Book Review: Vengeance Road by Rick Mofina

Book reviews

14 Apr

Rick Mofina- Vengeance Road (Jack Gannon #1) Format- Paperback Source- Review copy Publisher- MIRA/ Harlequin Publication date- April 2012 Synopsis- The murder of a brokenhearted woman…The body of Bernice Hogan, a troubled young former nursing student with a tragic past, is found in a shallow grave near a forest creek.…and the chilling disappearance of her friend…Jolene Peller, a single mom struggling to build a new life with her little boy, vanishes the night she tries to find Bernice.…raise questions about their ties to a respected detective…Hero cop Karl Styebeck is beloved by his community, but privately police are uneasy with the answers he gives to protect the life—and the lie—he's lived.…and lead to one journalist's obsession to find the truth…The case haunts Jack Gannon, a gritty, blue-collar reporter whose own sister ran away from their family years ago. Gannon risks more than his job to pursue the story behind Styebeck's dark secret, his link to the women, and the mysterious big rig roaming America's loneliest highways on its descent into eternal darkness.Review- Okay, I think this is the first book that falls solely into the crime genre that I have read and I’m glad Mofina’s is the first I picked up because I was not disappointed. I have read humorous crime, romantic suspense and plenty of stories with crime elements, but this book is all about the crime without the romance and humour which would normally draw me in.Vengeance Road is a gripping crime thriller that had me turning the pages and saying oh, just one more chapter before I put it down. The chapters are short and straight to the point and take on the POV of various characters in the story from the journalist Jack Gannon who needs a big story, Jolene Peller the ex-addict, single mother who has been kidnapped and Karl Styebeck, the hero cop who is known for his charity involvement but is the number one suspect in the homicide of Bernice Hogan.Each of the characters was interesting in their own way and Mofina has a way of letting the reader get into each of their heads and empathise with them. Even Karl, who I really disliked throughout most of the book, I also developed an understanding of where he was at given his early experiences which did cause conflict in me as a reader who wanted justice for the victims.The reader is always one step ahead of the characters but there’s plenty of suspense to make you second-guess what will happen. I really enjoyed Vengeance Road, a well-written crime novel with well-developed characters and a gritty plot.Read an EXCERPT here.