Evelyn Moore has been waiting eleven years for the man who killed her son to be released from prison. She has one thing on her mind, revenge for the death of her nine-year-old son. Evelyn’s husband, Tobias, loves his wife deeply and has stuck by her in the intervening years, hoping that he can persuade his wife not to carry out her deadly plan.
Having read Jack Jordan’s previous two novels, Do
No Harm and Conviction, I know that the author writes about protagonists
who are forced to face moral dilemmas. The author’s latest novel, Redemption,
features people facing moral dilemmas but this time around it seems to be on a
much greater scale. Evelyn isn’t being coerced to take a life, it’s her own
choice.
The heart of the novel is about grief, and how we move
through the different stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and
acceptance. We see two people who are at different points on this journey.
After eleven years Tobias has reached acceptance but his wife hasn’t moved past
the anger stage. As a result, their marriage is strained. We get brief glimpses
of the young couple in the early years of their relationship and learn that
Tobias still loves his wife. It’s his love that has kept him in the relationship,
he knows what Evelyn plans to do and hopes that he can prevent her from
carrying out her plan.
Evelyn is single-minded. She has planned what she is going
to do for eleven years. The author has given us a glimpse into the mind of a
grieving mother bent on revenge and it is intense. This is a woman who will
stop at nothing and will not let anyone get in her way. She knows that her
husband doesn’t share her convictions, she sees him as a hindrance, so plans to
move on without him as soon as possible.
Aaron Alexander is the third person in this story. We learn
about his terrible childhood, his teenage years as a petty criminal and the
fateful night when he ran over Joshua Moore and left him for dead. Aaron seems
to have given up on life, he’s existing from one day to the next.
All of the characters elicit sympathy. Jack Jordan
has written the characters in such a way that you can get inside their minds,
you understand what is driving them. You may not agree with what they are doing
but you understand why.
This novel is set in Nevada, USA rather than the UK. This
was obviously necessary for the plot. Wide open space, miles between inhabited
areas and a sparse population allow for a drawn-out cat-and-mouse chase. The
desert setting also adds an apocalyptic feel, as if you are at the end of the
world with no hope in sight.
The body count is high and the violence is extreme, the
author has pulled no punches as Evelyn is consumed by her goal. There are a
couple of scenes in particular that made me wince, I’d have been covering my eyes if this had
been a film.
Redemption by Jack Jordan will be published on 20th June 2024 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster UK for a review copy.
Author Details
Jack Jordan is the global bestselling author
of Anything for Her, My Girl, A Woman Scorned,
Before Her Eyes, Night by Night, Do No Harm and Conviction,
and an Amazon No. 1 bestseller in the UK, Canada and Australia.
Do No Harm was described as ‘chilling’ by Sarah Pearse, ‘brilliant’ by Lesley
Kara and ‘pulse-racing’ by Louise Candlish. It was an instant Times bestseller
on first publication and a Waterstones Thriller of the Month pick.
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