When Sue Grafton published her murder mystery, A Is for Alibi, in 1982, she set up for herself a formidable task. She planned to run through the entire alphabet, 26 novels in all, a creative challenge for even a prolific writer like James Patterson, who is often helped out with co-authors. Aside from the sheer volume of writing involved, we had to wonder, would Grafton run out of ideas? Could she really keep her character, Kinsey Millhone, a private investigator based in the fictional Santa Teresa, California, interesting enough that we would want to follow her through more than two dozen books? Would she opt for quantity over quality?

Grafton’s twenty-second mystery, V Is for Vengeance, has just been published and Grafton is still on her game. With only four books left, the series will end and readers will be forced to say goodbye to one of the mystery genre’s most appealing, enduring characters.

Grafton made a decision early on when crafting these Kinsey Millhone stories. Time would pass slowly between books. Unlike other writers whose characters don’t age yet miraculously acquire cellphones, post to Facebook, and drive hybrids, Grafton has Millhone scramble to find a pay phone, look up numbers in a phone book, type her reports, and do research at the library. There’s a nostalgic quality to Kinsey’s methods. She can’t depend upon technology for all the answers, she must find them out on her own. Again and again, we admire her initiative, tenacity, and street-smarts.

Kinsey has her quirks. She dresses almost exclusively in jeans and running shoes. When she needs to dress up, she throws on her all-purpose polyester black dress that never wrinkles, never shows dirt. Her favorite lunch and/or dinner is a warm hard boiled egg sandwich with lots of mayo. (Although she also loves peanut butter and pickles). A lost cause in the kitchen, Kinsey eats most of her meals at Rosie’s, a neighborhood hangout where the aforementioned Rosie cooks up inedible Hungarian food. There’s no menu; Rosie just plops in front of Kinsey the evening’s special which is sure to include gristle and lumpy gravy.

Rosie is married to William, an eighty-nine year old hypochondriac, who tends bar at the restaurant (like the food, the wine is bad), and gives Kinsey updates on his many ailments. William’s little brother, Henry, is Kinsey’s neighbor. The eighty-eight year-old Henry has more energy than ten men half his age, continuing to make bread (he’s a former baker), and assist Kinsey on more than one occasion.

In V Is for Vengeance, Grafton deftly constructs a complicated plot, eventually tying things up in a satisfying conclusion. The story alternates between Kinsey’s first person accounts, and the third person narrative that follows several other characters, Dante, a mafia-like operator, Nora, married to a wealthy financier, and Pinky, a former jockey and ex con. Kinsey’s involvement begins innocently enough when she goes on an infrequent shopping trip for underwear and witnesses two women shoplifting. A former cop, Millhone has no patience for those who break the law and she sets off in pursuit. One woman is apprehended, the other escapes from the parking garage in her car, nearly running Kinsey over in the process. When the first shoplifter winds up in the river, Kinsey has trouble believing she killed herself. The dead woman’s fiance hires Kinsey to prove just that, and she is, once again, on the case.

Grafton has resisted the urge to take Kinsey out of her comfort zone. She doesn’t fight terrorists or fly around the world on secret missions. She has a gun but rarely uses it. Her best weapon is her instinct to put together all the pieces of the puzzle. (Kinsey takes notes on index cards, re-reads them frequently, and shuffles them to come up with answers). She’s a gumshoe, pure and simple. The cases she takes on may be run-of-the-mill, but the story telling somehow elevates these mysteries into a category all its own. We’ve been along for the ride and plan to stay onboard until the end. After that, we may just decided to read all of them again, A through Z.

V Is for Vengeance
Sue Grafton