One of the sassiest， most appealing of the recent spate of female gunshoes . . . G is for glorious， galloping read， and I can t wait for H .--Louise Bernikow， CosmopolitanGood and bad things seem to be coming in threes for Kinsey Millhone: on her thirty-third birthday she moves back into her renovated apartment， gets hired to find an elderly lady supposedly living in the Mojave Desert by herself， and makes the top of ex-con Tyrone Patty s hit list. It s the last that convinces Kinsey even she can t handle whoever s been hired to whack her， and she gets herself a bodyguard: Robert Dietz， a Porsche-driving P.I. who takes guarding Kinsey s body very seriously. With Dietz watching her for the merest sign of her usual recklessness， Kinsey plunges into her case. And before it s over， she ll unearth the gruesome truth about a long-buried betrayal and， in the process， come fact-to-face with her own mortality. . . . "Wit is the most versatile weapon in Sue Grafton s well-stocked arsenal， and she uses it with disarming precision. . . . Grafton excels in this milieu."--Newsweek"The story is complex; the body-count high; the sexual encounters feverish; and the villains chilling--in another can t-put-it-down outing for this talented author."--Kirkus Reviews

苏‧格拉夫顿 Sue Grafton （1940— ）

苏‧格拉夫顿一九四〇年出生于美国肯塔基州路易维尔市，是一位杰出的小说家和电视剧作家。格拉夫顿的创作天赋在早期小说及长篇剧作中已初现端倪。二十世纪八十年代末期，她甚至将阿加莎•克里斯蒂的英国作品改编为充满美国风情的电视剧集。

一九八二年苏•格拉夫顿推出的“金西‧米尔虹探案系列”，每部作品皆按英文字母的排列顺序命名，其创新手法一直为推理小说迷津津乐道。格拉夫顿运用人物侧写的手法，有效地拓展了侦探小说的视野，让人物回归为小说的第一主题，同时也使曲折的情节有更进一步的深化空间。其作品笔触果断、情节多变，读来令人大呼过瘾。

字母系列首部作品《A：不在现场》入选美国推理作家协会（MWA）和英国犯罪家协会（CWA）评出的最经典的一百部推理小说，《B：窃贼》和《C：尸体》接连包揽两届安东尼读者票选最佳小说奖和夏姆斯奖。二〇〇八年，苏•格拉夫顿获得英国犯罪家协会授予的卡地亚钻石匕首奖；二〇〇九年，荣获“爱伦•坡”终身大师奖。她的小说被译为二十六种语言版本，风行全球二十八个国家，至今销售记录达数百万本，堪称侦探小说界的畅销大师。