∎ Download Gratis V is for Vengeance A Kinsey Millhone Novel Sue Grafton 9780399157868 Books

V is for Vengeance A Kinsey Millhone Novel Sue Grafton 9780399157868 Books

Download As PDF : V is for Vengeance A Kinsey Millhone Novel Sue Grafton 9780399157868 Books

V is for Vengeance A Kinsey Millhone Novel Sue Grafton 9780399157868 Books

I only read a few mystery series, only by women, so I don't know if the series written by men have this phenomenon, but Grafton is a good example of what I've seen with a couple of female mystery writers. Her series started off with books that were lean and economical, with engaging characters and a healthy dose of humor. By now, however, she has become overly ambitious and her writing is indulgent and the book is bloated. She started this writing from several different characters' points of view a few books ago and it served her well in a couple of books, but in "U is for Undertow" and this one, it just slows down the plot and serves to distract the reader from the central mystery and from the character of Kinsey. Maybe Grafton is bored with Kinsey? She hasn't evolved very much over the 20+ books, except to get more self-righteous and moralistic. Her relationships with her friends haven't evolved, either.

Anyway, as long as the characters whose points of view she is writing from are interesting, I can tolerate it, but in this book, she has one character who is dull and unsympathetic, the spoiled and wealthy housewife, Nora. I'm not sure Grafton has the skill to build a character by writing from their point of view in third person (I noticed this in a couple of the previous books), though she does a good job with Dante. Nora, however, has such a bland and boring writing style that I skipped half of her chapters. Her actions are inexplicable, partly because she is so poorly drawn as a character. I didn't like her and found her unsympathetic. I felt sorry for Dante at the end.

I also don't like the stuffy moralizing that Kinsey does. She certainly isn't averse to breaking the law and counts several law-breakers among her friends, including the character of Pinky Ford in this book. However, she excoriates the murder victim for contributing to the problem of shoplifting (yeah, like Nordstrom's is losing money) and yet likes Dante, who is the mastermind and leader of the entire shoplifting racket, whereas Audrey was just a cog in the machine. Dante was also a hood who had probably killed people and done other horrible things, but he was drawn as being a great guy. BTW, if anybody was interesting enough to write from his point of view, it was Pinky. I really liked him.

And, yeah, Grafton does go into excessive detail about every move Kinsey makes (opening doors, eating, turning on lights, etc.). Is she paid by the word, like Victor Hugo?


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V is for Vengeance A Kinsey Millhone Novel Sue Grafton 9780399157868 Books Reviews

I've been reading Kinsey Milhone books since I was in high school (I'm Kinsey's age now) and I've never missed one. And I will read all of them until the end. V is for Vengeance was not one of the strongest. Can't remember which one was the one I disliked more, R is for Ricochet or Q.

Strangely enough in this edition, I found the Kinsey segments to be the most boring. I find William to be a crazy, meddling old man, Henry was shipped off immediately in the beginning so he was totally inconsequential, and Rosie has annoyed me from book 'A'. I was far more interested to read about Dante and Nora (laughed out loud in some parts), and I appreciated the twist/link between them when it was revealed. Didn't see that one coming. But there could've been better 'meat' around their story. The first chapter was a knockout and drew me right in. Afterwards the book lost steam, and I wanted to punch Kinsey and give her two black eyes myself about midway through the book. And Kinsey has never annoyed/bored me before. Her self-righteousness about shoplifters in a store, her loyalty to Pinky and his shenanigans, her nosy insistence on getting in the middle of the whole Pinky and Cappi duel, the whole boring story with Len, and I didn't get her deal with Diana Alavarez. Did she like her wardrobe or NOT? And these are just a few things I'm listing.

I can appreciate Sue Grafton's honesty to her readers, revealing her struggle in coming up with a plot, but I shouldn't have had to say to myself yeahhhh, Sue. Nevertheless, as I said, I will see it to the end. I still love the series and look forward to the next book.
Truth be told, V for Vengeance was a mixed bag for me. Sometimes I felt intrigued with the mystery; other times, not so much.

I guess I have a somewhat different perspective in that this is the only one in the alphabet series that I’ve read (as it was chosen for a book club read). Maybe this is part of the reason that I had a difficult time getting into V is for Vengeance.

I think the initial set up in the first few chapters was engaging, but there were portions of the novel that were rather so-so.

I really couldn’t get into most of the secondary characters at all. I thought they were somewhat underwhelming and mediocre. Even Millhone seemed to make perplexing decisions and judgments when it comes to solving the case. There were some points I had a hard time understanding her motivation (especially near the end of the novel).

Also, there seemed to be too much inconsequential detail that stalled the plot. Oftentimes, there were trivial details (especially from Millhone’s point of view) that went on too long (something about what she ate, taking a jog, going to the store to pick something up, etc.). Additionally, I also didn’t really care for many of the subplots, such as Dante’s love interest. While some of this moved the plot forwards, other parts weren’t of much consequence.

Maybe I was missing a good deal of context from the series and this effected how I viewed the novel. I have heard that this one isn’t quite as good as others in the series.

I still think it fascinating and amazing how Grafton had crafted and put this entire series together with her main protagonist, all the while managing to keep her mysteries within the confines of the 1980s. I’m still definitely interested in checking out the first couple ones in Grafton’s series, especially A is for Alibi and B is for Burglar.
I started reading these in 1986 and I have enjoyed them all but this one is my favorite in a long time. I like the way Grafton used Kinsey in this one. She had her make some uncharacteristically dumb decisions to put us, the readers, where we needed to be to let other character's stories unfold. I found myself yelling, "don't go in there," and had to laugh, I don't remember the last time I yelled at a book.
I only read a few mystery series, only by women, so I don't know if the series written by men have this phenomenon, but Grafton is a good example of what I've seen with a couple of female mystery writers. Her series started off with books that were lean and economical, with engaging characters and a healthy dose of humor. By now, however, she has become overly ambitious and her writing is indulgent and the book is bloated. She started this writing from several different characters' points of view a few books ago and it served her well in a couple of books, but in "U is for Undertow" and this one, it just slows down the plot and serves to distract the reader from the central mystery and from the character of Kinsey. Maybe Grafton is bored with Kinsey? She hasn't evolved very much over the 20+ books, except to get more self-righteous and moralistic. Her relationships with her friends haven't evolved, either.

Anyway, as long as the characters whose points of view she is writing from are interesting, I can tolerate it, but in this book, she has one character who is dull and unsympathetic, the spoiled and wealthy housewife, Nora. I'm not sure Grafton has the skill to build a character by writing from their point of view in third person (I noticed this in a couple of the previous books), though she does a good job with Dante. Nora, however, has such a bland and boring writing style that I skipped half of her chapters. Her actions are inexplicable, partly because she is so poorly drawn as a character. I didn't like her and found her unsympathetic. I felt sorry for Dante at the end.

I also don't like the stuffy moralizing that Kinsey does. She certainly isn't averse to breaking the law and counts several law-breakers among her friends, including the character of Pinky Ford in this book. However, she excoriates the murder victim for contributing to the problem of shoplifting (yeah, like Nordstrom's is losing money) and yet likes Dante, who is the mastermind and leader of the entire shoplifting racket, whereas Audrey was just a cog in the machine. Dante was also a hood who had probably killed people and done other horrible things, but he was drawn as being a great guy. BTW, if anybody was interesting enough to write from his point of view, it was Pinky. I really liked him.

And, yeah, Grafton does go into excessive detail about every move Kinsey makes (opening doors, eating, turning on lights, etc.). Is she paid by the word, like Victor Hugo?