REVIEW: “V IS FOR VENGEANCE” by SUE GRAFTON
Kinsey Millhone is shopping at Nordstrom and admiring colorful, ladies’ silk pajamas, when she witnesses a middle-aged shoplifter stealing hundreds of dollars’ worth of items. She reports this to the department assistant, who reports it to security. She notices a second woman shoplifting, who seems to be in cahoots with the first. Once security apprehends the first shoplifter, Audrey Vance, she is arrested. Kinsey tails the second shoplifter to the parking garage, who escapes driving a black Mercedes. At the police station during a strip search by a female officer, the police discover Vance is wearing booster gear undergarments filled with dozens of clothing items, and her charge is elevated to grand theft because of the high dollar amount.
A week later, Kinsey reads in the paper that Audrey Vance has jumped off the Cold Spring Bridge to her death. She attends the funeral with her friend William, who attends all the funerals in Santa Teresa he has time for. They become acquainted with Vance’s fiancé, Marvin Striker.
Striker hires Kinsey to investigate Vance’s death, because he doesn’t believe she committed suicide. He knows little of his fiancé though, and when Kinsey begins to uncover her criminal lifestyle, he refuses to listen. Kinsey travels to Vance’s home address in San Luis Obispo and finds an empty house, scrubbed clean by an unknown cleaning crew. She and the landlady Vivian Hewitt discuss Vance’s mysterious tenant activities. A few days later, when Vivian receives a 12 x 12 x 12 box in the mail addressed to Vance, she calls Kinsey to tell her about it. Kinsey instructs her to open it. It’s full of bundles of cash. Kinsey hightails it to San Luis Obispo and advises Vivian that they must turn over the box to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department; they drive together to the station and present the box to a detective.
Striker has been listening to local gossip, which infuriates Kinsey, because he continually negates her investigation as she discovers the extent to which Vance was involved in an organized theft ring. Striker becomes angry that Kinsey continues to tell him about his fiancé’s criminal activity, so he terminates Kinsey’s employment. She continues on with the investigation, because she has pulled together a pattern of thefts and distributions.
Once she locates the driver of the black Mercedes who was Vance’s shoplifting partner at Nordstrom, Kinsey tails her to try to find out where the theft ring is located.
While Kinsey follows her leads and researches Audrey Vance, the story switches to the point of view of Lorenzo Dante, a “connected” businessman running his family’s businesses, who is being investigated by the FBI for a number of crimes; and to Nora Vogelsang, who meets Dante when she brings him a large diamond she wants to sell. He is instantly intrigued by her and a sensual chemistry builds between them.
Kinsey’s old chum Pinky asks her for a favor, which draws her into his troubles and, ultimately, into his pursuit of vengeance.
Sue Grafton’s clever craftsmanship constructs for her readers sharply descriptive details and sequences of events that are tightly written and brilliantly suspenseful, leading to an explosive ending that even includes a shoot-out. … Pam Wilder …