As I am reviewing “A is for Alibi” later this week, I thought that this NPR story was appropriate.

In “Alphabet” Mysteries, “S” is Really for Santa Barbara

Novelist Sue Grafton is a real hoot. She’s just as likely to talk, in that native Kentucky drawl of hers, about her prized silver-coin mint julep cups as about a juicy murder mystery. But she does have a crime writer’s imagination.

“I always say to people, ‘Don’t cross me, OK? Because you will be so sorry,'” she says. “‘I have ways to kill you you ain’t even thought of yet.'”

Grafton is famous for her “Alphabet” mystery series. Private investigator Kinsey Millhone is the heroine , but the novels’ setting also plays a starring role: Millhone lives and works in Santa Teresa, a fictional town based on Santa Barbara, Calif. Continue reading…