V IS FOR VENGEANCE

V IS FOR VENGEANCE by Sue Grafton

From the book jacket:

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 a force he is immune to exposure.  A sinister gangster, conscience-less 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.

This is the 22nd book in the alphabet series by Ms. Grafton.  Another good one.  There are some very interesting characters, both good and bad.  Not a whole lot of action and shoot-em-up, but a lot of thinking and connecting-the-dots by Kinsey.  A few different stories going on at the same time, but they all come together at the end.

Ms. Grafton has kept her characters true.  No major changes in their lives.  And she has kept them in the same time frame as when the series started.  As you read from one book to the next, you're only moving a few weeks in time.  I like this format, and I would think it would help Ms. Grafton with the writing as she wouldn't have to remember too many differences in the characters.

It looks like only 4 more books to complete the alphabet.  I wonder what titles she will use for W, X, Y and Z?