Rage and retribution: two great elements to a crime book. This book incorporates them so well that the author aptly chose the title as Rage and Retribution.
Goodreads Blurb
Rage and Retribution by Lorraine Mace
Can two wrongs ever make a right?
A man is found by the side of a canal, comatose and brutally attacked.
It quickly becomes clear that someone is abducting men and subjecting them to horrific acts of torture. After three days they’re released, fighting for their lives and refusing to speak.
A councillor is accused of fraud.
Montague Mason is an upstanding member of the community. That is until he’s publicly accused of stealing the youth centre’s funds – an accusation that threatens to rip through the very heart of the community and expose his best-kept secret. But how far would he go to protect himself?
Two cases. One deadly answer.
As the two cases collide, D.I. Paolo Sterling finds he has more questions than answers. And, when torture escalates to murder, he suddenly finds himself in a race against time to find the killer and put an end to the depravity – once and for all.
Review
Rage and Retribution is a truly dark crime. However, at just a couple of chapters in I was doubting that it would be. For one, Pablo seemed too nice a character for me, at least too nice for his position. Could it be because the hard man, no emotion cop has been so overdone in other police crimes it’s what I’ve come to expect? This notion didn’t entirely resolve my anguish but it did heighten my respect for Lorraine Mace, who was willing to move away from the usual.
Secondly, the entire investigation kicked off because of a remark written on a plaque in lipstick. Pablo and his team really dove into finding the culprit and I found that very strange. For me, it didn’t warrant the attention. However, it opened up an entire world of rape and sexual abuse that made Rage and Retribution the addictive read it was. So, if you are in this for the darkness, you have to be patient, but, if you are someone sensitive to in-depth descriptions of horrendous crimes, don’t be fooled by the opening chapters.
I loved this gritty book and, by the end, I came to love Pablo too. But what I really loved about him was that I didn’t need to read the previous books in this series to get a good feeling of who he was and what he stands for. That is so important for books in a series that are also marketed as standalone. Thanks, Lorraine, for letting me easily slide in at the fourth book.
In was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Joyful Antidotes 