Redemption Road by John Hart
Adrian Wall is paroled after thirteen years in prison for the
murder of a woman ritually placed on the altar of a church. He always swore he was innocent. His time behind bars was hard on him not only
because he was a cop.
Elizabeth Black is a cop in trouble. She is facing murder charges after shooting
two men who sexually assaulted a teenage girl over the course of almost two
days. Elizabeth and the victim are
white, the two dead men were black and they were shot eighteen times, but the
way they were shot has the word “torture” is being whispered behind closed
doors.
Elizabeth always thought Adrian was innocent. She can’t see the man who saved her life
guilty of leaving a body on the altar of her father’s church. But another woman is found placed on the
altar of the now abandoned church in the exact same way, days after Adrian is
released. Was Adrian actually
guilty?
Hart is a master at interweaving plot lines seamlessly. Like most novels you know that the storylines
will tie together at the end but his stories come together at different points
in the narrative slowly binding them all together and it just feels so
organic. Nothing is even forced. Did I guess who did it at the end? Nope.
And I was sure I know who it was!
But at the final big reveal it all was made clear.
Don’t like mysteries and thrillers because you want solid
well-developed characters? It might be
time to try this author. He writes
characters that you get to really know, who behave in ways that make sense,
even when their logic is beyond our understanding.
I have been a John Hart fan for a few years now and I can’t wait
to read what he writes next. I enjoyed
this book on audio, but I read the last 150 pages because I had to know how things
would end and couldn’t want to get back in the car to find out. And wow.
What an ending! Pretty sure this
will be my favorite southern mystery/thriller/book of the year!
