Ο δρόμος της εκδίκησης

Jack Gannon #1

by Rick Mofina, Σαμάνθα Κωνσταντέα (Translator)

Το πτώμα της Μπερνίς Χόγκαν, μιας νεαρής ναρκομανούς πόρνης, ανακαλύπτεται σ’ ένα ρηχό τάφο κοντά σ’ ένα ρυάκι.

Η φίλη της η Τζολίν Πέλερ, ανύπαντρη μητέρα που προσπαθεί να φτιάξει μια καινούρια ζωή για την ίδια και το μικρό της γιο, αγνοείται από το βράδυ που βγήκε να αναζητήσει την Μπερνίς.

Τα στοιχεία που προκύπτουν από την έρευνα οδηγούν αναπάντεχα μέσα στους ίδιους τους κόλπους της αστυνομίας: ο ντετέκτιβ Καρλ Στάιμπεκ γνώριζε και τα δύο κορίτσια –τις χρησιμοποιούσε ως πληροφοριοδότριες. Και κάτι στον τρόπο που υπερασπίζεται τον εαυτό του κινεί τις υποψίες των συναδέλφων του.
Αλλά ο Στάιμπεκ είναι ήρωας για τους συμπολίτες του και κανείς δεν μπορεί να τον αγγίξει –ακόμα.

Η υπόθεση γίνεται έμμονη ιδέα στον δημοσιογράφο Τζακ Γκάνον, του οποίου η αδερφή το είχε σκάσει από το σπίτι πριν από χρόνια κι από τότε δεν έχει δώσει σημεία ζωής. Ρισκάροντας τη δουλειά του, τη φήμη του, στο τέλος και την ίδια του τη ζωή, ο Τζακ αρχίζει να αναζητά παθιασμένα την αλήθεια για τα σκοτεινά μυστικά του Στάιμπεκ, τη σχέση του με τις δύο κοπέλες και μια μυστηριώδη νταλίκα που οργώνει τους πιο έρημους αυτοκινητόδρομους της Αμερικής οδεύοντας στο αιώνιο σκοτάδι…

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook, Suspense

400 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 18, 2009

About the author

Rick Mofina is a former journalist who has interviewed murderers on death row in Montana and Texas, flown over L.A. with the LAPD and patrolled with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near the Arctic. He's also reported from the Caribbean, Africa and Kuwait's border with Iraq. His true-crime freelance work has appeared in The New York Times, The Telegraph (London, U.K.), Reader’s Digest, Penthouse, Marie Claire and The South China Morning Post, (Hong Kong). He has written more than 20 crime fiction thrillers that have been published in nearly 30 countries.

His work has been praised by James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Jeffery Deaver, Louise Penny, Sandra Brown, James Rollins, Lisa Unger, Brad Thor, Nick Stone, David Morrell, Allison Brennan, Heather Graham, Linwood Barclay, Peter Robinson, Håkan Nesser and Kay Hooper.

The Crime Writers of Canada, The International Thriller Writers and The Private Eye Writers of America have listed his titles among the best in crime fiction. As a two-time winner of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award, a four-time Thriller Award finalist and a two-time Shamus Award finalist, the Library Journal calls him, “One of the best thriller writers in the business.”

Series:
* Tom Reed and Walt Sydowski
* Jason Wade
* Jack Gannon

Awards:
Arthur Ellis Award
◊ Best Novel (2003): Blood of Others

Reviews

[Tracy P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack Gannon is a fantastic character to listen in on as he goes about trying to break the biggest case of his life as a freelance reporter. He has just been terminated from his 9-5 reporting gig- for (ultimately) being too "ethical" and standing up for what he believes is right - and is now chasing a potentially life changing breaking story solo. He is also just one in the masses of media hounds vying to be the first to the cameras/presses.
Jack is not gregarious or hard core and what makes him easy to like is his authenticity, confidence, and his jaw dropping talent. He knows his abilities and worth and always keeps moving forward. No wallowing - there's breaking news that needs accurate reporting.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book introduces Jack Gannon, an old-fashioned journalist with a passion for the truth. Wow do I miss that type. The story then starts to drag a bit on the issue of the villain and whether predation is genetic, familial or a learned behavior. It got a little tedious.

[Sheila Beaumont · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book by Rick Mofina I've read, and I'll certainly be seeking out more of them. A former crime reporter himself, Mofina has the experience to create a convincing suspense tale featuring Buffalo Sentinel reporter Jack Gannon, who has ambitions of landing a reporting job in New York City.

