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In the short course of four novels, Jonathon King has introduced and developed Max Freeman, one of the more unique characters in crime fiction. Freeman has been slowly and surely evolving against the backdrop of South Florida, supported by a limited number of strong secondary characters and building a loyal readership that has been expanding exponentially. At a point when most writers would continue to solidify the series, at least for purposes of momentum, King has looked the other way. His new novel, EYE OF VENGEANCE, introduces Nick Mullins, a protagonist as instantly memorable as Freeman, but in entirely different ways.
Mullins is a crime reporter for the South Florida Daily News, a powderkeg sitting in the middle of the newsroom. Mullins's life has been one of quiet devastation since his wife and one of his twin daughters were killed in an accident involving a drunk driver. Mullins attempts to balance his life between his reporting and his duties of fatherhood toward his surviving daughter, but it is a losing battle with his paternal duties coming out on the short end. Mullins is further distracted, mightily, when he discovers that the man who killed his wife and daughter has been freed from prison.
Things begin to slowly converge for Mullins, however, when a convicted murderer, attempting to overturn the verdict against him on appeal, is gunned down with brutal and precise efficiency outside a corrections facility. Mullins is familiar with the victim, and even more familiar with his crime: the man was the subject of a series feature that Mullins wrote during the man's trial and conviction. While researching his past stories, Mullins discovers to his shock that another criminal he had previously written about had been killed in a similar fashion. And when a third criminal Mullins had written about is executed in the same way, Mullins cannot escape the conclusion that someone is using his crime story articles as a means to obtain a rough and righteous justice against those who have escaped the law. Mullins soon finds himself confronted with a choice that will have serious repercussions with him personally --- one that will either bring him the peace he so desperately needs, or spin his life into deeper turmoil.
King visits the landscapes of some uncomfortable moral dilemmas in EYE OF VENGEANCE. The sniper within the pages of this finely written work is not a bad guy and is certainly more righteous than his targets. It is Mullins, however, who is the subject of deep exploration, and King's past employment as a newspaper reporter holds him in good stead here as he gives the reader an over-the-shoulder look at a modern-day newsroom and the industry of which it is a part. As demonstrated in his Freeman novels, King is a master of characterization with few peers, and he takes his already considerable talents up a notch or two in EYE OF VENGEANCE. Mullins and Freeman, for one thing, are not interchangeable characters. Other than their shared locale of South Florida, and the fact that both are badly bent in different ways, they have no common characteristics. Yet they are both equally appealing, strong and sympathetic characters who succeed, even on the brink of failure, because they keep moving ever forward.
Fans of Freeman who regret his absence here will find any reticence toward meeting Mullins evaporating after reading the first few pages of this gripping work. From its startling beginning to its unpredictable yet oddly satisfying ending, EYE OF VENGEANCE is a winner.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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