V is for Vengeance

September 19, 2011
MWA Grand Master Grafton’s finely tuned 22nd Kinsey Millhone novel (after 2009’s U Is for Undertow) finds the sharp-witted California PI filled with remorse after the apparent suicide of Audrey Vance, a woman she helped arrest for shoplifting. When Audrey’s perplexed fiancé, Marvin Striker, hires Kinsey to further investigate her death, Kinsey’s astute and relentless prying opens a Pandora’s box. Was Audrey tied to major crime lords? Are these racketeers linked to corrupt cops? Kinsey’s prickly personality and tart tongue antagonize just about everyone, including Marvin, several loan sharks, a stone-cold killer, and a hapless burglar who knows more than is healthy for him. For good measure, Kinsey gets punched in the face on her 38th birthday. An engrossing subplot involves an illicit love affair that neatly dovetails into the main story. This being 1988, Kinsey relies on her Rolodex, file cards, and land line, but her intuition is her chief asset. Readers will wish her well on her feisty and independent way to the end of the alphabet. Author tour.

October 1, 2011
Kinsey Millhone witnesses a shoplifter at work, to the considerable cost of them both. Kinsey is minding her own business, looking through a bin of sale underpants at Nordstrom, when she spots a woman loading her handbag with quite a bit of merchandise. Like a good citizen, she alerts the salesclerk, who just happens to be her friend Claudia Rines, and Claudia alerts security. All would be well if only Audrey Vance, the shoplifter, didn't smell trouble; if only she weren't working with an accomplice who tries to complete her escape by running down Kinsey in her Mercedes; and if Audrey, the day after she's arrested and bailed out, didn't turn up dead. Audrey's fiancé Marvin Striker, who's such a nice man that he can't believe his ladylove was shoplifting, let alone involved with a highly organized ring of thieves, hires Kinsey to find out why she might have killed herself. But a second plotline has already informed readers that Audrey was murdered at the behest of her criminal associate Cappi Dante. Meanwhile, in a third plotline, society wife Nora Vogelsang realizes that her husband Channing, an entertainment attorney, has been entertaining himself with another woman and plots..,not revenge exactly, but satisfaction. Grafton (U Is for Undertow, 2009, etc.) pays out all three lines with patient expertise and a sharp eye for homely details. But none of them catches fire until Kinsey runs afoul of Sgt. Det. Leonard Priddy, of the Santa Teresa Police Department, and then gets squeezed by likable ex-con Pinky Ford, who just can't stay on the straight and narrow. And when the three strands of the story finally come together, one of them doesn't seem to be pulling its weight. As always, Grafton is as original, absorbing and humane as ever. The joints just creak a bit this time.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 1, 2011

Middle Eastern terrorists who think they're angels plan to blow the entire world sky-high, and their plan hinges on kidnapping an American scientist who possesses a pair of ancient stones that reputedly allow one to talk with God. Only the scientist's wife can save him; she has psychic power over the stones. If you loved the author's The Secret Supper, you'll probably love this, too.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2011
V may stand for vengeance, but think V for Vegas, toothat's where the latest in Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series begins. It's there, in 1986, that 23-year-old Phillip Lanahan runs afoul of Santa Teresa Mob boss Lorenzo Dante and finds himself spinning off a multilevel parking structure to an unpleasant end. V is also for Vance, shoplifter Audrey Vance. To meet her, fast-forward two years. Eagle-eyed Millhone spots her lifting silk pj's in Nordstrom's and turns her in. Later, Kinsey is surprised when the woman is found dead at the bottom of a ravine, and even more suprised when the woman's fianc' hires Kinsey to prove Audrey didn't commit suicide and wasn't, as Kinsey suspects, part of an organized ring of shoplifters, or pickers. Trust Kinsey to find the truth, and trust Grafton to bring together in crazy harmony a set of circumstances and an oddly assorted bunch of characters (old acquaintances and new) that, in a lesser writer's hands, would have produced narrative chaos. With only four alphabet mysteries to go, speculation on the final installment has already begun. In the meantime, Grafton's devoted fans should sit back and enjoy a terrific installment in the here and now.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

October 15, 2011

Kinsey Millhone (U is for Undertow) doesn't look the other way when she sees trouble, so when she spots a woman shoplifting, she immediately informs store authorities. This sets off a chain of events, as the woman is soon found dead of an apparent suicide. Her fiance doesn't believe she killed herself, and Kinsey's quest to find the truth puts her on the trail of a major shoplifting ring. Grafton's latest alphabetical mystery brings Kinsey into contact with a number of shady characters, from gangsters and gamblers to unhappy and unfaithful spouses. VERDICT Kinsey plays a smaller role in this story, which may not please some of her many fans, but Grafton's pioneering sleuth is as clever and witty as ever. [See Prepub Alert, 5/2/11.]--Linda Oliver, Colorado Springs

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.