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Badge of Honor #8

Final Justice

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Just as with his remarkable military novels, millions of readers have been captured by the rich characters and vivid realism of W. E. B. Griffin’s police dramas. “Griffin has the knack,” writes The Philadelphia Inquirer . He “sets his novel before you in short, fierce, stop-for-nothing scenes. Before you know it, you’ve gobbled it up.”

     Now, in Final Justice , Detective Matt Payne of the Philadelphia police department—newly promoted to sergeant and assigned to Homicide—finds himself in the middle of three major assignments. The first case, a fatal shooting at a fast-food restaurant, seems simple, but rapidly becomes complicated. The second, a rape that tumbled into murder, begins complicated and only gets more so, as it becomes apparent that the crime may be part of a disturbing, and escalating, pattern. The third is the most bizarre, as Payne becomes involved with a local figure who long ago fled the country, leaving behind the mummified body of his girlfriend in a trunk. Ever since, the murderer has been sending taunting postcards from his safe haven—but all that may be about to change.
     Weaving in and around this already hectic schedule are the visit to Philadelphia of the self-absorbed star of a series of improbable police movies, who wants Payne to show him “the real stuff,” and the appearance in Payne’s life of two very different women. Either one of them alone would be enough to set his head spinning, but together . . . this might be the most complicating thing of all.   
      Filled with color and detail and plots as real as the headlines, this is a riveting novel of the men and women who put their lives on the line, from the cop on the beat to the commissioner himself. It’s a story of fears, dangers, courage, loyalty, and genuine storytelling at its best.

518 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

284 people are currently reading
654 people want to read

About the author

W.E.B. Griffin

351 books1,298 followers
W.E.B. Griffin was one of several pseudonyms for William E. Butterworth III.

From the Authors Website:

W.E.B. Griffin was the #1 best-selling author of more than fifty epic novels in seven series, all of which have made The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and other best-seller lists. More than fifty million of the books are in print in more than ten languages, including Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, and Hungarian.
Mr. Griffin grew up in the suburbs of New York City and Philadelphia. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1946. After basic training, he received counterintelligence training at Fort Holabird, Maryland. He was assigned to the Army of Occupation in Germany, and ultimately to the staff of then-Major General I.D. White, commander of the U.S. Constabulary.

In 1951, Mr. Griffin was recalled to active duty for the Korean War, interrupting his education at Phillips University, Marburg an der Lahn, Germany. In Korea he earned the Combat Infantry Badge as a combat correspondent and later served as acting X Corps (Group) information officer under Lieutenant General White.

On his release from active duty in 1953, Mr. Griffin was appointed Chief of the Publications Division of the U.S. Army Signal Aviation Test & Support Activity at Fort Rucker, Alabama.

Mr. Griffin was a member of the Special Operations Association, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the Army Aviation Association, the Armor Association, and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Society.

He was the 1991 recipient of the Brigadier General Robert L. Dening Memorial Distinguished Service Award of the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association, and the August 1999 recipient of the Veterans of Foreign Wars News Media Award, presented at the 100th National Convention in Kansas City.

He has been vested into the Order of St. George of the U.S. Armor Association, and the Order of St. Andrew of the U.S. Army Aviation Association, and been awarded Honorary Doctoral degrees by Norwich University, the nation’s first and oldest private military college, and by Troy State University (Ala.). He was the graduation dinner speaker for the class of 1988 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

He has been awarded honorary membership in the Special Forces Association, the Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association, the Marine Raiders Association, and the U.S. Army Otter & Caribou Association. In January 2003, he was made a life member of the Police Chiefs Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and the State of Delaware.

He was the co-founder, with historian Colonel Carlo D’Este, of the William E. Colby Seminar on Intelligence, Military, and Diplomatic Affairs. (Details here and here)

He was a Life Member of the National Rifle Association. And he belongs to the Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Pensacola, Florida, chapters of the Flat Earth Society.

Mr. Griffin’s novels, known for their historical accuracy, have been praised by The Philadelphia Inquirer for their “fierce, stop-for-nothing scenes.”

“Nothing honors me more than a serviceman, veteran, or cop telling me he enjoys reading my books,” Mr. Griffin says.

Mr. Griffin divides his time between the Gulf Coast and Buenos Aires.

