In case you didn’t see it, here is a link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304569504576405813466095564.html

to an interesting article from the 7/1/2011 Wall Street Journal about aging fictional detectives.  Author Alexandra Alter writes about how various authors handle the aging of their famous detectives.  Patricia Cornwell, for instance, decided to stop her forensic expert Kay Scarpetta from aging beyond 50.  “People don’t want to read about her when she’s 80,” she said. Sue Grafton ages Kinsey Millhone about one year for every 2½ books.  The scrappy Kinsey was 32 when the series began in 1982 and will be 40-ish when it concludes–that’s if Grafton stops at Z.  I, for one, want her to keep going into another alphabet.  But Grafton, who is 71, says that readers will never “have to watch Kinsey Millhone go through menopause”.

–posted 8/14/2011