Prodigal Son by Greg Hurwitz (Orphan X Series)

Evan Smoak is an assassin par excellence. He is the Orphan X, selected at a young age from an orphanage by a shadowy government agency and trained to be a highly-skilled assassin for the government. After having had enough of killing for the government, he becomes the Nowhere Man, the helper of desperate, persecuted people. But the government, not wanting to risk the exposure of such a sensitive asset, forces him to retire in return for letting him live. His retirement, an opportunity for him to get the first taste of a normal life, is cut short when he gets a call from someone who claims to be his mother asking him to help a man whose life is in terrible danger – a man whom Smoak might know from his past life in the orphanage. It is up to Smoak to unravel the conspiracy and stop some extremely powerful bad guys from executing their deadly plan, while dealing with his past that has come back from nowhere to haunt him.

Prodigal Son is my first experience with the hugely acclaimed Orphan X series by Gregg Hurwitz and it turned out to be so good that I have decided to read the five previous novels soon. This is an excellent book with the perfect mix of heart-stopping action, cutting-edge technology and a moving human element. While the breakneck narrative of Smoak’s adventure and the technological wizardry is exciting, his amusing interactions with his teenaged ward-cum-associate, Joey, and his little-bit-more-than-neighbour Mia and her son Peter, expose his hitherto concealed human side and lend this book a touch of tenderness. Smoak’s fight is as much internal as it is external and it is a lot of fun to watch the tough guy exploring the unexplored corners of his heart.
The writing of Prodigal Son is top-notch and the plot is crisp. The characters, even the ones with minor parts to play, are finely etched and the dialogues are enjoyable. Though this part of the story is finished satisfactorily, the novel ends in a cliff-hanger, forcing the reader to wait impatiently for the next one. On the downside, the technological angle feels a bit over-the-top and the skills of Evan Smoak and Joey, in their respective fields, are unbelievable at times. Also, the part of the killer twins, Declan and Queenie, could have been developed more. Apart from these minor flaws, Prodigal Son is a fantastic piece of fiction that is sure to light-up a dull day,

My original review of the Advance Reader Copy of Prodigal Son is published here... https://www.netgalley.com/book/198045/review/670189

A Time for Mercy by John Grisham

‘Should a sixteen-year-old boy be handed death penalty for murder, without consideration for his age, his background and the reasons that led him to the crime?’

This uncomfortable question is at the core of John Grisham’s A Time for Mercy and the answer, in the minds of rural Mississippi’s citizens of circa 1990, is a resounding ‘Yes!’, especially when the deceased is a well-liked Sheriff’s Deputy with whom the killer—and his mother and sister—have been living for quite some time. In that time and place, whoever tries to defend the cop-killer in court will instantly become the enemy of the upright townsfolk including the deceased’s law enforcement comrades, and the unenviable task falls in the hands of Jake Brigance.

Jake, the young lawyer who is both admired and resented by the populace for successfully defending Carl Lee Hailey—the black man who had killed two white men in cold blood—in a sensational trial five years ago, is forced by Circuit Judge Omar Noose into defending the boy. The explosive case portends financial and societal ruin for Jake—with peanuts for fees and a poor defendant’s family looking for monetary aid from its lawyer—in addition to antagonising most of his prospective clients in the town. The case could also jeopardise Jake’s chances of winning a high-value lawsuit against a railroad company and thereby earning a much-needed boost to his finances. Now, in order to save his client’s life—and his own carrier—Jake has to expend every ounce of his prodigious talent and exploit even the minutest of legal loopholes.

John Grisham is a renowned master of legal thrillers with a knack for presenting complex legal matters in simple words that keep the reader engaged all along. His return to the setting of one of his most famous novels, A Time to Kill featuring the Hailey trial, brings with it a lot of expectations and A Time for Mercy satisfies those for the most part. Five years after the Hailey trial, most residents of the fictional town of Clanton, Mississippi are still in a conservative frame of mind, eager to mete out swift and lethal punishment to anybody who defies the status quo. But, there are others with broader minds too, who back Jake and the unfortunate defendant’s family.

The character of Jake Brigance—with a strong sense of duty and justice, but with the regular human fallibilities—is endearing as ever. Other strong characters from the previous volumes make their appearance here, particularly Lucien Wilbanks, the debarred maverick who is Brigance’s staunchest supporter as well as his harshest critic. In fact, I like Lucien’s character so much that I would love it if Grisham goes back a decade or so in time and writes about Lucien’s exploits as a separate series.

The story itself is not very fresh or complicated, with the hero fighting for the underdog and braving the public’s ire. But Grisham has plotted it so well that the pages keep turning and the reader is drawn deeper and deeper into it. Even mundane matters read amusingly when written by Grisham. Expectedly, there is a lot of intriguing courtroom drama and it’s entertaining to watch judge Noose control the proceedings on and off the court. The ending, after all the leisurely build-up, feels a bit rushed, and a bit too convenient. I would have liked a bit more detailing on the legal side of the affairs at the end.

However, I have no hesitation in stating that I thoroughly enjoyed A Time for Mercy for its engaging plot, interesting characters and the easy prose of Grisham, and would recommend it to all readers who like legal dramas.

My original review of A Time for Mercy for Mystery & Suspense Magazine appears here... https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/review-a-time-for-mercy/

Lazarus by Lars Kepler

Lars Kepler's Joona Linna series is one of the best Scandinavian crime thriller series around and Lazarus is a worthy addition!

Detective Inspector Joona Linna of the Swedish Police is convinced that his archenemy Jurek Walter, the monstrous serial killer, is back from the dead while nobody else, especially Saga Bauer, the young cop who had shot and killed Jurek, believes it. Joona also suspects that Jurek has recruited an accomplice now, and can strike at two places at once. And, the only way he can hope to escape the fate, far worse than death, that Jurek can inflict upon him is to go into hiding along with his daughter. But, is Jurek really back, or has Joona been pushed over the edge by his own paranoia? And, if Jurek has really come back, will Joona’s escape plan work? The answers to these questions lie in this dark, gory, pulse-pounding, cracker of a thriller from one of the best in the business.

The author (I know it’s a husband-and-wife duo in real life, but they have chosen the name Lars Kepler and I will stick to it) has done a fabulous job of creating intense, disturbing characters that will stay for a long time in the reader’s thoughts. The plot grips the reader right from the prologue and never really lets go until the very end. Each scene—even the seemingly normal, peaceful ones—has an ominous feel to it, that something terrible is going to happen, and it does happen more often than not. The villain is one of the most vicious I have encountered in the world of fiction; he does not just take his victims’ life but their soul, the basic essence that makes them human. The novel has a prodigious body count, and a staggering amount of violence to go with it, and is not meant for the fainthearted reader.

The end of this story, though not a cliff-hanger, has an opening that is sure to spawn a sequel, which I am eager to read. Certain important characters, apart from Joona, and some crucial events in this novel are connected to some previous books in the series and it will be better to read those before this one. That said, the author has provided enough explanation at places to make it work on a standalone basis also.

On the negative side, I found the villain(s) to be unbelievably powerful, with an almost mythical ability to beat the police and get to the victims virtually at every instance. And, I felt that the author has been unnecessarily cruel to Saga Bauer, going by the events at the end of this book. Apart from these peeves, I was thoroughly hooked by Lazarus, and would recommend it to everyone who likes dark psychological thrillers and is not put off by the violence.

My original review of the Advance Reader Copy of Lazarus appears here... https://www.netgalley.com/book/193869/review/670189