He is determined to discover the truth behind the murder of a prostitute and former nursing student, Bernice Hogan, who was taking steps toward cleaning up her life, and the disappearance of her friend Jolene Peller, a former prostitute who was about to start a new life in Florida with her young son. Jack finds evidence that a local hero cop is implicated in these crimes, and continues with his investigation even after he is fired from his job at the Sentinel.

Mofina really knows how to put together an absorbing suspense thriller with characters that you care about, especially Jolene, to whom we're introduced in the first chapter. The twists and turns make for a wonderfully complex tale that will keep readers turning the pages. It's a well-told story, written in a style that fits the genre, with good, natural dialogue. I recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a well-constructed mystery with plenty of suspense, and especially to anyone who is interested in investigative journalism.

[Millie Cullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

De schrijfstijl was heerlijk, met uitzondering van de aanloopjes naar de flashbacks. Het boek las lekker weg en ik had het binnen no time uit.

De spanningsopbouw daarentegen liet te wensen over. De ontknoping van het verhaal kwam laat, maar ik wist al op 50% wie de dader was en hoe de vork in de steel stak. Jammer.

De personages waren zeer, zeer karig uitgewerkt. Jack Gannon had veel meer lagen moeten hebben. Ik houd van een goed uitgewerkt personage en weet dat ik daarin vrij veeleisend ben, maar zoals Gannon nu is neergezet, is wel heel erg minimalistisch. Dat kan ik de schrijver niet vergeven. Karl en Orion zijn diep uitgewerkt, maar het lijkt erop dat ze geen enkele goede eigenschap hebben. De keuzes die ze maken zijn ook niet altijd logisch; het komt bijvoorbeeld geen moment in Karl op om de waarheid aan de politie te vertellen, terwijl dat alle zaken zo veel makkelijker had gemaakt.
De gedachten van de personages zijn dan weer wel uitgebreid weergegeven. Dat is een pluspuntje, maar het kan helaas niet verhullen dat de personages geen karakter lijken te hebben.

Het onderwerp van het boek is echt heel erg cliché: journalist jaagt op moordenaar terwijl de politie niets kan/wil doen. Beetje Stieg Larsson-idee welke al veel te vaak is nageaapt.
Ik vraag me trouwens ook af wat er met alle personages gebeurt in/na de epiloog. Wie gaat er dood? Wie niet? We weten alleen maar hoe het afloopt met Jack Gannon, maar de rest van de personages blijft helaas onderbelicht.

Nou ja, duidelijk is dat dit geen meesterwerk is. Een prima boekje om tussendoor te lezen, maar qua diepgang komt het helaas best wel wat te kort.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vengeance Road is a suspenseful ‘hold-your-breath’ ride, with twists and turns at breakneck speed!

Jack Gannon, a reporter for The Buffalo Sentinel, investigates the brutal murder of one prostitute and the disappearance of another, a woman who had picked herself off the street and cleaned up her life. The investigation points to one suspect—hero cop Karl Styebeck, a man with a secret past brimming with violence. Then there’s the mysterious blue rig that haunts the highways. How is it connected to Styebeck and the victims?

As Gannon digs deeper, he risks losing everything—his career, his reputation and his future. With help from Adell Clark, a former FBI agent turned PI, Gannon gets the inside scoop on the murder investigation. But this puts Gannon and Adell in jeopardy of losing more than their jobs.

Author Rick Mofina has crafted the kind of protagonist that readers will yearn to read more about. Jack Gannon is tough but flawed, and he’s like a pit-bull who won’t let go. In some ways, he’s emotionally disconnected, but the disappearance of his own sister years ago, pushes him onward. I hope the author continues with this character and his back-story. I’d love to see a series!

I think this is my favorite Rick Mofina novel yet! Vengeance Road is a gritty, top-notch thriller, with glimpses of evil thrown in to keep you turning those pages. Mofina’s former career as a crime reporter keeps the writing concise and descriptive, the characters well developed and defined, and the dialogue true and believable.

Vengeance Road is a suspenseful ‘hold-your-breath’ ride, with twists and turns at breakneck speed. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys a heart-pounding race against time.

