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Judgment Day
VILLAIN OR VICTIM? Magnolia Kanaranzi, a woman with a mysterious past, has been elected to the U.S. Senate. Before she can take office, she is charged with conspiring to murder her own mother. Kanaranzi adamantly maintains her innocence, but the facts point to her guilt, and her attorney, nationally prominent criminal defense lawyer, Napoleon Taft, seeks to have her declared mentally incompetent to stand trial. With the threat of the death penalty hanging over her head, Kanaranzi reluctantly agrees to be examined by forensic psychologist Bishop Pollock. Multiple psychoanalytic sessions result in the discovery that Kanaranzi has multiple personalities, at least one of which has violent tendencies. Fearing that she will end up in a mental institution for the rest of her life, she escapes from custody and goes into hiding. Through it all, Kanaranzi's son, Hamilton Blethen, whom she abandoned when he was four years old, seeks to reconcile with his mother. Drawn into an FBI investigation of Kanaranzi's escape, Blethen becomes an unknowing target. Despite her mistrust of him, Kanaranzi struggles with an instinctual desire to see her son one last time before permanently fleeing the country. Her ultimate decision sets in motion events where perception and reality collide, and Kanaranzi discovers that, for her, there is only one path to redemption.
344 pages, Paperback
Published June 6, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 25, 2023
This Book 3 in The Chimera Chronicles Trilogy concludes the (fictional) story of The Reaper, a still-lost (real historical) painting by Joan Miro.
The story begins with a bang, with art forgery expert Ham witnessing as police arrest Senator-elect Magnolia Kanaranzi. In Magnolia, he has found his grandmother’s murderer and his estranged mother. Magnolia seems to truly believe she is innocent. At her extradition hearing, she locks eyes with the son she abandoned at four years old.
It seems her henchmen are turning on her. Now the Senate faces the legal conundrum of how to remove her from her seat. The same sort of legal shenanigans that may be soon faced in real life if Donald Trump is elected again.
But Magnolia is no loser, and her devious brain comes up with a fight-back plan of dirty tricks. Nothing is past her—blackmail, kidnapping, hiring hitmen, pinching people’s phones. The trick using the lottery ticket numbers is ingenious.
The characters’ personalities and their interactions are portrayed with lively dialogue and action-packed plot. The legal proceedings demonstrate a prodigious familiarity with the US courts system. Not being au fait with it myself, a lot of that went right over my head. Nevertheless, it fed well into the story of Magnolia’s power politics.
Another thing I admire about the Chimera Chronicles is the sympathetic villain—by this, I don’t mean we necessarily like Magnolia, but we understand her motivations. Under psychoanalysis, we finally learn the history behind her megalomaniacal behaviour, and it’s a good one. I couldn’t wait to read on. Magnolia is probably the best and most interesting villain I've ever read.
I have read Book 2 but not Book 1, but this one stands alone well, as long as you realise that you’re tuning in just at the exciting bit.
I received an ARC from the author.
The story begins with a bang, with art forgery expert Ham witnessing as police arrest Senator-elect Magnolia Kanaranzi. In Magnolia, he has found his grandmother’s murderer and his estranged mother. Magnolia seems to truly believe she is innocent. At her extradition hearing, she locks eyes with the son she abandoned at four years old.
It seems her henchmen are turning on her. Now the Senate faces the legal conundrum of how to remove her from her seat. The same sort of legal shenanigans that may be soon faced in real life if Donald Trump is elected again.
But Magnolia is no loser, and her devious brain comes up with a fight-back plan of dirty tricks. Nothing is past her—blackmail, kidnapping, hiring hitmen, pinching people’s phones. The trick using the lottery ticket numbers is ingenious.
The characters’ personalities and their interactions are portrayed with lively dialogue and action-packed plot. The legal proceedings demonstrate a prodigious familiarity with the US courts system. Not being au fait with it myself, a lot of that went right over my head. Nevertheless, it fed well into the story of Magnolia’s power politics.
