"V" Is for Vengeance
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| Author | Sue Grafton |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Alphabet Mysteries |
| Genre | Mystery |
| Publisher | G.P. Putnam's Sons |
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Publication date
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2011-11-21 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | "U" Is for Undertow |
| Followed by | "W" Is for Wasted |
"V" Is for Vengeance is the 22nd novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California, a fictional version of Santa Barbara, California. The novel, set in 1988, was released in the United States in November 2011.
For the fourth straight novel in the Kinsey Millhone series (dating back to "S" Is for Silence), the viewpoint alternates between Millhone and other characters, principally Nora Vogelsang and Lorenzo Dante. The opening chapter, however, is told from the perspective of a well-to-do young man, Phillip Lanahan, who borrows money from Dante, misses the payback date, and then loses it playing poker in Vegas. Dante and his brother Cappi show up, and Dante agrees to take Phillip's Porsche as satisfaction of the debt. However, after Dante sends Phillip and Cappi up to look at the car, Cappi has thugs throw Phillip off the top of the parking garage to his death.
In the main storyline, Millhone witnesses a woman shoplifting with a confederate inside Nordstrom's. She tells a nearby clerk, who alerts store security, and they capture and arrest the woman, named Audrey, before she can escape. While this is going on, Millhone follows her confederate and is almost run over by her in the parking garage. Right after her release from jail, Audrey apparently commits suicide. Shortly thereafter, Millhone runs into a former boyfriend in the police department, Cheney Phillips, who is out for the evening with a vice officer, Len Priddy (a friend of Millhone's first husband and a longtime enemy of hers), and his much-younger girlfriend, Abbey. Priddy mocks the theory that Audrey was part of a shoplifting ring, but Audrey's boyfriend hires Millhone to investigate that theory.
Meanwhile, Dante realizes that the police are closing in on his operation. Audrey had been head of his shoplifting operation, but Cappi murdered her upon her release from jail because he believed she was about to turn them in. Dante believes that Cappi has been giving information to Priddy to set up his brother, so that he can take over. Nora, who has been drifting apart from her husband for the last three years (which we later learn began with the death of her son Phillip from her first marriage), learns that her lawyer husband is having an affair with his secretary. She decides to sell some jewelry to provide her with enough money to be able to leave her husband. She is referred to Dante, who is instantly drawn to her and offers her more than fair value for the ring. Against her better judgement she agrees to meet Dante, who becomes fascinated by Nora and all that she represents.
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