Stephen White’s The Best Revenge: A Mystery Even When You Don’t Know It

A man is released from prison after he spent 13 years on death row for a murder he didn’t commit. Or did he? Throughout, Stephen White’s The Best Revenge, it seems so, then it seems not, then it seems so, etc. And you’ll keep changing your mind as you try to pick up the clues. I found, though, I missed plenty of clues when I thought White was just giving background at the beginning of the book. Read it carefully.

Someone is making life miserable for the ex-con. Or are they? Why is an FBI agent interested in him? How can their psychologist act ethically knowing what he knows?

A good mystery/thriller does at least three things: 1) it doesn’t make you read several chapters before the action starts; 2) it keeps you from doing anything else because you don’t want to put it down; and 3) it makes you anticipate what’s going to happen, but what happens isn’t what you anticipated. Halfway through this book, I thought it accomplished two of those things. It made me keep guessing, but my guesses were wrong, and I wasn’t getting much done while I read it. I realized later, though, that mysteries and clues to the mysteries began at the beginning. I didn’t recognize them.

I’m happy to say that I found an author, i.e., Stephen White is a new author for me, and now I get to read the rest of what he’s written. If you like a good mystery/thriller and you haven’t read White yet, I suggest you do.