V is for Vengeance (Kinsey Millhone, #22)

A spiderweb of dangerous relationships lies at the heart of this one.

A woman with a murky past jumps off a bridge, or was she thrown? A spoiled kid awash in gambling debt thinks he can beat the system. A lovely woman doesn't know her marriage is about to splinter into a thousand fragments. A professional shoplifting ring working for the Mob racks up millions from stolen goods. A wandering husband is rich and ruthless. A dirty cop is so entrenched on the force he is immune to exposure. A sinister gangster is brutal and conscience-less. A lonely widower mourns the death of his lover; he's desperate for answers which may be worse than the pain of his loss. And the dealings of an elegant and powerful businessman are definitely outside the law; he's the magus at the center of the web.

We forgot - private detective Kinsey Millhone's thirty-eighth-birthday gift is a punch in the face that leaves her with two black eyes and a busted nose.

V is for victim, violence and vengeance.