V is for Vengeance: A Kinsey Millhone Novel, Book 22
Written by Sue Grafton
Narrated by Judy Kaye
4/5
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About this audiobook
A woman with a murky past who kills herself-or was it murder? A spoiled kid awash in gambling debt who thinks he can beat the system. A lovely woman whose life is about to splinter into a thousand fragments. A professional shoplifting ring working for the Mob, racking up millions from stolen goods. A wandering husband, rich and ruthless. A dirty cop so entrenched on the force he is immune to exposure. A sinister gangster, conscienceless and brutal. A lonely widower mourning the death of his lover, desperate for answers, which may be worse than the pain of his loss. A private detective, Kinsey Millhone, whose thirty-eighth-birthday gift is a punch in the face that leaves her with two black eyes and a busted nose. And an elegant and powerful businessman whose dealings are defnitely outside the law: the magus at the center of the web. V: Victim. Violence. Vengeance.
Sue Grafton
#1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton (1940-2017) entered the mystery field in 1982 with the publication of 'A' Is for Alibi, which introduced female hard-boiled private investigator, Kinsey Millhone, operating out of the fictional town of Santa Teresa, (aka Santa Barbara) California, and launched the bestselling Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. In addition to her books, she published several Kinsey Millhone short stories, and with her husband, Steven Humphrey, wrote numerous movies for television, including “A Killer in the Family” (starring Robert Mitchum), “Love on the Run” (starring Alec Baldwin and Stephanie Zimbalist) and two Agatha Christie adaptations, “Sparkling Cyanide” and “Caribbean Mystery,” which starred Helen Hayes. Grafton is published in 28 countries and in 26 languages.
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Reviews for V is for Vengeance
602 ratings71 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kinsey is in Nordstrom's lingerie department when she sees a woman shoplift some clothing. She reports it to store staff which leads to the woman's arrest and Kinsey being almost driven over in the parking garage by the woman's female accomplice. When the arrested woman jumps off a bridge a few days later, her fiance hires Kinsey to find out if it was murder rather than suicide.As she starts digging, Kinsey discovers a huge gang of shoplifters at work across America with a particularly efficient group in California. Throw in a dirty cop named Len Priddy and events become complicated and dangerous for Kinsey. Another excellent detective yarn from the master.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5BOTTOM-LINE:More characters, less Kinsey, but it works..PLOT OR PREMISE:Fantastic opening -- a gambler who hits a run of bad luck, and a loan shark who collects from his losing client pretty aggressively. Oh, and Kinsey apparently has two black eyes from trying to catch a shoplifter?.WHAT I LIKED:There is a LOT going on, with lots of characters running around, almost all of them obsessed with money. Angry cops, mobsters, gold diggers, cheating spouses, lock pickers, blackmailers, informants…it's complicated..WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:The story jumps around a LOT from person to person, and so it doesn't feel like a Kinsey story for good parts of the book, but it's not egregious..DISCLOSURE:I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the author, nor do I follow her on social media.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I usually enjoy these but this one was a miss for me. Too many different points of view in addition to Kinsey’s: a gambler, a rich unhappy wife, a gangster, etc. The plot focuses on a shoplifting ring and I never felt invested. Too little of Kinsey and her personal life and friends.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I loved this book. The plot was interesting. The characters were great and memorable. I loved Dante, and was rooting for him, even though he was a criminal. The story was an interesting one. Who would have thought a shoplifting ring could be so interesting. This is probably my favorite Kinsey book yet. I recently read U is for Undertow and loved that book too. I think Sue Grafton is getting better and better with each book.
I received this book for free from the goodreads first reads program. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This installment was a bit of a departure from previous books in terms of style. Still good, but maybe not as good as previous outings.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I found this installment a bit slow to get into Grafton's usual enjoyable style. The beginning didn't seem to fit and its significance was lost to me for a long time.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I would have rated this higher, but for the return to idiocy of Kinsey, the detective. Throughout most of the novel, she acts rationally and as an experienced PI. In the end, Grafton has to "make things more exciting" but having her main character go brain dead: she rushes into a building about to raided by every Federal and State agency there is, then tries unarmed to run in between to guys shooting at each other "because she cares" about one of them. The chief Gangster punches her lights out to save her life. OK. Maybe he rattled some sense into her.
Sorry---weak ending makes the novel less than it might have been. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loved this!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I think this is my favorite Kinsey book yet! Liked the way the stories wove together and thought the character development was great. Also like that Grafton ended the book with a storyline that looks like it will continue on in the next book. I needed a read like this after reading some "heavier" books and it was the perfect choice.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The best Kinsey Millhone! At least up through V.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The best one in a long time. She changed her style of writing somewhat this time, her characters operate without interacting as much, their stories stay separate It works well for this story, and the resolution is gratifying.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Her books keep getting better and better. Can't wait for the next one :-)
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I found this a bit slow to draw me in, but once it got going it zipped along to a satisfying finish. I'm looking forward to W is for...
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A very informative read, about the theft rings in the U.S., around the 1980's. The story kept me going throughout my health problems.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I enjoyed the different points of view, as Grafton had Kinsey telling part of the story while two other characters relayed the rest. This kept the long-running series feeling fresh for me. I've been listening to audio books on my commute to and from work.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5First Grafton book I can recall reading that combines other character's points of view with Kinsey's. Interesting. One ends up sympathetic to Dante, a gangster heir attempting to escape the role.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Absolutely awesome! This is the first author ever that I've enjoyed each title in the series even more than the previous one. I can only hope that statement conveys my highest esteem for Sue Grafton. Love her writing!!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5V on the whole was pretty so-so. However, it definitely picked up in the end. This is kind of the formula for Grafton's series, however this novel's ending had a little more spunk and interest. I think Grafton often teeters on the breaking point of Millhone being witty and capable or snide and immature. I don't mind the latter, I don't need a cookie-cutter character. I just don't feel sufficiently connected to the character (for the most part) to want to deal overly much with it. Mainly because you have a lot of monotonous prose where Millhone/Grafton is saying, "I...," "I...," "I...," and you're kind of waiting for some interaction to break the coffee making, peanut butter & pickle sandwich feasting, and weirdly naive decision making lull. Then, though, there's a bit of a spark in some novels (and in the latter half of V) that picks everything up a pace and it's pretty interesting.