Notes:
Other Pseudonyms

* Alex Baldwin
* Webb Beech
* Walker E. Blake
* W.E. Butterworth
* James McM. Douglas
* Eden Hughes
* Edmund O. Scholefield
* Patrick J. Williams
* W. E. Butterworth
* John Kevin Dugan
* Jac

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5 stars
864 (42%)
4 stars
717 (35%)
3 stars
344 (16%)
2 stars
77 (3%)
1 star
32 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews
Profile Image for Joel Ungar.
414 reviews9 followers
September 29, 2013
Not as good as Books 6 and 7.

Big beef: The first 7 books all took place in the mid 1970s. Start reading Final Justice and all of the sudden everyone has laptops, cell phones and digital cameras. I don't think the year is established, but what is clear is that more than 25 years has elapsed, but NOBODY is any older.

And I think the story could have been told in the 1970s.
Profile Image for Don Bradshaw.
2,427 reviews105 followers
June 22, 2010
This was the first and last Badge of Honor book I will force myself to finish. Written in present day Philadelphia, you'd think all cops, prosecuters and journalists are totally and best of friends without exception. The fair haired boy of the day, Matt Payne, is a newly promoted homicide sergeant from a family of cops. The bad guy is a homicidal psycopath that buys and sells classic cars across the country and rapes and murders women by night.
The book is totally weighed down by long explanations of police procedure and just plain filler. Mr. Griffin could have cut 150 pages from the book and had an interesting short thriller. I guess Mr. Griffin thinks books sell by the pound. I promise myself that this is the last Griffin book that I'll pick up.
Profile Image for Diana.
468 reviews7 followers
June 12, 2020
Overall, this book was a really fun read. I absolutely love Matt Payne, in all of Griffin's series, he is definitely my favorite character. He's just so charming, smart, and funny. Although I could definitely do without women jumping into his bed all the time and the way that he falls in love immediately after meeting a woman. The way the mysteries played it and the manner in which they were solved were completely unpredictable and I didn't see it coming. In addition, there were so many hilarious scenes in this book. I couldn't help but laugh out loud as I was reading. Was definitely scared for a moment that Matt was done being a police officer, but glad that he decided to stay on. I look forward to reading more in the series.
Profile Image for Jeffrey.
738 reviews13 followers
May 8, 2010
I have been thinking of trying a Griffin book for a long time. The result is...

Whatever! Ho hum. This was just interesting enough that I wanted to see how it ended. Too many utterly unimportant details and many of those were repeated word for word ad naseum. I mean, you only have to tell me once the model of the handgun the main character carries--not sixty-two times. I am surprised Griffin did not give the serial number of the gun every time he mentioned that it was a Colt Officer's Model 1911.

Don't waste your time with this one.
Profile Image for John.
325 reviews11 followers
December 3, 2015
About 40 percent of this book is a regurgitation of the first seven books in this series. Three stars is generous. I think I'm done with this series.

Like Tom Clancy, it seems that with Griffin, it's all about the cash.
Profile Image for Carl Alves.
Author 23 books176 followers
August 27, 2017
About the only thing I liked about this novel is that it took part in my home town of Philadelphia. Otherwise there was not much to like about Final Justice, a horribly long-winded, sometimes laughably silly novel that often reads like a police procedural. The protagonist in the story is Matt Payne, a detective in the Philadelphia Police Department who is recently promoted and transferred to homicide. The plot is all over the place as it jumps from an unsolvable killing in a fast food restaurant, an extradition case of a murder fugitive from France, which I’m pretty sure is based on a real life case, and an actor trying to get a close up work on real police work for a show that he is working on. The novel would have been much better (and shorter) is Griffin stuck to a single storyline, but he appears to have been paid by the word. There was little believability in the novel and it was often times hard to take seriously. As I got toward the end, I just want the novel to mercifully be over. Skip this one.

Carl Alves – author of Blood Street
Profile Image for Edmond Gagnon.
Author 18 books52 followers
April 30, 2021
I had to check other reviews for this one to find out if wasn't just me that thought it sucked. Not even sure if it was deserving of one star, I was only able to trudge my way through fifty pages. The only thing I garnered from that read was who the protagonist was.
The book is just over 500 pages, with very small font, and could have easily been less than half that. Call me silly, but I really don't need to know things like the history of a police car or every little detail of the police department, including ranks, numbers, descriptions, etc.
I've complained about fluff in other novels, and haven't read this author before, but my best description is that it is a plethora of useless facts and information that totally distract from the story - if you can figure out what exactly that is.
Profile Image for Bernie Ruesgen.
12 reviews
October 10, 2020
I have read all the books in this series. They create a sequence of situations that leave you wanting more even though it is occasionally a little "over-written".
627 reviews6 followers
September 11, 2017
I'm convinced W.E.B Griffin gets paid by the word. He overexplained everything. I also think he may have gotten word and a half for swear words. And bonus points for reusing names. There were at least 4 Charleys, 2 Matts (and that was the main character's name) 3 Michaels, and even 2 Ralphs.

