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Jack West #3
Vicious Vendetta: A Jack West Novel
Cyrus Shelton has spent the last twenty-three years locked up in the Huntsville State Penitentiary with only one thing on his mind - revenge on the arresting detective, Frank Windom, and his lousy defense attorney, Jonell Simone. Now paroled and having learned Windom had the nerve to die, he sets his sights on Windom's former partner, Jack West.
When a cryptic letter addressed to him AND Frank arrives, Jack is curious but dismisses it; he is deeply involved with a triple homicide. The Attorney General’s Office steps in ordering Jack to stand down from his investigation and he knows his case goes deeper than just a homicide.
With no murder case to work, he turns his attention to the cryptic letter and finds out Jonell received a similar letter. Cyrus Shelton is on his murder rampage and the gloves come off.
Jack wants revenge.
Now it is personal.
When a cryptic letter addressed to him AND Frank arrives, Jack is curious but dismisses it; he is deeply involved with a triple homicide. The Attorney General’s Office steps in ordering Jack to stand down from his investigation and he knows his case goes deeper than just a homicide.
With no murder case to work, he turns his attention to the cryptic letter and finds out Jonell received a similar letter. Cyrus Shelton is on his murder rampage and the gloves come off.
Jack wants revenge.
Now it is personal.
286 pages, Paperback
Published October 28, 2021
About the author
Deanna King
7 books59 followersI was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, however, did not grow up in the corn husker state. My father was in the Air Force, and that was how he ended up from Texas to Nebraska to meet my mom. Military families move around, as most of you know, so I have lived in many places. The most exciting place was Japan; unfortunately, I was too young to enjoy or remember the experience. Living in Texas for a huge portion of my life means I consider myself a good ole Texas gal.
Moving from place to place, I was always the new kid so I couldn’t be shy, and people who know me will tell you that being shy is not a problem for me in the slightest. I love meeting people and making new friends wherever I go. My aunt introduced me to the classics, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Black Beauty, Heidi, Charlotte’s Webb and Alice in Wonderland, to name a few. Reading took me to a new place and with my vivid imagination drawing me into the book, I was part of the story. From the classics, I moved to mysteries, Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, graduating to the love stories of Harlequin and Silhouette.
Before the Internet and personal computers, I either typed or wrote longhand. However, my handwriting stinks (perhaps I should have been a physician) and I had problems reading it myself. I know you are laughing and so am I. So, yes; I used an old fashion typewriter.
I finally had enough of a manuscript to work with and a query. I was ready to send it by snail mail to Harlequin. Despite all the slush piles, I hoped at least my work would be reviewed before they trashed it, sending me the obligatory “thank you but no thank you” reply. Snail mail takes forever and replies even longer. So I went about my life, and I kept writing when I found the time.
I received an unexpected phone call from New York months later. A representative from Harlequin was calling. My heart was racing. It excited me that maybe my dream of being a published author was about to come true. No. My dream was still a dream. I was disappointed and exhilarated, but I would not give up.
Years later a chain of events happened, giving me ample time to write, and I pounded the keyboard, publishing my first children’s book. Afterward, I was given an opportunity to have my first crime novel published, and since then I have finished the second and third Jack West Novels, and have been working on the fourth. Lest I forget, I also have a soon-to-be-published fantasy/romance, and the second book is in the works.
My life over the years has brought me full circle to a dream that began years ago. I am now a published author and excited that I get to entertain readers!
Moving from place to place, I was always the new kid so I couldn’t be shy, and people who know me will tell you that being shy is not a problem for me in the slightest. I love meeting people and making new friends wherever I go. My aunt introduced me to the classics, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Black Beauty, Heidi, Charlotte’s Webb and Alice in Wonderland, to name a few. Reading took me to a new place and with my vivid imagination drawing me into the book, I was part of the story. From the classics, I moved to mysteries, Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, graduating to the love stories of Harlequin and Silhouette.
