Justice is supposed to be blind, but in an imperfect world,
the blindness sometimes causes those depraved and hardened
criminals to escape the punishment they so deserve. Nowhere
is the system more flawed than in the area of abused and
battered women. Criminal Court Judge Carole Cranston sees
them get off, day after day, in her court of law and her
hands are tied with ropes formed from the "letter of the
law." Now someone's out to even the score. Though these
unrepentant abusers have been set free, someone believes
they should be eradicated and off the streets for good. All
the victims are those who've been set free from Carole's
courtroom.
Detective Nina Preston knows all about abuse. However, the
law was written to be served, and she believes vigilante
killers are just as bad as those who escaped justice. When
her partner and ex-lover, Ray Barkley, gets involved with
the beautiful confident judge, Nina is thrust into looking
at whether her gut instinct is fueled by jealousy or
reality. As the murders get more savage, so do the emotions
between everyone touched by the hateful hand of abuse.
Ray's life is on the line and love has colored him blind.
How long before someone innocent is tagged by this vicious
killer's unreasonable appetite for revenge? Because
sometimes you can't see the real culprit before you, until
it's too late.
Flowers has given us much more than a captivating story
here -- he's served a wake up call to failing judicial
systems bogged down in mires of red tape and loop holes.
Skillfully, he shows the different facets of abuse and how
it affects the lives of the women slapped down by its
hateful hand. From the hearth to the shelter, to those with
money and without, his characters are real and powerfully
touching. Victims reach out with their battered egos to tug
at the reader's heartstrings and sense of outrage. However,
it's a powerful mystery as well -- where figuring out who's
taking out their rage on those escaping justice is not just
simply compelling, it also activates reader's
consciousness, causing a tug of war between what's right by
the law and right by the victim. Page after page fuels this
reaction until there's no way out of this conundrum even
after the last page is turned. An A+ suspense/mystery with
a touch of heartfelt romance to ease the topic no one wants
to have to be a part of.
Male batterers of women are being beaten to death by a bat
wielding female vigilante. Each victim had recently been on
trial for domestic violence-related charges, but was set
free through plea bargains, technicalities, or acquittal.
Two Portland Police Bureau Detectives--Sergeant Ray Barkley
and his partner Detective Nina Parker--investigate the
killings. Among the list of suspects is Criminal Court
Judge Carole Cranston, who presided over the trials of all
the victims and has dark secrets she is in no hurry to
share.
Barkley soon develops an attraction to the beautiful
Carole, and vice versa, even as the case heats up and more
signs begin to point toward Carole as the serial murderess
the press has dubbed The Vigilante Batterer Killer.
Nina, who had a brief affair with Barkley, is determined to
prove that Carole is the killer.
As the body count rises, no one seems safe. In the end, all
the pieces come together in an exciting, page turning
whodunit and why.
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