My name is Kinsey Millhone. I’m a private investigator, licensed, bonded, insured; white, female, age thirty-two, unmarried, and physically fit. That Monday morning, I was sitting in my office with my feet up, wondering what life would bring, when a woman walked in and tossed a photograph on my desk. ''Somebody killed my husband.''

Published thirty one years after A is for Alibi, Sue Grafton''s Kinsey and Me, is her first compendium of short stories. It features nine Kinsey Millhone short stories, each a gem of detection, as well as autobiographical pieces written in the decade after Grafton''s mother died. Together, they show just how much Kinsey Millhone is a distillation of her creator’s past, even as they reveal a child who, free of parental discipline, read everything and roamed everywhere. But the dark side of such freedom was that very parental distance . . .

This dazzling and often moving collection displays the depth and range of Grafton’s writing and reminds us of her unique talent as a storyteller.