the actual 00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:35.299 stats. The first printing was 7 ,500 copies. 00:23:35.640 --> 00:23:39.880 7 ,500. That is modest. That's a very small splash 00:23:39.880 --> 00:23:42.420 in a very big pond. And the initial sales were 00:23:42.420 --> 00:23:45.380 only about 6 ,000 copies. 6 ,000 people bought 00:23:45.380 --> 00:23:47.240 the first edition of the book that started the 00:23:47.240 --> 00:23:50.279 entire Alphabet series. Yeah. And if you listening 00:23:50.279 --> 00:23:52.559 right now have one of those original 6 ,000 copies, 00:23:52.579 --> 00:23:54.490 by the way. Hold on to it. It's probably worth 00:23:54.490 --> 00:23:57.029 a fortune now. Oh, absolutely. A mint first edition 00:23:57.029 --> 00:23:59.170 is a collector's holy grail. Yeah. But at the 00:23:59.170 --> 00:24:03.049 time, it was a very quiet launch, was not a blockbuster. 00:24:03.369 --> 00:24:05.829 And what about the reviews? We have the receipts 00:24:05.829 --> 00:24:07.829 here. Let's look at what the critics actually 00:24:07.829 --> 00:24:11.069 said back in 1982. It's a real mixed bag. Kirkus 00:24:11.069 --> 00:24:13.829 Reviews called it a shakily plotted but otherwise 00:24:13.829 --> 00:24:17.690 terrific start. Shakily plotted. Ouch. To be 00:24:17.690 --> 00:24:20.349 fair, the plot is complicated. The double oleander 00:24:20.349 --> 00:24:23.779 twist, the copycat element. It does require some 00:24:23.779 --> 00:24:26.640 suspension of disbelief, but they did praise 00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:29.539 the dialogue in her eye for people. OK, what 00:24:29.539 --> 00:24:31.920 about the New York Times, the paper of record? 00:24:32.039 --> 00:24:36.019 The critic was Newgate Calendar, which is a fantastic 00:24:36.019 --> 00:24:37.980 name for a critic, by the way. Sounds like a 00:24:37.980 --> 00:24:40.160 character in the book. It really does. And he 00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:42.460 basically dismissed it. He called it competent 00:24:42.460 --> 00:24:45.880 enough, but not particularly original. Not particularly 00:24:45.880 --> 00:24:47.700 original. That hurts. I mean, she was flipping 00:24:47.700 --> 00:24:50.410 the gender dynamics of an entire genre. It just 00:24:50.410 --> 00:24:53.069 shows that sometimes critics miss the forest 00:24:53.069 --> 00:24:56.250 for the trees. They saw the basic detective solves 00:24:56.250 --> 00:24:58.569 murder structure and they thought, OK, we've 00:24:58.569 --> 00:25:01.529 seen this before. They completely missed the 00:25:01.529 --> 00:25:04.329 revolutionary nature of who was solving it. They 00:25:04.329 --> 00:25:06.829 missed the voice. And the library journal. Originally, 00:25:06.829 --> 00:25:09.250 they were really unenthusiastic. They called 00:25:09.250 --> 00:25:12.349 it nothing to take it out of the ordinary. Although 00:25:12.349 --> 00:25:15.150 they did admit that they liked the female detective 00:25:15.150 --> 00:25:17.869 character. It's just fascinating to see how all 00:25:17.869 --> 00:25:21.869 these reviews completely missed the start of 00:25:21.869 --> 00:25:24.289 what would become a cultural phenomenon. It happens 00:25:24.289 --> 00:25:27.019 all the time. Critics are there to analyze the 00:25:27.019 --> 00:25:30.359 mechanics, the plot holes, the pacing. But readers, 00:25:30.420 --> 00:25:33.099 they connect with the person. Readers fell in 00:25:33.099 --> 00:25:35.039 love with Kinsey Milhone. They didn't really 00:25:35.039 --> 00:25:36.980 care if the plot was a little shaky. They just 00:25:36.980 --> 00:25:38.720 wanted to hang out with her. They wanted to hear 00:25:38.720 --> 00:25:40.539 her voice. They wanted to see her eat a pickle 00:25:40.539 --> 00:25:42.640 sandwich and tell some guy to get lost. And that 00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:44.779 voice is what carried the series for decades. 