# Kinsey Millhone from the alphabet series. What actress do you picture her as? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [December 28, 2020, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106 "2020-12-28T14:09:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2022, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/61 "2022-10-27T15:02:48Z")
I’ve always pictured her as plain, but I’d be ok with “Great-Looking If She Made Even A Little Effort…” (spoiler: she never makes Even A Little Effort) . Except for that one scene in Z is for Zeppelin. Sigh… I wish. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2022, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/62 "2022-10-27T16:06:25Z")
Maura Tierney, a young athletic Maura Tierney. She is plain/pretty in an all-American girl way, she looks intelligent, a real person, not concerned with hair/nails/shoes or mooning after men. Kinsey liked men, but she was practical, focussed, and sensible about life and content to follow her own path. ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2022, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/63 "2022-10-27T16:38:46Z")
How about Codie Smulders? ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2022, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/64 "2022-10-27T17:38:22Z")
excellent choice! (Her name is Jacoba, ‘Cobie’ is short for that, I always wondered) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2022, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/65 "2022-10-27T17:59:35Z")
And she did plain (and tough) on that detective show she did recently. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2022, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/66 "2022-10-28T06:58:35Z")
> [@tullsterx](#): > > Noomi Rapace maybe. That’s not bad at all. If not her, use one of the Mara sisters. To me, they could be triplets. > [@digs](#): > > And she did plain (and tough) on that detective show she did recently. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her described as plain before this thread. I think she’s well past the plain mark, even playing a PTSD plagued low level private eye. Just out of curiosity, has A&E ever had a well known actress in a show? I haven’t had cable in a long time so I really have no idea. I thought they had pretty well went the reality tv route. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2022, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/67 "2022-10-28T21:26:29Z")
She cuts her own hair (in the book), doesn’t wear makeup, has one dress. Wears jeans and turtleneck sweaters. Doesn’t mean she’s ‘plain’, or not pretty, but she’s more of an athletic tomboy, as mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2022, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/68 "2022-10-28T21:39:13Z")
> [@salinqmind1](#): > > but she’s more of an athletic tomboy I don’t think this is a good description. The only athletic thing she does is run. Unless eating quarter pounders is athletic. It’s not like she uses physical feats to overpower the bad guys. And if wearing pants and shirt is a sign of being a tomboy, I would guess that 95% of women are tomboys. To me she just seems like the women you run into every day, working, shopping etc. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2022, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/69 "2022-10-31T21:19:50Z")
Surprised to hear you think “E” was a clunker, it’s one of my favorites. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2022, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/70 "2022-10-31T21:58:16Z")
The plot was just too convoluted. > **Summary** > > There’s a conspiracy to frame Kinsey by a disparate bunch of people, from her ex-husband to a former employer to feuding members of a corrupt business family. Mixed in among the conspirators is a serial killer / bomber who is presumably not a part of the plot to frame Kinsey, and who thus should be unaware of her investigation into clearing her name. Yet he also then gets in on the action in an unlikely way, seeming to magically have knowledge of Kinsey’s investigation even though he wasn’t the initial target. It all seemed too convoluted and had too many coincidences to be enjoyable. I also didn’t like that whole thing started off with the villains having various personal grudges against Kinsey. Yes, _Gumshoe_ had a hitman trying to kill her, but that was just business, and none of the other novels\*\* have that particular twist. \*\* I haven’t read _Yesterday_ yet, but I assume that won’t be an issue. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2022, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/71 "2022-10-31T22:47:47Z")
> [@salinqmind1](#): > > My bff in high school’s mother was a short, squat woman with thinning gray streaked black hair, pulled up tight and made into a stern bun right on top of her head. She had a little tiny pursed mouth and wore big gaudy black cats-eye glasses set with rhinestones. A most peculiar woman, hardly ever spoke Sounds like you’re describing my Hungarian grandmother. Too bad she’s been dead for 40 years. I can still remember how bummed I was when I heard Grafton died. I’m a completist and was happily waiting for Z. I read A because I saw a short article on it just after it was published, so I’ve been a fan from the jump. I was enticed into reading it because of the murder ‘weapon’ (I remember an old Vincent Price movie where he killed his wife the same way), plus I liked how she said she was sublimating (my word) her anger over a recent divorce and decided to purge the anger by writing a book where she “killed” him in a book instead of doing it IRL. As someone above said, I always pictured Kinsey looking Grafton in her first dust jacket photos. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2022, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/72 "2022-11-01T19:24:54Z")
> [@medstar](#): > > How about Co[b]ie Smulders? See post 9. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2022, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/73 "2022-11-01T21:00:05Z")