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif, bestselling author of Divine Intervention
http://www.cherylktardif.com

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good one from Mofina. We meet a new journalist in this series debut, and the book follows Mofina's usual MO of a journalist working diligently to solve a case before the detectives, and of course he ultimately succeeds. But each of his cases and settings are different, and that's where the interest comes in. This one took us on a ride down Vengeance Road, though the full explanation of the title didn't become clear until the last 10% or so of the book. There were a few too many characters for my liking, and at times it got a bit long-winded and repetitious, so I didn't enjoy it quite as much as "Be Mine", which I'd read immediately prior and really loved, but I did enjoy this one as well. It got very exciting at the end, and I couldn't turn pages fast enough. I certainly liked it enough to continue with the series, but I think I'll take a Mofina break for a bit and return to this series later.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Gannon hears something come across the wire about a murder in the park. No one is manning the wire desk so Gannon decides to pick it up. Once he gets into it, he finds that this case is going places but he is meeting resistance from his boss.

This was a fast paced page turner. I hated putting it down. This was a first time author for me, but I will definitely be looking for more.

[Jarom Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven’t read books hardly at all throughout my life. My wife and I were at a bookstore and picked this up. It was much better than expected and kept my attention for hours! The ending felt a little anticlimactic for all the build up, but it was an excellent read. The author was very good at making a realistic story with true locations and law enforcement lingo. Would recommend!

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

When the body of a nursing student is found dead near a creek, Jack Gannon, a reporter with Buffalo Sentinel gets wind of this and heads over to the crime scene.

Jack overhears discussion among the police about a potential suspect during a meeting at the station. He chases this angle and finally, he makes a breakthrough with his source who confirms that a cop named Karl Styebeck is being suspected of murdering the victim but this hasn’t been confirmed yet. But Jack decides to run the story anyway. Karl is a well-respected member of the community and it seems unfair that he’s been accused.

Jack’s boss, Nathan Fowler is not happy with this and he’s putting pressure on Jack to give up his source or he’ll retract Jack’s story. Jack flatly refuses. Following Jack’s suspension, he’s decided to follow leads on his own.

Just then a woman shows up at Jack’s newsroom and informs Jack that her daughter has gone missing. The woman wants Jack to make the story go public and to help look into her daughter’s disappearance.

[Ric]

Wow. Spare, concise writing, and compelling story-telling. This is reading heaven, isn't it? At least that's how the book starts. Then, somewhere around chapter 40, things turn horribly, horribly bad. As in scary bad. What do I mean? Let me explain.

It begins with Rick Mofina and his Goodreads blurb:

Rick Mofina is a former journalist and an award-winning author of several acclaimed thrillers. His reporting has put him face-to-face with murderers on death row in Montana and Texas. He has covered a horrific serial-killing case in California and an armored car-heist in Las Vegas ...

When Mofina starts to describe details of the horrible crimes of his characters, it feels like he is describing something he has actually seen or reported on. It's sort of like reading the newspaper account of a real murder involving real people. And to tell you honestly, this spooked me, well and truly spooked me. The book stopped being fiction but seemed all too real. And that's when it became really, really bad, scary bad. The serial killer is not just imaginary but a real person who actually existed, exists. This was just too much. I was ready for a nice, neat, spare thriller but this just became too real. Then I just couldn't read another page.

The writing is unquestionably good and compelling and all that, but it can pull you too far in and you find that you're no longer in the fictional world but all the way through to a truly messed up real world. And, what is that guy with the boots in the next table at the diner up to?
You start wondering if the flakes you are reading about are the flakes you are seeing everyday. And then you can't leave the house. Spooked, totally spooked.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read only one other Rick Mofina book (Six Seconds) which I loved. This one, not so much. It was pretty good but but just didn't really grab me. The Jack Gannon character has heaps of potential. He is a good journalist, is honourable and relentless in his pursuit of the truth. I guess I thought it was a bit predictable. However, I shall keep reading because I think Rick Mofina has some good ideas.

[Φίλιππος ²³ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great start to the Jack Gannon Series! Fast paced, with a captivating story line.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great suspense and page-turning plot! I've been reading these out of order, but this was by far, my favorite.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read, so glad it is not a Real Story!!! Can't really say too much w/o giving away, what Happened.... However, I can say Rick Mofina does it again, GREAT AUTHOR!!!!

