Fiction
Vengeance
A.J. Scudiere
Griffyn Ink
2008
ISBN: 0-9799510-1-1
Soft cover
395 pages
Author A. J. Scudiere's second novel, Vengeance, is the adventure story of two victims of a powerful mafia family. As in the author's first book, Resonance, Scudiere places fully developed characters into detailed action scenes that create intensity and intrigue.
Cynthia Beller and Lee Maxwell had their families wiped out by the infamous Kurev family. Both Cynthia's father and Lee were accountants with a firm that operated as a front business for the Kurevs. When each man attempted to end his affiliation with the mafia owned company, their families were targeted. Cynthia and Lee choose revenge as a means of coping with their respective losses. The two meet when Lee comes across Cynthia as she is writing her signature note for the police after killing a target Lee had planned to take out himself.
Another chance encounter at a victim's home leads to Lee confronting Cynthia about each staying out of the other's way. When working from a list of potential victims leads them to the same target, again, the pair decides to work together to accomplish their shared goal: to exterminate the top guns of the Kurev family.
While Cynthia and Lee are dividing their kills, FBI agent Owen Dunham grows increasingly frustrated with the serial killer he initially names the Grudge Killer. Dunham's attempts at capturing one killer and then a second are described against the background of his personal life, which includes a wife and a daughter he loves but rarely sees.
Scudiere skillfully offers readers vivid and highly descriptive images of the revenge murders. The author also does a wonderful job of humanizing these serial killers who are actually traumatized victims themselves and putting the vulnerabilities of a seasoned law enforcement agent on display. The images in this book are so dynamic, reading each scene is like watching an action flick in slow motion.
Vengeance is an attention-grabbing story that lovers of action-driven novels will fall hard for. I highly recommend it.
Melissa Levine
for Independent Professional Book Reviewers
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