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V is for Vengeance (Kinsey Millhone #22)
by Sue Grafton
It's been a few years since the last Sue Grafton book. Hands down, this is one of my favorite series. In fact I like it so much, I named one of my cats after the detective, Kinsey Milhone.
Icing on the cake is that Kinsey (the detective, not my cat) have the same birthday: May 5. For me, opening up one of these books is like meeting up with someone after a break of several years: someone I knew, not necessarily a friend, but someone who I knew and liked and am glad to see again.
For anyone who has not read anything in the series, Grafton's schtick is to use the letters of the alphabet in her titles. (The first one is A Is For Alibi.) Since she started the books in the 1980's (yes, that long ago), she has kept the books in that time period. So this book takes place in 1988 right at the time of Kinsey's 88th birthday. What I love about Grafton's work is the interesting characters and the complexity of the story.
The only issue with starting the series at this point is that you don't know as much about Kinsey as you would otherwise. However, that's actually fine. While not a "stand alone" (as opposed to a serial), there is still a good story. Kinsey's latest adventure starts with a shopping trip to Nordstrom's which is having a sale on underwear. (Kinsey is far from being a fashion plate. Jeans and turtleneck are her favorite clothes.)
While she is picking out her underwear, her gaze goes to some silk pajamas at a great price. She sees a woman shoplifting then another woman and soon surmises that they are working together. She informs the sales clerk who calls security. The woman who is in her 60's is arrested, is released on bail, then apparently commits suicide. Her fiance, an older widower, is not convinced that she committed suicide.
From then on things progress and get more and more interesting.
What seems to be separate story lines soon converge. We learn a lot about shoplifting gangs and what happens to the merchandise when the shoplifter succeeds. Obviously Grafton has done her homework. One warning: there is no gratuitous sex, violence or crude language. If you want these things, this is NOT the book or series for you. It's an old fashioned mystery with a lot of twists and turns and an interesting ending.
by Sue Grafton
It's been a few years since the last Sue Grafton book. Hands down, this is one of my favorite series. In fact I like it so much, I named one of my cats after the detective, Kinsey Milhone.
Icing on the cake is that Kinsey (the detective, not my cat) have the same birthday: May 5. For me, opening up one of these books is like meeting up with someone after a break of several years: someone I knew, not necessarily a friend, but someone who I knew and liked and am glad to see again.
For anyone who has not read anything in the series, Grafton's schtick is to use the letters of the alphabet in her titles. (The first one is A Is For Alibi.) Since she started the books in the 1980's (yes, that long ago), she has kept the books in that time period. So this book takes place in 1988 right at the time of Kinsey's 88th birthday. What I love about Grafton's work is the interesting characters and the complexity of the story.
The only issue with starting the series at this point is that you don't know as much about Kinsey as you would otherwise. However, that's actually fine. While not a "stand alone" (as opposed to a serial), there is still a good story. Kinsey's latest adventure starts with a shopping trip to Nordstrom's which is having a sale on underwear. (Kinsey is far from being a fashion plate. Jeans and turtleneck are her favorite clothes.)
While she is picking out her underwear, her gaze goes to some silk pajamas at a great price. She sees a woman shoplifting then another woman and soon surmises that they are working together. She informs the sales clerk who calls security. The woman who is in her 60's is arrested, is released on bail, then apparently commits suicide. Her fiance, an older widower, is not convinced that she committed suicide.
From then on things progress and get more and more interesting.
What seems to be separate story lines soon converge. We learn a lot about shoplifting gangs and what happens to the merchandise when the shoplifter succeeds. Obviously Grafton has done her homework. One warning: there is no gratuitous sex, violence or crude language. If you want these things, this is NOT the book or series for you. It's an old fashioned mystery with a lot of twists and turns and an interesting ending.
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