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book in the Jack Gannon series from author Rick Mofina, "Vengeance Road" is a dark, and twisted thriller. Jack Gannon is the ace crime reporter for the Buffalo Sentinel. Once nominated for a Pulitzer, Gannon is the best at what he does. The Buffalo Police Department has been called out to a dead body found at Ellicot Creek. Something very out of the norm for this area. The body of Bernice Tina Hogan has been partially buried in a very grisly manner. Police are keeping the scene off limits to everyone. Gannon cannot believe this areas is sealed off. The Victim who was a hooker, and drug addict who'd been trying to put her life back together. Gannon discovers the prime suspect is a cop. Not only a cop, but a hero cop who coaches kids and has huge number of awards. Karl Styebeck has the appearance of perfect police officer. How could he be involved as a suspect in this case ? Gannon blows it all out of the water by printing the entire story without proper documentation. The paper is forced to print an apology after editor Nate Fowler fires Gannon. Gannon is forced to go freelance. He's got to clear his name and prove his original story was true. Of course nobody in newspaper business wants anything to do with him. But Gannon marches on. He unravels a web of just incredible crimes and sickness. Even as two more bodies turn up and the case slowly moves across country and down into Texas Gannon is like a dog with a bone. The story itself was just riveting. It was just so hard to put down. I kept saying a few more pages, then a few more pages. Before I knew it I'd flew through the book. Author Rick Mofina is a master storyteller. This is the sixth book of his I've read. All six have been excellent. The characters in this one are so sufferable it's hard not to shed a tear as the terror awaits before them.The bad guy(s) come out of the book like the monsters they do appear to be. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone into excellent mystery/thrillers. The Jack Gannon character kind of reminded me of "Jim Rockford". In addition to being a writer, Gannon had to be a hard nosed not willing to back down investigator. Also like Rockford, Gannon never gets the respect he should. 5 stars out of a possible 5 stars for "Vengeance Road" by Rick Mofina. Do not miss this one. I'm for sure going to read the next Jack Gannon book soon.

[Amy Corwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vengeance Road is a thick book :)387 pages worth, and I only mention that because I'm not always in the mood for that kind of time investment. But Vengeance Road really is a page-turner. It hooks you and moves swiftly, without a lot of maundering about. Not a word, not a phrase is wasted. The characters seem real to you, like your neighbors and whether you like or dislike them, you can't help wanting to know what is going to happen with them.

The main character is Jack Gannon, a Buffalo NY reporter, just hoping he can keep his job, or even better, get the scoop on a really big story and move to NY City. When a young woman, Bernice Hogan is murdered, he falls all over the story, thinking this will be his big chance.

Then the story takes a turn. Gannon discovers that the main suspect is a policeman, Karl Styebeck.

I won't reveal more of the plot, but it's a fascinating story. I appreciated Mofina's style of writing, which could often be terse (perhaps masculine is the word I'm looking for) but fit the suspense very well. I know others have complained about places where Gannon took too many chances (strained their suspension of disbelief) but I had no such difficulties. People in real life do a lot of crazy things and following a suspect for a story is something that I can totally see happening. Particularly for Gannon who so desperately wants to discover the truth. None of us ever think anything bad will happen to us. We all believe "we can handle it." So I had no problems at all believing Gannon would do precisely what he did.

And that's why the characters worked for me. They acted in ways I could understand and that were right for that character (even if I, in a million years, would never follow a murder suspect alone. LOL).

It's a great read and will keep you engrossed until the end.

[Gwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Vengeance Road. Having never read R. Mofina before I was leary of the "international best-seller" tag on the cover. But Mofina writes brillantly. He is a former crime reporter and translates his expertise into fiction wonderfully. I couldn't put this book down. Although this is a murder, supense, fiction, the crime wasn't terribly graphic and descriptive. I appreciated that, because some authors go a little too far with what happened.

The story follows Jack Gannon, a reporter for the Buffalo Sentinel. He has lost his sister to ??? (he doesn't know what she fell into). Gannon dreams of working in Manhattan, NY writing for the big newspaper. Gannon has the nose of a bloodhound when it comes to seeking out a story. He uses a confidential source to secure information and when push comes to shove, he doesn't give up his source and is heavily penalized for it. Gannon is following the story of a murdered prostitute in a local park, somehow a local police hero is implicated in the crime. As Gannon persues the police hero stories start to change and history comes to the forefront. Can Karl Styebeck escape his past? Will the murders continue?

[Kally Sheng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast-paced, attention arresting thriller! This is my first Mofina book and will definitely not be the last. Half way through when the murderer was revealed I thought oh no this is not going to work, how was he (Mofina) going to keep the story going, but he did and more, the story was able to hold my attention and kept me turning the pages till the end!

Plan your work then work your plan. - Pg. 206, Location 2608

[Matt English · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I enjoyed the story overall, I had to "suspend disbelief" at Gannon's out of character lack of following up on the biggest tip he received half way through the book. The fact that he gave up investigating at the truck depot, where he saw the truck in question drive right by him, despite merely being merely rebuked by a rent-a-cop, was WAY of of character, and never mentioned as an error later in the story.

