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Sue Grafton, the author of A Is For Alibi and 24 other mysteries featuring detective Kinsey Millhone, died Thursday at age 77. Her daughter Jamie wrote on Facebook that her mother had been battling cancer for the past two years but had been doing well until recent days. Grafton published her first book about the likable, savvy gumshoe in 1982 and had been writing about her — and working the way through the alphabet — ever since. In a 2007 interview with Powell's Books in Portland, Ore., Grafton said she taught herself to write her first mystery by reading how-to books and teaching herself California criminal law, private eye, and police procedures — "anything that seemed relevant to the job." It took her five years to write her first novel, and three to write the next. Then came a review in Newsweek. "Grafton has created a woman we feel we know, a tough cookie with a soft center, a gregarious loner," the magazine declareds, calling A is for Alibi "smart, well paced, and very funny." Parade That was all the encouragement she needed. "It just undid me," she told Powell's. " 'Gosh, someone's paying attention.' Then I started doing a book a year." Her most recent book, Y is for Yesterday, came out in August, and she told NPR that she looked forward to reaching the end of the series. "I think it will be interesting to have a day and a week and a month and a year that isn't already spoken for," she said. "The last, actually, 38 years, I've known exactly what I'm doing next. And this is a little moment of freedom – if I can come up with a storyline for Z is for Zero, which remains to be seen." https://twitter.com/louisvillemayor/status/946816325850198017 Though she came incredibly close to reaching the full 26 letters, Grafton's daughter says that Kinsey's crime-solving days are over. "Sue always said that she would continue writing as long as she had the juice," she wrote. "Many of you also know that she was adamant that her books would never be turned into movies or TV shows, and in that same vein, she would never allow a ghostwriter to write in her name. Because of all of those things, and out of the deep abiding love and respect for our dear sweet Sue, as far as we in the family are concerned, the alphabet now ends at Y." (Source: NPR) Beautiful tributes pour in NEXT... https://twitter.com/SaraParetsky/status/946848317421621248 https://twitter.com/nytimesbooks/status/946849864977211393 https://twitter.com/scalzi/status/946828389066960898 https://twitter.com/MarkHarrisNYC/status/946831144171032578 https://twitter.com/valmcdermid/status/946853627905413128 https://twitter.com/LisaScottoline/status/946825850418278401 https://twitter.com/alafairburke/status/946828106299559937 https://twitter.com/EJDionne/status/946848841785053184 https://twitter.com/Kristan_Higgins/status/946852282116734983 https://twitter.com/danielsilvabook/status/946830661540818951 https://twitter.com/penguinrandom/status/946845501571264513 https://twitter.com/PFTompkins/status/946833594835750912 https://twitter.com/JLArmentrout/status/946826607880269824 https://twitter.com/Vincentelife/status/946856398217928704 https://twitter.com/garyvfoss/status/946856203702870016 https://twitter.com/WritersDigest/status/946855048130236417 https://twitter.com/ShelfAwareness/status/946864649726775296 https://twitter.com/debbiemacomber/status/946854499255070722