I think my current favorite is U at this point but it did pay off to read this to the end and if you're picking up V you're probably one of the unfortunate series junkies out there who, like me, have to read a series to the end whether it's a big hit or a fumble. So you at least have something to look forward to. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This installment showcases Kinsey at her peak of prickly, feisty behaviour, to the point where Kinsey even manages to find herself at odds with her client. Probably not the best way to retain a client, but I guess when you take on a case mainly out of a sense of guilt, one can be a bit prickly when said client comes across as rather narrow-minded. I always enjoy the “trips back in time” to California circa 1980s. I get the impression that Grafton enjoys researching and depicting the time period and has fun with it, given here attention to detail. For example, I loved how at one point she has Kinsey listening to the radio in her car while on a stake out and the DJ announces Whitney Houston’s “Where do broken hearts go” has just overtaken Billy Ocean for top spot in the charts (something that did occur in real life the week ending April 23, 1988) and has Kinsey musing over whether or not that is a good thing,. ;-) I find that Grafton always does a great job researching areas of crime. I found the detailed information about organized shoplifting syndicates in this installment to be fascinating reading. Supporting characters like Kinsey’s former love interest Cheney Phillips, landlord Henry Pitts, his brother William and wife Rosie are included in this installment but their involvement is kept to a minimum. Grafton continues to flex her writing prowess and treats the reader to a main plot and not one, but two subplots to sink their reading chops into. While the story does have its slow areas – I felt that one of the subplots received more attention than is warranted and the head of the crime ring doesn’t seem to have the “grit” I would expect of a Mafia boss – but overall, I feel that Grafton has reached new heights with this installment in her ability to present a well written and absorbing crime read, and a story that delivers a satisfying resolution for the various plots.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I really enjoyed this mystery and how the story lines come together
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You can never go wrong with a Kinsey Millhone novel. That being said, I found that V is for Vengeance was slow paced.Too many characters, not enough KinseyOnce 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My favourite Grafton book in a long time. Kept my interest.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I liked this one better than "U is for Undertow," but still not as much as some of her earlier works. Kinsey reports a shoplifter, who apparently jumps off a bridge after a night in jail.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Absolutely awesome! This is the first author ever that I've enjoyed each title in the series even more than the previous one. I can only hope that statement conveys my highest esteem for Sue Grafton. Love her writing!!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kinsey investigates the death of a shoplifter to find a much deeper organized operation. Well written.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The reader is once again invited to ride along with private detective Kinsey Millhone solving one of her cases. This one is a little different from the others in that it starts out without a client. While doing something as mundane as shopping for underwear Kinsey spots a shoplifter. Doing the “right thing” she reports the shoplifter to the store personnel. The next day the elderly female shoplifter is found dead of an apparent suicide. Hmmmm. With that, it’s off the races with a case that involves a shoplifting ring, a loan shark with a heart of gold and a likeable ex-con. Throw Henry’s sister’s hip surgery into the mix and it makes for a topsy-turvy read. In the best of ways!
I have been reading Ms. Grafton since A is for Alibi and this is one of my favorite of her books. She has finally dispensed with defining Kinsey’s dysfunctional family and concentrated on the story line of the book. I enjoyed that. This book also felt a little more ambitious than the past few books in this alphabet series as there were three separated story lines going on that converged at the end in (for this reader) a most satisfying way. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is the 22nd book in the Kinsey Millhone Mysteries. The books are holding up, but the setting is lagging behind real time. The book mostly takes place in 1988, starting for Kinsey when she notices a small-time shoplifter. In the typical Grafton style, Kinsey gets wrapped up in the events and must look into things. The shoplifting leads her into a big-time racketeering ring. I have two complaints about the book, first is that Sue Grafton is moving the series away from traditional mysteries. Starting with the previous book, U is for Undertow, it seems to be moving more toward adventure, as the reader knows so much more about the crime than Kinsey does. The book wanders through three different plots that ultimately intertwine. But the reader cannot play detective and try to solve it as Kinsey does. The second issue is that Kinsey neglected to check surveillance tapes from the scene of the initial shoplifting. Although she had reason not to be interested in them initially, events changed and she seemed to forget about them for too long. It was a plot device to help build suspense, but in my opinion, was inappropriate. This did not detract from the enjoyment of the book. Overall, it is an enjoyable book and left me looking forward to the next installment.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Another great one from Sue Grafton. Each book gets better and better. I love all the characters (even the shady ones). Her descriptions and characterizations pull you so fully into the lives of Kinsey and her cohorts that they feel like real people you've known for years. I read a LOT, but there are only a handful of series that feel like a homecoming each time you crack open the newest book. Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone is definitely one of them.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I liked this one. Wasn't sure, but it was good. Started out as a shoplifting ring but moved onto murder. Liked the intrigue between a husband and wife who are drifting apart or are they?
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I liked this book but felt it wasn't in the same league as the other alphabet stories and I really don't know why. Good plot, fits together nicely and a good ending for the characters you want to have a good ending, but seemed to take a long time to read. A bit drawn out maybe. But keep them coming please Ms Grafton - what on earth are we going to do after 'Z'?