[Debby Kratky]

A wild ride

Rick Mofina keeps the action moving from one page to the next. Jack Gannon is a 21st century hero! Now, on to The Panic Zone.

[Sandy Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story.....wish we could rate 4.5 stars! Kind of creepy, some weird characters and a great plot; I would definitely recommend this book!

[Sean Cozart · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was suggested this book from my librarian because Rick Mofina is becoming a rapidly popular author in our town. All I can say is, I'm not impressed. The story follows the murder of a trouble nursing student and the disappearance of a single mother. Even though the two aforementioned persons were close friends, the disappearance and murder were not connected as being done by the same perpetrator until halfway through. Our hero of the story is Jack Gannon, a local reporter who is trying to write his breakout story in a dying newspaper. Under circumstantial evidence, a highly decorated cop is the prime suspect, and he has a dark history that he doesn't want to resurface.

I have two main problems with this story. One, I do not like Gannon's character. He is constantly portrayed as your not so ordinary reporter because of his kindness and willingness to help or protect people. Yet every time he does something "nice" (ex. protecting his sources to the point he lost his job), he does a 360 in the following chapter by being the typical asinine reporter. But his actions are justified because he was doing it to "find the truth". It's hard to take his character seriously when all he thinks about is his story and how he needs to beat the competition.

Two, climax is unbelievable and kind of came off as melodramatic and predictable. The cop "redeems" himself by taking the murderer down with him, and it's one of the oldest pages taken out of Hollywood's book, so it wasn't as grand as I had hoped. Though I find him the best character in the book since he was a man who was trying to not be like his dad and though he wasn't perfect, he never stopped trying.

[Patsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The murder of a brokenhearted woman and the chilling disappearance of her friend raise questions about their ties to a respected detective and lead to one journalist's obsession to find the truth

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. Jolene Peller, a single mom struggling to build a new life with her little boy, vanishes the night she tries to find Bernice. 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. 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.

[Laraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. "Vengeance Road" is the first book in Mofina's Jack Gannon series. Gannon is a reporter in Buffalo who hopes to make it to New York City, but seems to be stuck in place in his paper with his toad of a boss. But Jack gets involved in a story that takes him far from home as he investigates. A young girl is found brutally murdered and later it is discovered that her friend has disappeared the same day. The missing girl's mother contacts Jack to try to find her and this causes Jack to become a pariah but continue to investigate despite this. And the man who murdered the girl, took her friend and killed others is an evil man who has killed before and will kill again if he's not stopped. a very good thriller and a good read.

[Lena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened the books about Tom Reed and Walt Sydowski a few months ago, they were really good. When I found more of Rick Mofina's books for free on Audible I listened to the first in the series about Jack Gannon.

Jack is a reporter outside New York. A woman is found dead in a park and her friend is missing. Jack hears what the police are saying, they suspect one of their own was involved in the murder! He gets the name of the officer and writes the story. Now they deny everything and Jack gets in trouble for writing a story that wasn't true. Jack doesn't give up even when he gets fired. He starts digging and talking with people.

If I could I would have given this book ten stars!

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very close to 4 for me so maybe 3.75. I have taken to reading many of Rick Mofina's books recently and they are amazing, gory for the most part but so darn good. But if you read too many close together they follow the same story line so I need to have at least 5 books or more between them. I always wonder about the mind of someone who can come up with stories like this I know I got to the point that I couldn't read Stephen King anymore his stories just kept getting weirder and weirder and in some ways I see the same happening with Mr. Mofina's work, it's so really good but, sometimes very hard to read.

[Cathie M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a good story as a reporter stays just ahead of the police solving multiple murders across many states that appear to be related and done by the same individual. A local deceptive is suspected to be involved but he has not left town to commit the murders or leave the bodies. His flawed family history has put insanity into the generations and it is the deceive's brother who actually committed the murders and has framed his brother for them.

[Arthur Okun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a reader! During this pandemic I thank Rick Mofina for a marvelous book. I have read many books by Rick and I enjoyed them all. But Vengeance is the best,
It has a fantastic plot, A wonderful hero, Jack Gannon! Evil is happening on pages and our hero
Gannon must destroy. And in the tradions of ,newspaper reporting Rick through Jack Gannon does it
With fantastic writing.
I can’t wait for the next
Mofina adventure