Before the Internet and personal computers, I either typed or wrote longhand. However, my handwriting stinks (perhaps I should have been a physician) and I had problems reading it myself. I know you are laughing and so am I. So, yes; I used an old fashion typewriter.
I finally had enough of a manuscript to work with and a query. I was ready to send it by snail mail to Harlequin. Despite all the slush piles, I hoped at least my work would be reviewed before they trashed it, sending me the obligatory “thank you but no thank you” reply. Snail mail takes forever and replies even longer. So I went about my life, and I kept writing when I found the time.
I received an unexpected phone call from New York months later. A representative from Harlequin was calling. My heart was racing. It excited me that maybe my dream of being a published author was about to come true. No. My dream was still a dream. I was disappointed and exhilarated, but I would not give up.
Years later a chain of events happened, giving me ample time to write, and I pounded the keyboard, publishing my first children’s book. Afterward, I was given an opportunity to have my first crime novel published, and since then I have finished the second and third Jack West Novels, and have been working on the fourth. Lest I forget, I also have a soon-to-be-published fantasy/romance, and the second book is in the works.
My life over the years has brought me full circle to a dream that began years ago. I am now a published author and excited that I get to entertain readers!
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 11, 2026
I'm willing to give this one star because it follows the general crime fiction, serial-killer, and police-procedural narrative frameworks.
*** SPOILERS ***
The Shock Value
While crime fiction often treats serial killers as exclusively white, actual criminological data indicate that Black serial killers exist at rates proportional to the population. However, the book wildly misrepresents the data on who these killers target.
In reality, violent crime and serial killings in the U.S. are overwhelmingly intraracial—meaning offenders usually target people within their own communities. Furthermore, real-world serial killers almost always target highly vulnerable, marginalized individuals who slip through society's cracks—sex workers, poor people, marginalized communities. By inventing a plot where a Black man mounts a highly organized, medieval rape and torture campaign specifically against elite white politicians and police officers and their girlfriends, the book completely abandons factual realism in favor of pure, sensationalized shock value.
The Trap of Racial Stereotypes
The way the book describes Cyrus Shelton is TEXTBOOK for some of the oldest, most damaging tropes in American media—specifically the caricature of the hyper-violent, hyper-sexualized Black predator. Real readers and audiobook reviewers have pointed out that the dialogue and vernacular forced onto the Black characters feel incredibly unnatural and stereotypical, completely missing the vibe of actual Houston culture. By pitting a savage Black antagonist against powerful white victims, the story sets up a racially charged binary that strips away any chance of a nuanced psychological study. Instead, it frames the character’s violence not as a complex reaction to a broken life, but as an inherent, monstrous EVIL—that every White woman should be terrified of.
The Prison System as a Plot Device
The American prison system—especially notorious Texas institutions like Huntsville—is a deeply complex world of institutional violence, forced labor, and mental health crises. Instead of engaging with any of that reality, the novel treats Shelton’s 23-year sentence as a blink (during which he doesn't age) and has him plotting an elaborate revenge. We don't see the systemic failures or the crushing realities of long-term confinement; we just see a guy "stewing" on a vendetta. By using his release as the catalyst for a bloodbath, the story plays directly into tough-on-crime anxieties, pushing the narrative that the prison system's biggest flaw is letting people out rather than looking at what happens to them while they are inside. It also suggests that these criminals—especially the Black ones—will immediately attack random White women just because.
The Impact of Class, Gender, and Opportunity
The book operates in a vacuum where structural disadvantages don't seem to exist. By making the victims elite politicians and police officers (really?), the story naturally directs all our empathy upward toward people who already hold massive systemic power, completely ignoring how those power structures shape the legal system to begin with. On top of that, throwing sexual assault and graphic torture into the mix misses the opportunity to examine gender-based violence and is more like cheap narrative torture porn. I had to skip all of those sections. The book uses sexual violence strictly as a tool to dial up the villain's depravity, which in turn gives the hero, Jack West, a free pass to break the rules and use whatever brutal, vigilante justice he wants.
