The Rebel by Jaime RavenMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Time taken to read - 1.5 days
Pages - 448
Publisher - Avon
Source - Review copy
Blurb from Goodreads
Sometimes you have to take the law into your own hands…
DI Laura Jefferson will do whatever it takes to bring down London’s most notorious crime boss. When her team receives a deadly threat – stop their investigation or the police and their families will be targeted – but they aren’t willing to back down…
Then the killings begin.
A new body turns up every day, and with no leads, Laura knows she has to take action. Her family is innocent and she’ll stop at nothing to protect them.
When someone close to her is hurt, she’ll break every rule in the book to get vengeance.
My Review
London's cops are coming down hard on the criminal underworld, one bad guy/organisation at a time. As the police turn up the heat, the bad guys decide to fight back, by any means necessary. Told from the point of view of three of our main characters, Laura (detective inspector), Rosa (skilled and ruthless assassin) and Slack (notorious crime boss) we get a diverse look at what is going down through their points of view. No one is safe, anyone could be next and the police are facing their biggest threat ever.
I have read Raven once or twice before, I like gritty crime so have enjoyed their work, this book though, page turner. When you see the point of view from the good guy, the bad guy and the hired gun it gives you food for thought for all the points of view from one situation but from different angels. A hired assassin is always chilling because they do what they do for the pay off, this time, as well as the motive, we get to see the human side of this monster. Laura has her own personal issues which are mostly background as the main focus of the book is the investigation and murders, however there is enough to give you a feel for who she is as a character. The crime boss, his motives are clear from the get go but a good author gives you some surprises along the way, Raven does this with The Rebel.
Drawn in pretty much from the opening chapter the pace is consistent throughout and had life not gotten in the way I could have read this is just about one sitting. As with most crime fiction we have murder, mayhem, family, relationships, violence and there is a wee bit of sexual content so just an fyi. I will be checking out Raven's back catalogue and wonder if we will see more with DI Laura Jefferson, 4/5 for me this time!
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I agree that getting into the heads and humanizing the bad guys and girls adds s lot to a book. I wish that more writers would do this. The book sounds good in a lot of ways.
ReplyDeleteOh sweet! This one sounds like this one is a winner. I always like it when the bad guy is more than a simplistic character in a book.
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