V Is for Vengeance: A Kinsey Millhone Mystery

Following  U is for Undertow , Kinsey Millhone is back with a vengeance! She gets a 38th birthday "punch in the face and busted nose" in May 1988. A cake would have been nice. Kinsey is a pragmatist, "a big fan of forgiveness as long as I'm given the opportunity to get even first."Reluctantly shopping at an upscale retailer, Kinsey spies Audrey Vance stealing expensive silk PJs. The civic-minded P.I. discovers the woman is in cahoots with another and reports them both. Vance is arrested, while the other scofflaw nearly runs Kinsey down in the parking garage with a Mercedes. Vance is later found dead, an apparent suicide, but homicide is soon suspected.In a parallel plot, Lorenzo Dante, Jr., known simply as Dante, is a loan shark with alleged Mafia ties. Dante has quite an inferno of illicit businesses burning --- and a red-hot romance with a powerful attorney's wife. One of those enterprises is a highly organized ring of shoplifters, whose kingpin was Audrey Vance. Vance's unsuspecting fiancé hires Kinsey to investigate what he thinks are bogus shoplifting charges, and the improbable suicide. Thrown into the mix are a corrupt cop, and a gambling addict who sells his soul to Dante.Predictably, characters face death during the investigation, and Kinsey is pulled into the vortex. Ghosts from novels past haunt Kinsey, even likeable petty criminal Pinky Ford is instrumental in the dénouement. Vixen reporter Diana Alvarez from "Undertow" is a thorn in Kinsey's side but eventually proves beneficial. Heartthrob and former flame Cheney Phillips keeps readers guessing if the fire will rekindle. Unfortunately, friend and landlord Henry is away, visiting one of his ancient siblings with a broken bone.The structurally complex plot is simplified with the help of Kinsey's index cards that are "like the pieces of a puzzle that would fall into place once I understood what I was looking at." That, and her intuition. "The purpose of intuition is to warn us when the wolf arrives at the door dressed as Little Red Riding Hood."Any Sue Grafton novel reads like a welcomed but long-overdue letter from the iconic private eye, bringing readers up to speed with her latest escapade. The queen of Alphabet Soup-titled mysteries (who earned the title of Grand Master by Mystery Writers of America) has made a quantum leap by taking on social issues in the last few of her 22 too-realistic-to-be-fiction works.With perpetrators identified early on, this is more of a whydunit than a whodunit, validating Grafton's title of Grand Master bestowed by her peers. While Kinsey--an average Jo--has learned to leap hurdles in her career, Sue Grafton has become an Olympic-class pole vaulter in hers. Impeccable plot, prose as rich as Wall Street, and everyone's favorite investigator make this a surefire bestseller. V is for Vengeance (Kinsey Millhone Mystery) --- Reviewed by L. Dean Murphy

This novel is a change of pace for the author. It is slow starting as it fills in backstory for a number of characters, and it moves from character to character as the story develops. It starts out simple enough, with Kinsey doing her duty as an ex-police officer and reporting a shoplifter. That would seem pretty straight-forward until the woman shows up dead. Kinsey is hired by the woman's significant other to investigate, and turns up information that the man would rather not know. The woman had a history and had done hard time. Kinsey is not willing to let go of the investigation, and becomes enmeshed in the details of a large scale criminal operation. Results do not come out as expected for a number of people.While this novel reads well as a stand alone novel, some readers prefer to start with the first books in the alphabet series:  A is for Alibi (Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries, No. 1) ; B is for Burglar (Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries, No. 2)  which won the author both the Shamus Award and the Anthony Award in 1986; etc. The author also wrote a number of short stories, including "The Parker Shotgun" which won the Anthony Award for best short story in 1987. There is a limited editon collection of the short stories  Kinsey and Me  which is available used at a high price. Readers are also referred to  "G" Is for Grafton: The World of Kinsey Millhone  which provides information on the real locations in Santa Barbara used for the fictional Santa Teresa,as well as a summary of the earlier novels, a floor plan for Kinsey's apartment, etc.This novel is almost a must read for people in retail trade. If you wonder why sales personnel look at you the way they do, especially if you are putting your hand into a pocket around a jewelry counter, read on. One of my friends who owns and operates a shop has told me about five-finger-shopping. Things disappear from displays. My youngest grandniece has recently taken a job working in surveillance for an anchor department store, meaning she watches the TV screens attached to the eyes in the sky.Thieves have many potential outlets, including consignment shops, and the Internet adds another. I have always been suspicious of individuals selling items on the Internet. I think that there are some who will steal items to order, i.e., list an item, then steal it if they receive an order. I ran across a case once of someone beating the Amazon price for a book (used-like-new) before the book was released by the publisher.

Le délai de livraison a été un peu long pour un colis venant des Pays-bas.

How often can I repeate this: Such a good writer! Evolving great caracters in an intrecate story that devolpes with rythm and captivates

Super. Like all Kinsey Millhone books by Sue Grafton -- only Y & Z left in this series !!!!!!

Sehr schönes Buch, super Einband, tolle Gestaltung. Ich sammle die Reihe von Grafton, es fehlen nur noch die drei letzten.

That being said, I found that V is for Vengeance was slow paced.Too many characters, not enough Kinsey:Once in a while, in the alphabet novels we're lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Kinsey's past or find Kinsey forging a significant bond with someone. This is not one of those novels. The many characters in this book make it hard to follow at the start and make you wonder how they're all related to each other. While Sue went in depth with these characters I thought that there wasn't enough Kinsey. However we find a very introspective Kinsey in this book and the quotes are brilliant like the one below:"Perhaps when we're forced to forfeit what we own, we lose any sentimental associations. Perhaps pawning our valuables frees us in the same way a house fire destroys not only our worldly goods, but our attachment to what's gone."All in all even though V is for Vengeance is slow paced, it's still a very good read. I just wish there would have been more Kinsey in it.I can't wait to read the next book in the series. Having read all the books in the series it's hard to believe there's only 4 books left before the end.