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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A Sudden Vengeance Waits

A Sudden Vengeance Waits
by Nik Morton
(5/5 stars)

There's a whole subgenre of revenge stories out there, running the gamut from ancient times to Westerns to distant worlds. "A Sudden Vengeance Waits" is far more contemporary and closer to home, taking place in a small British community that nonetheless is plagued by crime thanks to the recent recession.

That crime hits close to home for the Knight family when their grandmother is killed during a break-in. There are four Knight children: police officer Paul, college student Lisa, mechanical genius Stu, and rebellious young actor Mark. Soon after the funeral (like pretty much the same night) someone beats up some burglars and leaves a note proclaiming him(her)self as the Black Knight. Now can you guess which Knight might be going out at night to bust criminal heads?

The answer is kind of obvious, but I won't spoil that. Anyway, "A Sudden Vengeance Waits" is a decent entry in the revenge subgenre. It's not as gory or violent as some more recent entries. Really there's no gunplay at all, just one brief sword fight and some martial arts stuff. That doesn't make it fun for the whole family but it does mean you probably aren't going to lose your lunch either.

Overall this was a quick and satisfying read on the Kindle. And being an American the good thing about reading this on the Kindle is that I could look up some of the British slang in the dictionary, which was very helpful in figuring out what a trilby is for instance. (It's a hat.)

My only complaint, a minor one, is that there were so many names to keep track of. Besides the Knight family there were police offices, criminals, victims, and so forth. It was sometimes confusing.

That is all.

1 comment:

Briane said...

You should do more to publicize this blog. Your reviews are really good.

As for this book: Seems kind of paint-by-numbersy. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's not going to make me run out to buy the book, either.

Is it the actor? It's the actor, right?

One thing I always wondered: how do superheroes, etc., function in their day jobs if they're out all night fighting crime? Spider-Man used to deal with this a bit, but he was a free-lancer, so that was easy to work out. Superman, I assume, had superstamina and so didn't need sleep, although I don't recall that being exactly played up. Batman was just a playboy billionaire, so he could sleep in.

I don't have the answers. I just know that on days when the boys are up a lot the night before, I'm kind of dragging, and they're not exactly supervillains.

Yet.