The guys were all like junior high boys.

The main character Matt was just oh-so-perfect. Because of this, he had two women basically falling all over him. Until they weren't any more.

Olivia Lassiter, his temporary partner, blamed him for her own actions and then refused to speak to him again.
I guess this book is part of a series, but there's this part about extraditing a prisoner from france that has nothing to do with anything else in this book.

There was too much arguing about jurisdiction in the book and who gets credit. That may very well be realistic, but it was also annoying.

And can you really become a supervisor in Homicide with only 2 years experience just because you happen to be able to pass a test?


Profile Image for Ginger Smith.
306 reviews34 followers
August 14, 2009
I'm having a hard time following this book. It spends a lot of time illustrating the inner workings of the Philadelphia PD, but even with all that, I can't seem to keep track of the ranking heirarchy between uniforms, detectives, sergeants, and leutenants. I'm half-way through the book and just barely grazed the surface of the 3 main "suspects" the book's main character is "chasing."

I hope it gets better soon!
Profile Image for Bob.
1,984 reviews21 followers
December 30, 2015
A police action tale that follows new Sgt. Matt Payne as he begins his time as a Sgt. in the Philadelphia Police Homicide squad. Looking for the shooter of a worker and a patrolman in fast food robbery, working with the protection detail to babysit a Hollywood actor who plays a detective and the killer of young woman in her apt. Interacting with a news reporter and a female officer he gets paired with. Fat book, but a good read. Going to pick some more Griffin's
Profile Image for Mark.
2,509 reviews31 followers
October 20, 2013
Matt Payne and the rest of Philly's finest are again the "thin blue line" between us and the barbarians...as in the previous, there are multiple story lines involving love, murder, celebrity and foreign legal conflict...I particularily enjoyed Ira Einhorn, a.k.a. "The Unicorn Killer"-like story line having followed that news event for years
675 reviews1 follower
March 2, 2020
Just about the weakest interpersonal dialog you could imagine--not sure how this made it into print
Profile Image for Greg G.
15 reviews
August 7, 2019
As others have said, this is the weakest of an okay series. Mr. Griffin's repeated exposition every novel of the same background is tiresome (I suppose justified if readers would tend to forget?), and I've never seen its like in any series I've ever read.

Churned through this one, thinking it was the last in the series, only to discover there are 6 more!? and was also confused about satellite phones all of a sudden appearing in a storyline which was apparently one where Matt Payne had only been on the force 5 years but which had advanced by at least 15-20 years. Weird. And other consistencies--Payne's rejection from the USMC here because of an ear problem, when all along I thought it was an eye(?).

Anyway, time for me to take a break from this series...it's a lot of lather-rinse-repeat: Payne the scoundrel finds an attractive woman and beds her, is protected by his "rabbis" Wohl and Coughlin, is always wittily sarcastic and macho, happens to always be at the right place at the right time to catch the bad guys, makes stupid decisions without consequence, etc., etc.

Not really sure the target demographic; I may circle back sometime when ready to read more.
Profile Image for Flugschütz.
35 reviews4 followers
June 4, 2024
An absolute p'off that the setting of this book jumps the series into the modern day (cell phones, laptops, etc etc)! It's taken me a bunch of years to get around to giving my little review on this book because of that.

I really enjoyed the first 7 books in this series and was very excited when this one was published. Snapped it up. I must say, I was rather confused at first. I mean, did I completely misremember the earlier books? Was there a book published earlier that I missed? This actually felt like a completely different series!

The primary reason I really enjoy Griffin's series of books is because of the style, which admittedly is very formulaic but I'm good with that as I generally know what I'm getting, and because they are set in earlier times. I did not finish this book and won't be looking at any of the later books in this series. For me, it's all about Badge of Honor's first 7 books. Forget about the rest.
Profile Image for Ron.
955 reviews5 followers
January 26, 2020
A typical novel written by Mr. Griffin.

I have come into this series and late after reading his other series. I assume there was a several-year gap between this book and the previous.

If you've read any of his military books you understand the basic formula of this one.

There will always be mentors and mentees...

At least one or two protagonist will be extremely wealthy, yet working in government service.