Another thing I admire about the Chimera Chronicles is the sympathetic villain—by this, I don’t mean we necessarily like Magnolia, but we understand her motivations. Under psychoanalysis, we finally learn the history behind her megalomaniacal behaviour, and it’s a good one. I couldn’t wait to read on. Magnolia is probably the best and most interesting villain I've ever read.
I have read Book 2 but not Book 1, but this one stands alone well, as long as you realise that you’re tuning in just at the exciting bit.
I received an ARC from the author.
June 22, 2023
Imagine that you, Magnolia, can’t remember what you did yesterday afternoon. Imagine that you have an alter-ego, Tiny, a very nice person, who remembers yesterday afternoon in exquisite detail but can’t remember anything before or after. Imagine further that Tiny has an alter-ego, Maggie, a violent person who remembers what happens when she appears but nothing else.
Imagine still further that a murder was committed yesterday afternoon. The murderer may have been Magnolia, Tiny, or Maggie. Or someone else.
Throw into this stewpot millions of dollars that are up for grabs depending on what happens to Magnolia/Tiny/Maggie. Mix in as well a mural, The Reaper, by the famous artist, Jean Miro. It was painted for the Spanish Pavilion in the1937 Paris Exposition. It then disappeared, but it reappears in this story, and a museum paid $13 million to acquire it. But it might be a fake.
Here you have the bones of Rob Jung’s page turning psycho-thriller, Judgment Day. It is the third of three novels built around the famous mural of Miro.
To tell any more would be a spoiler. But suffice it to say that this well-told story has several draws. The multiple plot twists alone are enough to keep one turning pages. The characters are compelling. You get a glimpse into dissociative identity disorder, more popularly called multiple personalities. And added to the bargain is the world of art collection, art theft and art fraud. I recommend this novel for any reader.
Imagine still further that a murder was committed yesterday afternoon. The murderer may have been Magnolia, Tiny, or Maggie. Or someone else.
Throw into this stewpot millions of dollars that are up for grabs depending on what happens to Magnolia/Tiny/Maggie. Mix in as well a mural, The Reaper, by the famous artist, Jean Miro. It was painted for the Spanish Pavilion in the1937 Paris Exposition. It then disappeared, but it reappears in this story, and a museum paid $13 million to acquire it. But it might be a fake.
Here you have the bones of Rob Jung’s page turning psycho-thriller, Judgment Day. It is the third of three novels built around the famous mural of Miro.
To tell any more would be a spoiler. But suffice it to say that this well-told story has several draws. The multiple plot twists alone are enough to keep one turning pages. The characters are compelling. You get a glimpse into dissociative identity disorder, more popularly called multiple personalities. And added to the bargain is the world of art collection, art theft and art fraud. I recommend this novel for any reader.
December 23, 2023
An intriguing read about a fictional premise that could certainly happen in the future--an elected US Senator accused of murder and about to stand trial. I particularly enjoyed the gradual revelation and manifestation of Dissociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D.) Jung did an outstanding job with the gradual, seemingly inevitable reveal of who did kill the senator's mother.
The pace was quick and moved along well for the large number of characters who popped in and out through the story. There were some subtle twists, and one surprising one near the end, that kept me guessing until the final pages.
Definitely read the first two books in the series if possible because so much of this story stands on what happened in the first two books.
The pace was quick and moved along well for the large number of characters who popped in and out through the story. There were some subtle twists, and one surprising one near the end, that kept me guessing until the final pages.
Definitely read the first two books in the series if possible because so much of this story stands on what happened in the first two books.
September 8, 2023
Judgement Day is the 3rd in the Chimera Chronicle Trilogy. It was an exciting end to the trilogy; so many questions that affected characters in this trilogy for decades were answered by slowly unraveling the years that brought Ham Blethen, Magnolia Kararanzi and others together were part of Judgement Day. It was exciting, and as in real life, not all answers are what are hoped for, but they DO fill in blanks in many lives!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews