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V is for Vengeance (Kinsey Millhone Mystery) [Hardcover]

Sue Grafton
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (633 customer reviews)

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Book Description

November 14, 2011 Kinsey Millhone Mystery

A spiderweb of dangerous relationships lies at the heart of V is for Vengeance, Sue Grafton's daring new Kinsey Millhone novel.

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 definitely outside the law: the magus at the center of the web.

V: Victim. Violence. Vengeance.


Frequently Bought Together

V is for Vengeance (Kinsey Millhone Mystery) + U is for Undertow (Kinsey Millhone Mystery) + S is for Silence (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries)
Price for all three: $45.25

Buy the selected items together


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 448 pages
  • Publisher: A Marian Wood Book/Putnam; First Edition edition (November 14, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0399157867
  • ISBN-13: 978-0399157868
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (633 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,879 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Exclusive: A Letter from Sue Grafton

As with the last several books in the series, V Is for Vengeance was a long time in the making. I work by trial and error, keeping a running account of the process in journals that in this case totaled 967 single-spaced pages. It took me from March, 2009 until March, 2010 to settle on a storyline, and after that, it was ten months of hard labor. Women give birth to babies in less time, but surely without as much suffering. Brave soul that I am, I stuck with it, picking my way painstakingly from beginning to middle to end. Sue Grafon

What sets the narrative in motion is Kinsey Millhone’s spotting a shoplifter in an upscale department store. She alerts a sales clerk, who in turn notifies Security, which results in the woman’s arrest. Within two days, the sticky-fingered thief has taken a dive off a four-hundred-foot-high bridge, leaving her fiancé with troubling questions. While the overall subject matter is organized retail theft, of greater concern to Ms. Millhone is the fact that at the height of the action, shortly before she’s punched in the face, she realizes it’s her thirty-eighth birthday and thus ends up celebrating the milestone with a broken nose and two black eyes.

--Sue Grafton, November, 2011

Review

“Grafton exhibits the pace, form, and technique of a marathon champ in her latest.”—The Kansas City Star

“The author has hit a high mark with her latest offering, a complex tale of love, betrayal, ambition, and, of course, murder…The only bad thing: There are just four letters left in the alphabet.”—The Associated Press

“Grafton brings her ‘A’ game to her ‘V’ book… an accomplished work not to be missed.” —The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

“Terrific.”—Booklist

"Sure to satisfy."—USA Today
--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 448 pages
  • Publisher: A Marian Wood Book/Putnam; First Edition edition (November 14, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0399157867
  • ISBN-13: 978-0399157868
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (633 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,879 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

New York Times-bestselling author Sue Grafton is published in twenty-eight countries and twenty-six languages--including Estonian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian. Books in her alphabet series, begun in 1982, are international bestsellers with readership in the millions. And like Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald, Grafton has earned new respect for the mystery form. Readers appreciate her buoyant style, her eye for detail, her deft hand with character, her acute social observances, and her abundant storytelling prowess. She has been named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America (2009) and is a recipient of the Ross Macdonald Literary Award (2004).

Sue Grafton has been married to Steve Humphrey for more than thirty years, and they divide their time between Montecito, California, and Louisville, Kentucky, where she was born and raised. Grafton, who has three children and four grandchildren, loves cats, gardens, and good cuisine.

Customer Reviews

It is hard to put her books down once I start reading. Nannette L Bennett  |  65 reviewers made a similar statement
Do not miss one of Sue Grafton's book. Joyce K. Dunn  |  49 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
122 of 139 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Kinsey Millhone is back with a vengeance! November 14, 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
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 hip.
... Read more ›
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87 of 101 people found the following review helpful
By Soferet
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
There is something bleak in the new Kinsey adventure. At 38, the detective is lonelier than ever. Maybe this is why she lets herself get involved in two apparently unconnected affairs, neither likely to bring in the big bucks. The pace is slow, at times bordering on sluggish. While she plods on, two other characters are brought in. We sense that there will ultimately be a connection, but do not care greatly. Of course, towards the end everything fits neatly - too neatly? with some highly improbable developments. To tell the truth, by that time one just wants it over and done with. Yet this is not a bad book, and a host of well loved characters make cameo appearances (though we could do with less details about Rosie's cooking).
What can I say, I shall buy the next Sue Grafton...
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67 of 77 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Gets better and better! November 14, 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Sue Grafton's V is for Vengeance is a thrill a minute. We start out with a prologue about a young man named Phillip Lanahan in August 1986. We quickly find out that Philip likes poker and loses money. Going to a loan shark named Dante he's given a week to repay his loan. Unfortunately for him things end badly.