I feel sorry for the victims in this series. And sorry that I trudged on to finish it.
Please include a trigger warning on the audiobook for the excessive amount of descriptive rape and torture.
*** SPOILERS ***
The Shock Value
While crime fiction often treats serial killers as exclusively white, actual criminological data indicate that Black serial killers exist at rates proportional to the population. However, the book wildly misrepresents the data on who these killers target.
In reality, violent crime and serial killings in the U.S. are overwhelmingly intraracial—meaning offenders usually target people within their own communities. Furthermore, real-world serial killers almost always target highly vulnerable, marginalized individuals who slip through society's cracks—sex workers, poor people, marginalized communities. By inventing a plot where a Black man mounts a highly organized, medieval rape and torture campaign specifically against elite white politicians and police officers and their girlfriends, the book completely abandons factual realism in favor of pure, sensationalized shock value.
The Trap of Racial Stereotypes
The way the book describes Cyrus Shelton is TEXTBOOK for some of the oldest, most damaging tropes in American media—specifically the caricature of the hyper-violent, hyper-sexualized Black predator. Real readers and audiobook reviewers have pointed out that the dialogue and vernacular forced onto the Black characters feel incredibly unnatural and stereotypical, completely missing the vibe of actual Houston culture. By pitting a savage Black antagonist against powerful white victims, the story sets up a racially charged binary that strips away any chance of a nuanced psychological study. Instead, it frames the character’s violence not as a complex reaction to a broken life, but as an inherent, monstrous EVIL—that every White woman should be terrified of.
The Prison System as a Plot Device
The American prison system—especially notorious Texas institutions like Huntsville—is a deeply complex world of institutional violence, forced labor, and mental health crises. Instead of engaging with any of that reality, the novel treats Shelton’s 23-year sentence as a blink (during which he doesn't age) and has him plotting an elaborate revenge. We don't see the systemic failures or the crushing realities of long-term confinement; we just see a guy "stewing" on a vendetta. By using his release as the catalyst for a bloodbath, the story plays directly into tough-on-crime anxieties, pushing the narrative that the prison system's biggest flaw is letting people out rather than looking at what happens to them while they are inside. It also suggests that these criminals—especially the Black ones—will immediately attack random White women just because.
The Impact of Class, Gender, and Opportunity
The book operates in a vacuum where structural disadvantages don't seem to exist. By making the victims elite politicians and police officers (really?), the story naturally directs all our empathy upward toward people who already hold massive systemic power, completely ignoring how those power structures shape the legal system to begin with. On top of that, throwing sexual assault and graphic torture into the mix misses the opportunity to examine gender-based violence and is more like cheap narrative torture porn. I had to skip all of those sections. The book uses sexual violence strictly as a tool to dial up the villain's depravity, which in turn gives the hero, Jack West, a free pass to break the rules and use whatever brutal, vigilante justice he wants.
I feel sorry for the victims in this series. And sorry that I trudged on to finish it.
Please include a trigger warning on the audiobook for the excessive amount of descriptive rape and torture.
September 11, 2026
This was a great story that kept you on your toes. At first you start off with 2 different story lines. A criminal’s and a police officer’s. The cop is going about his business and it seems the convict is too, then it starts getting crazy when you see where these lines will meet. This was a little too detailed at times and there was some graphic depictions. However, the plot thickened quickly and it went from somewhat boring to nail biting.
April 7, 2023
Amazing
Good book, very detailed and great descriptions. instead of one basic FBI case she has written this book more real life,the agents have multiple case its very interesting
Good book, very detailed and great descriptions. instead of one basic FBI case she has written this book more real life,the agents have multiple case its very interesting
February 9, 2026
Another great read in the Jack West series. A little slower getting into this one but quickly became a page turner!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews