Vendetta

by Phil Hughes

Lewis O'Brien lost his mother after a struggle against Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis. With her dying breath, she beseeched her son "not to go there! Nothing can bring him back!" Lewis had no idea where there was, nor indeed who he was. With the loss of his mother, his life entered into a steady downward spiral that would ultimately provide him with the answers to both those questions. They were answers he would rather have left untold. Unwittingly, he soon arrived in the "there" and it was only a matter of time before he discovered the "who". After his arrival in the village, his wife was brutally murdered, but unlike the death of his mother, this time Lewis had recourse, he could exact his revenge by embarking on a Vendetta!

242 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 10, 2016

About the author

Although educated in Classical Studies, Phil is the author of several historical crime novels. Having spent many years living in the Mafia infested hinterlands of Naples, Phil bases his novels on his experiences while living there. Much of what he includes in his stories is based on real events witnessed first hand.

Having retired from writing and editing technical documentation for a living, Phil returned to his Irish roots and now lives in Wexford with his partner and their border terriers, Ruby, Maisy, and the new addition Ted. He writes full time and where better to do it than in the Sunny South East of Ireland.

Reviews

[Ian Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is mainly set in a small town outside Naples. A Camorra capo is killed, and his wife and small son flee. Son grows up in Ireland, and returns to town, not knowing much about it. The plot is very slender, and to say more would simply spoil it. The story has too much foreboding for me, and the end actually turns up in the middle of the story. The characters are well portrayed and the material is there for a tragedy in the Shakespearian style, but for me, the sequence of events was too light, and this opportunity was missed, although in fairness to the author, such a tragedy is not easy to write. The writing is easy to read and the reader gets an impression of life in southern Italy (although the southern Italians might protest that the author has it all wrong – I have no idea.) From the title, I gather there will be more books following this. I would have preferred more material in this one. It is easy to read, the style is pleasant, but given the topic, the intensity is too low for me.

[LyndaVee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and was delighted to read on the cover that it is one of the Camorra Chronicles, so I will have more to look forward to. The story is set in Naples, a city I know quite well as a frequent visitor, and I found the setting very authentic. I like the way the story is book-ended by the man in prison; he has committed murder and you know that when you are placed back in time for the plot to unravel. If ever there was a man more unfortunate than Gigi to find himself in the very place that his mother had begged him never to visit, I can’t readily think of one. That he was so carried away in his Camorra bubble, believing he had identified a Camorra capo is actually amusing for us (but not for the hapless Gigi).

[Blanca Rosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting plot about organised crime in Naples
When his mother dies, Lewis O’Brien leaves his native Dublin and accepts a job in Naples. He is fluent in Italian because his mother was Italian. When Lewis arrives in Naples, he finds his way in the complex society very easily and is surprised to discover that the Italian that he speaks is exactly the dialect of North Naples, where he now lives. Unfortunately, he has inadvertently found himself in the very village that his mother has escaped from and she warned him, on her deathbed, never to go there. Is this why someone takes a pot shot at him, killing his wife by accident, or are there other reasons behind the act? I enjoyed the plot and the feeling of immersion into Neapolitan society that I felt whilst reading this book.