I guess I either hadn’t seen it that way, or it just didn’t bother me that much. I liked that Kinsey was working to clear her own self of suspicion rather than just taking a paying case, I liked that we got more information about Kinsey’s past personal life, I liked the sense throughout the book of her being at loose ends without her usual supporting cast available to her. As far as the mystery elements go It didn’t have a “conspiracy” feel to me, it was one man’s plot (Terry Kohler) to get revenge on a family that he felt betrayed him, and he just needed help from an insurance insider that would require a fall guy of that helper’s choosing, which turned out to be Kinsey. He knew plenty because Kinsey talked to him freely, and because he bugged his brother-in-law’s office. There was a side plot about the murder he did within the company in the past, but that ended up being a red herring, which I have no problem with. Whatever, YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2022, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/74 "2022-11-01T21:51:19Z")
> [@gkster](#): > > Kinsey is supposed to look a lot like her mother, who was a beautiful woman. So there’s no reason why she shouldn’t be played by a beautiful actress wearing ordinary clothes and no makeup. Replying to people saying that they picture Kinsey as average / plain: I posted this above. It’s in _P is for Peril_ that she meets a man in his 80s who keeps staring at her curiously. Later she finds out that he worked for her mother’s family, and without knowing her name he’s recognized her right away because of the unmistakable resemblance to her mother. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2022, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/75 "2022-11-02T00:14:34Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > As far as the mystery elements go > > It didn’t have a “conspiracy” feel to me, it was one man’s plot (Terry Kohler) to get revenge on a family that he felt betrayed him, and he just needed help from an insurance insider that would require a fall guy of that helper’s choosing, which turned out to be Kinsey. He knew plenty because Kinsey talked to him freely, and because he bugged his brother-in-law’s office. There was a side plot about the murder he did within the company in the past, but that ended up being a red herring, which I have no problem with. > > Whatever, YMMV. Maybe I should re-read it. I had a different understanding of the mystery, that being that there were two unrelated mysteries that just so happened to involve people who ran in the same circles. The first was the Daniel Wade, Andy Motyka, and the younger Wood siblings (Ash, Olive, and Bass - Daniel’s lover). This group is the conspiracy group, and were responsible for the fire at the factory, the insurance fraud, the bugging of Kinsey’s home and the office of the oldest brother, Lance Wood, and the framing of Kinsey and Lance for all that. None of those people knew anything about Terry Kohler, who just so happened to be a psychopathic bomber in their midst. The flip side is that (at least as far as I could gather) Terry Kohler knew nothing about the factory fire being a an insurance fraud scam, or about the bugs planted in the office of Lance Wood and at Kinsey’s home, or that a jealous former colleague and bitter ex-husband wanted to frame Kinsey for a crime, since he wasn’t involved in any of that. It just so happened that in her investigation of the former mystery, Kinsey uncovered evidence of Kohler’s previous crimes, and so he tried to kill her. At least that was my reading of the situation. And yes, my taste is the opposite as far as the supporting cast. That’s why _Innocent_ (when William was first introduced), _Ricochet_, and _Wasted_, are among my favorites. Most of the supporting cast make appearances in those books, and that makes me happy 😀. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2022, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106/76 "2022-11-02T14:57:38Z")
Oh, I love the supporting cast and _Innocent_ is one of my favorites as well, in part because of William. I also like when the other of Henry’s sibs are around, the Kinsey aunts and cousins, Vera, Deitz, and heck, even Ed the cat. But the absence of them gives _Evidence_ an overall mood of unease that I think suits the story well. As for the plot of Evidence, yes, I think you misunderstood what was going on (which I guess would be a result of something being too convoluted): Terry Kohler was angry at Lance and Olive for what he saw as their culpability in his lackluster sex life. He was, with this motivation, solely responsible for the fire, the framing of Lance for insurance fraud, and the bomb that killed Olive. To frame Lance, he needed help from an insurance insider, and he was friends with Andy Motyca from college, who in turn put Kinsey into the frame, but she was purely collateral damage from Terry’s point of view. He also bugged Lance’s office so he’d be aware of what Lance did or didn’t know. Ebony, the oldest sister, simply wanted to be in the loop on what was going on with the fire/fraud situation. To this end, she brought in Daniel (by way of Bass) to plant a bug in Kinsey’s apartment. They were not responsible for any of the other stuff. Ash and Olive were not involved in any shenanigans at all. Ash was just an old friend of Kinsey’s who happened to be Kinsey’s “in” to the Wood family so she could clear her name. (Which made Kinsey a pretty bad choice for Andy to frame, as it turned out.) Olive’s past incestuous dalliance with Lance was obviously at the heart of the case, but she was completely clueless about Terry’s or Ebony’s machinations. Beyond that, you are correct that Kinsey’s uncovering of Terry’s past crimes - and also his motive for and therefore his involvement in the current spate of crimes - is why Terry felt the need to eliminate Kinsey. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinsey-millhone-from-the-alphabet-series-what-actress-do-you-picture-her-as/929106.md?page=3)