There will be at least one or two very large, intelligent, wise and heroic black gentleman in a position of authority.

There will always be some 20-something smart mouth protagonist, who through circumstances has been promoted beyond typical for his age.

However the story and mysteries contained were fairly interesting, and as always mr. Griffin is amongst the best at writing conversations.
168 reviews
February 1, 2019
Good enough story, moved along, was hoping to find another prolific writer to add to my faves. I’m a fan of original Clancy, Thomas Perry, but this one totally put me off. I finished it only so I could write this review. A couple of women characters amidst a dozen or so men, okay, if the plot requires it. But each time they were introduced (including to each new male character), it was in terms of female anatomy! And then in relation to sexual connection to the protagonist-hero. Whole attitude was pretty bad. Plus all the higher-ups in the Philadelphia city law enforcement establishment getting together to drink in bars every night late? The 25-year-old hero drinking himself senseless repeatedly after being cleared of his third shooting (while drunk)? After what appeared like a breakdown? And cleared by two psychiatrists (all you need is rest)?! Changed my mind. Story is not good enough after all.
Profile Image for Roberto Rosas.
Author 19 books
December 3, 2021
First time I read any book by this author, WEB Griffin, but I see that he was a prolific and successful writer. I liked the story overall; however, I (like many others) think Griffin put too much information and detail in many parts of the story. I could write it easily in half the pages that he used, and it would be much easier to read for the average reader. With all that said, I kept reading till the inconclusive but hurried end, which seems intended to leave the reader looking for the next book (#9) in the series.

Not wanting to be a sour critic of an established (and now deceased) fellow writer, and because I was entertained for several hours reading his police tale, I give the book a 3 star review.
Profile Image for Berk Rourke.
378 reviews
May 4, 2019
The multiplicity of characters in this book were fantastic. The manner in which they played their various roles in the crimes being perpetrated in the city of Philadelphia was described in a little too much detail sometimes but the humorous comments of the characters and situations which developed made that criticism less impactful. The stories, blended as they were into several tales going at once, a difficult prospect for any author, took the reader in and out of a web (yes, pun intended) of intrigue, excitement and action. A well paced book, this one. It is well worth the time taken.
342 reviews1 follower
September 16, 2019
Heerlijk verhaal en ja, heel veel, echt heel veel herhalingen en uitgebreide functiebeschrijvingen etc. Maar Griffin schrijft snel en weet alle zaken toch weer netjes aan elkaar te breien. Beetje romantiek, beetje humor, zoals gebruikelijk de nodige gewelddadige gebeurtenissen en op het eind wint the good guy. Stelt allemaal niet zo veel voor, maar leest heerlijk weg. En dat is wat je op vakantie zoekt, tenminste ik!
Profile Image for Rebecca.
205 reviews4 followers
November 26, 2020
I listened to this one (as I do to most of these) and I enjoyed the story immensely but did not love the narrator.

To those who say it "jumped too far in the future" with talks about cell phones and laptops, I think it was a natural progression of time. Cellular phones that they weren't sure would work in another state, laptops that had to be plugged in constantly, etc. Wonderful story, can't wait to see what happens next.
19 reviews
August 1, 2017
A bit of a tedious read especially in the beginning, but then the book picks up steam as it goes along.There are a lot of characters to keep track of and at the end we see a few layers of the main character that he not without his shortcomings however smart he may be. Over all a very enjoyable read as I could not wait to finish it.
1 review
January 27, 2023
This books seemed to jump inexplicably from the 1970´s of the previous one in the series, to the late 1990's.

If the editor took out the same stories told about the same characters, this book would actually be 25 pages long, I guess.
24 reviews
July 17, 2024
Another interesting story

This book is a continuation of the excellent stories in the Badgenof Honor series. Yhrough the eyes of the lead character, Matt Payne, you get an appreciation of the inner workings of our big city police departments,
321 reviews4 followers
September 10, 2019
Matt gets special detail to provide protective services to Hollywood actor, ends up in France with Micky for 30 days R&,R after another shooting
856 reviews2 followers
October 23, 2019
Interesting book, but not one of my favorites. As I recall, all of my W.E.B. Griffen reads fall into that category.
1 review
January 23, 2020
Wonderful book

Absolutely first class character development. I have most books multiple times, and get lost in them every time. This series is superb
9 reviews
May 2, 2020
Another vgood read

As always Griffin delivers on a grand scale. He knows what his readers demand and gives it to them. Looking forward to whatever he publishes nect
Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews

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