00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:47.880 All the way from A to Y. So let's wrap this up. 00:25:47.980 --> 00:25:50.000 We've gone all the way from a divorce -fueled 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:53.619 fantasy to a 6 ,000 -copy debut. We've covered 00:25:53.619 --> 00:25:56.079 embezzlement. different kinds of poisonings, 00:25:56.099 --> 00:25:59.480 insurance fraud, and a barefoot beach shootout. 00:25:59.559 --> 00:26:02.240 It's a lot for one book. It is. And looking back, 00:26:02.339 --> 00:26:05.720 the legacy is just undeniable. Sugrafton never 00:26:05.720 --> 00:26:08.119 made it to Z. She died before she could write 00:26:08.119 --> 00:26:11.480 it. But she left us with 25 novels that documented 00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:14.099 the life of this incredible, groundbreaking character. 00:26:14.569 --> 00:26:17.509 And why is for yesterday, her final book really 00:26:17.509 --> 00:26:19.750 brought things full circle in a powerful way. 00:26:19.930 --> 00:26:22.789 But A will always be special because it's the 00:26:22.789 --> 00:26:24.789 spark. It's the moment the engine started. It's 00:26:24.789 --> 00:26:27.150 the origin point. And it raises a really provocative 00:26:27.150 --> 00:26:30.210 thought to to leave our listeners with. What's 00:26:30.210 --> 00:26:32.130 that? Think about the butterfly effect of that 00:26:32.130 --> 00:26:33.750 divorce we talked about at the very beginning. 00:26:33.869 --> 00:26:36.650 If Sue Grafton hadn't gone through that terrible 00:26:36.650 --> 00:26:39.430 separation, if she hadn't felt that specific 00:26:39.430 --> 00:26:42.609 murderous rage, if she hadn't needed to channel 00:26:42.609 --> 00:26:44.910 all that anger into. creating Kinsey Milhone, 00:26:45.130 --> 00:26:48.210 would the landscape of modern mystery fiction 00:26:48.210 --> 00:26:50.869 look different today? That is a wild thought. 00:26:51.009 --> 00:26:54.289 I mean, no Kinsey could mean maybe no V .I. Warshawski, 00:26:54.349 --> 00:26:57.109 no Kay Scarpetta. Maybe. Maybe it would have 00:26:57.109 --> 00:26:59.589 taken another 10 years for women to really break 00:26:59.589 --> 00:27:03.430 into that hard -boiled space. It just goes to 00:27:03.430 --> 00:27:06.849 show sometimes the absolute worst moments in 00:27:06.849 --> 00:27:10.650 life, a divorce, the death of a father, they're 00:27:10.650 --> 00:27:13.839 what fuels the most enduring art. The pain becomes 00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:16.779 the page. The pain becomes the page. I like that. 00:27:16.839 --> 00:27:18.819 We should put that on a t -shirt. Maybe we should. 00:27:18.940 --> 00:27:21.319 But certainly in Sue Grafton's case, the pain 00:27:21.319 --> 00:27:23.460 became a legacy. Well, thank you for taking this 00:27:23.460 --> 00:27:26.099 journey back to 1982 with us. Whether you're 00:27:26.099 --> 00:27:28.299 a longtime fan of Kinsey or you've never read 00:27:28.299 --> 00:27:31.039 a single page, I really hope this deep dive gave 00:27:31.039 --> 00:27:34.319 you a new appreciation for A is for Alibi. It's 00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:36.319 always worth revisiting the classic. Absolutely. 00:27:36.519 --> 00:27:38.339 Thanks for listening, everyone. We'll see you 00:27:38.339 --> 00:27:39.079 on the next deep dive.