Just Finished Reading Sue Grafton's "V" is for Vengeance

Sue Grafton has completed through the letter "X" in her Kinsey Millhone alphabet mystery series (with a letter in each title)...going through this series in alphabetical order, I just finished reading "V" is for Vengeance, published in 2011 but set back in 1988.  The time compression for this series, begun in 1982, is due to the fact that the books are published a few years apart but the stories are spaced only a few months apart.  In this last one I just read, California private eye Kinsey gets herself involved uncovering an organized retail theft ring, complete with the genre's angles of a "noble" mob boss type with his own set of "values",  a violent, out-of-control figure in the crime family, a possibly corrupt cop, a mystery informant, an overaggressive, annoying news reporter, and a good dose of romantic intrigue between the key players in this drama.  And yes, there is a murder to solve...actually, more than one...and Kinsey once again has to contend with a client who first hires her as a private investigator but then continually meddles and undermines her work with his own ongoing theories, criticisms, and attacks on her personality and motives...

As stories go, "V" is for Vengeance ranks right up there with Sue Grafton's better efforts.  Still, I don't exactly care for her recent trend in taking the story's narrative and perspective out of Kinsey Millhone's hands and sometimes showing things from the viewpoint of other characters.  As far as I am concerned, the chief attraction for me with this series is Kinsey's personality and way of handling things...especially the numerous difficulties that crop up in her investigations, as well as in her personal life: she should always be the originating point in the narrative.  That having been said, "V" is for Vengeance is a worthwhile venture, and I recommend it...