The story shifts gears to Kinsey and May 5 1988 (for those in the know Kinsey's birthday). Than we switch to several weeks before her birthday and a few weeks after the events in U is for Undertow. Kinsey while shopping witnesses a shoplifter and at the end is almost getting run over. Somehow Kinsey by witnessing a minor incident becomes embroiled in something bigger than she imagines.

Throughout the novel the point of view shifts between Kinsey, Dante, and Nora (a rich housewife tiring of her husband).

Grafton has gone back and forth with third and first person in her most recent novels. However its my humble opinion that this is the first one out of the bunch that was expertly done. I was able to see so many layers in all three of the main characters in this story.

We don't at first see how these three people will fit together but when you start to see the connections you are gobsmacked by Grafton's well crafted plot.

Already waiting on bated breath for W.....

Overall grade: A+
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30 of 33 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars THE REAL MYSTERY WHO WROTE V FOR VENEGENCE December 8, 2011
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Did Sue Grafton contract Janet Evanovich as a ghost writer? Has kinsey morphed into Stephene Plum? is Santa Terresa the new burb? Hary's brother William has become Grandma Plum going regularly to funerals, Rosie is cooking suddenly inedible food concoctions and the neighborhood is full of Jersey Shore Mafia types stealing, strutting and preening and occasionally murdering. Flat writing, a convoluted plot or plots and a kinsey devoid of any of her old personality but with the mannerisms that work for character identification and to differentiate her from Stephene--Stephene has a hamster and two "really hot boyfriends" Kinsey has Harry, the same devotion to junk food, blue jeans, and underwear. Lots of irrelevant detail here--on streets, the highway, parking granges, and even tract housing developments to hide the lack of story or depth that characterize Sue Grafton as a writer. And it's carelessly edited. Although it's supposed to be the late 80's, 21st century terminology and technology keep creeping in. Well, at least nobody pulls out a cell phone. Janet can keep writing, as predictable and as formulaic as the Stephene Plum series has become. She has the advantage of numbers. Grafton must be looking forward to crossing that "z" finish line.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars V is for Very Interesting
This book shows really shows the continuing evolution of Sue Grafton and Kinsey Millhone. Gone are the days when the stories were told simply by Kinsey narrating her... Read more
Published 2 hours ago by Randee Baty
4.0 out of 5 stars Fun reading
Always enjoy this alphabet series. I've read each one. Characters are fun, always includes some humor, and I like trying to guess what the title will be for the next in line.
Published 4 days ago by hannahf
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Book was in such good shape as if it were brand new. I have all Grafton's books and did not want to buy this in hard copy as all of mine are paperback. Read more
Published 6 days ago by Judith Connole
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
I just like the way she writes, and her stories are always interesting to me. I can't wait for the "W" book to come out.
Published 6 days ago by Robert Lundgren
5.0 out of 5 stars Kinsey Millhone investigative Detective.
Kinsey is swept up in a shoplifting ring as she tries to track down the particulars. Good investigative technique, boring stakeouts, shootouts, wild Hungarian dishes, this one has... Read more
Published 7 days ago by Steve
5.0 out of 5 stars Grafton never disappoints
I liked the different spin on this one. The love story added a nice touch. I have read all of her alphabet series, and am looking forward to the next. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Tutu42+1
5.0 out of 5 stars One of Grafton's best
The character development was done really well. Very interesting plot. I am a fan of this author and have read all her books. This is one of the best in the series.
Published 9 days ago by Louise Sevilla
5.0 out of 5 stars V is for Vengeane
The best of Sue Grafton's books yet. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good murder mystery. I'm sure they would like it.
Published 14 days ago by Suzie Metzler
5.0 out of 5 stars "V is for Vengeance" - LOVED IT!
Without rehashing the whole story (you can easily read this in many places without me doing it again here), I will say that picking up and reading another Sue Grafton "Kinsey... Read more
Published 15 days ago by Diane
4.0 out of 5 stars Another Grafton hit
Good read as always with Sue Grafton. I am quite anxiously looking forward to the next installment of her fantastic series.
Published 16 days ago by Sam Lewis
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I got a Kindle so I wouldn't have to lug heavy library books around....but with these prices, that's what I'll be doing again, I guess...
Dec 6, 2011 by Constant Reader |  See all 3 posts
V is ??
Apparently V is for Vengenance! Cannot wait to read it! November is a long way off.
Jun 23, 2011 by Obsidian Blue |  See all 4 posts
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