Status Updates From [Vengeance: Mystery Writers...

IN PERSONA CHRISTI by Orest Stelmach ★★

Good opening line: “Two days before the killers came for Maria, a gang of teenagers rampaged across church property”. The story reminded me of a 70s Rock Concept Album: a clever structure to the central conceit but with little emotional engagement. This is the second priest in this collection whom I found myself unable to believe in.

BLOOD AND SUNSHINE by AdamMeyer ★★

Great opening line: “Most people don’t believe in pure evil, and neither did I until I met five-year-old Dylan Brewster.” Sadly, I found the rest of the story to be too slick for its own good. I didn’t see the twist at the end coming, but by that point, I was no longer invested in the story because I didn’t believe in the main character.

THE HOT-LINE by Dreda Say Mitchell ★★★

This was fun, mostly because it was both clever and unexpected. I enjoyed watching the quiet, accepting, non-confrontational Muslim woman finally find her anger, combine it with her creativity, and her daring to unleash a well-justified revenge.

The cool, reasonable storytelling tone contrasts with the main character's deep, even more reasonable rage, making his actions both unpredictable and deeply satisfying.

The story details the damage a predatory venture capitalist can legally inflict on whole communities. I loved that the main character’s driver wasn't vengeance but a need to know why a billionaire would cause such harm to gain a few millions.

A FINE MIST OF BLOOD by Michael Connelly ★★★

A little slice of Harry Bosch doing his thing. This time he’s set on the scent by a new data analysis technique, but his follow-through is all hunch, instinct and deviousness. There wasn’t much by way of mystery, but the ending was engineered to deliver suspense, a surprise or two and a spectacular conclusion.

THE GENERAL by Janice Law ★★★★

This was beautifully done. The vengeance was subtle. The hatred involved was palpable. The character of the general was disclosed and, in part, defined by the suspense generated by the gardener’s odd mix of passivity and threat. The pacing was perfect.

EVEN A BLIND MAN by Darrell James ★★★★

There was a lot packed into this story, and yet it never felt rushed or as if it was pushing information at me. It brought the characters and the situation into focus and then kept sharpening that focus in surprising ways that made the situation darker and the characters more complex. I found Earl Lilly fascinating. I’d like to read more about him.

SILENT JUSTICE by C. E. Lawrence ★★

This was too slight for me. The riffs on confessions and their consequences were interesting but the priest didn’t seem real to me.

IT AIN’T RIGHT by Michelle Gagnon ★★★

Some marriages have reefs, just below the surface, known but unacknowledged, unexplored, constantly navigated around and hidden from strangers. This is the story of one of those navigations. The storytelling is oblique but evocative. A slight story that, like a splinter, slips into the reader’s imagination and festers.

by Karin Slaughter ★★★★★

A brilliantly written, chillingly dark, suspenseful story where the vengeance wrought is evil, and you won’t see it coming. The prose grabbed me from the first sentence. The set-up is original and tense. With each reveal, the situation worsens. The ending is nasty and perfect

AFRICA WILL ALWAYS NEED GUNS by Michael Niemann ★★★★

I was impressed by how rigorously this was imagined, how unflinching the depiction of apparently unassailable corruption was, and how clearly drawn Valentin Vermeulen, the beleaguered investigator, was. This is the kind of story where no one comes out clean but where it’s possible, if you have the stomach for getting dirty, to make the world slightly less broken.

THE FINAL BALOT by Brendan DuBois ★★★

I liked the efficiency of the prose. Tension was established from the first page, and distrust wasn’t far behind it. The plot was horribly plausible, and it seemed unlikely that any vengeance could be achieved. The twist at the end was clever, but I didn’t quite believe it. I think it qualified as retaliation, but it didn’t seem to me to be vengeance.

HOT SUGAR BLUES by Steve Liskow ★★★★

I enjoyed how my slowly growing awareness of watching something dangerous unfold kept pace with my increasing dislike for the superstar performer. Telling the story as a first-person account from the manager was a masterstroke; it revealed the manager’s character and the performer’s, shared crucial pieces of history, and amplified the sense of watching a predatory performance.

RIVER SECRET by Anne Swardson ★★★

I liked the vivid but low-key storytelling style. It matched the personality of the main character, who presented a calm, harmless surface to the world that masked a born-of-trauma watchfulness and suspicion that eventually turned into cold vengeance.

MOONSHINER’S LAMENT by Rick McMahan ★★★

I liked the tone of the storytelling. It brought the period to life and got me inside the protagonist’s head. I liked that he wasn’t just a tough guy, that his desire for revenge was driven by grief rather than machismo and that he was aware that he and the ‘plan’ he intended to implement were both a little crazy. The ending seemed a little sudden to me..

THE CONSUMERS by Dennis Lehane ★★★★
With fluent confidence, Lehane builds a picture of Nicole’s life with her abusive-but-sorry-for-it-afterwards investment banker husband, Alan through Nicole’s memories and reflections. It’s a picture not just of a couplr living in empty, loveless luxury paid for by exploiting others. The ending was surprising. The calm, low-key violence made it more vengeful and more satisfying.

BLIND JUSTICE by Jim Fusilli ★★

This one wasn’t for me. Most gangster stories aren’t for me, especially ones that treat the violence that they inflict on each other as cute or amusing. The plot had inverted the normal storylines in a way I think was meant to be surprising but wasn’t. The writing was fine, but the tone was glib.

THE MOTHER by Alafair Burke ★★

I found this one hard to believe, I liked that the twist at the end was subtle but important. The court scenes worked, But I never got inside the main character’s head.

LOST AND FOUND by Zoë Sharp ★★★

An atmospheric (seedy, dark, doomed and blood-soaked) story with a clever twist and strong imagery. Telling the story using the second-person point of view lessened its impact for me. I understand that it helped enable the plot twists by obscuring identities, but even in a story as short as this, it quickly began to feel laboured.

THE FOURTEENTH JUROR by Twist Phelan ★★★★

Tight, clean writing and a plot that reeled me in, paragraph by paragraph. As Twist Phelan intended, I thought I was being clever and seeing what was really going on in this twisty story. I felt smug about it. Until I got to the end and realised I’d been played every step of the way and hadn’t gotten close to guessing the truth. I didn’t feel cheated; I felt entertained.