Redemption Road by John Hart

Detective Liz Black has been a police officer in a small North Carolina town (definitely not Mayberry) for thirteen years.  She is currently on paid leave from her job while an investigation takes place of her involvement in the shooting of two brothers who abducted and repeatedly raped a young woman.  Public opinion should be on her side except that the kidnappers/ rapists were shot eighteen times… with precision for maximum pain before they died.  Det. Black has some skeletons in her closet.  She was raped as a teenager but her father who is a pastor, demanded she forgive her attacker and keep the baby.  She chose an abortion, estrangement from her father, and ultimately became a policeman to punish wrong doers.  After the abortion, a police officer named Adrian Wall was the only one to show her kindness and understanding… in part the reason she chose her vocation.

But Wall has problems of his own.  Shortly after Liz joined the police force, Adrian was convicted of murdering a young woman.  Liz was steadfast in her belief in Adrian’s innocence but the evidence landed him in jail.  Now thirteen years later as Liz is serving her leave, Adrian is released from prison and young women begin to die again.

As more of the backstory unfolds, we meet an assortment of troubled characters touched by tragedy and connected to our protagonists in bizarre ways.  Gideon Strange, a fourteen year old boy, tries to shoot Adrian for killing his mother and is shot himself.  This after years of living with an alcoholic father who attempts to drown his grief in cheap whisky.  “Crybaby” Jones the 89 year old reclusive lawyer who represented Adrian, again finds purpose in life through helping Liz.  Liz’s partner, Beckett wants to prove his loyalty to Liz but harbors precarious secrets.  Liz’s unforgiving father, the fire and brimstone minister, doesn’t entirely practice what he preaches.  Channing, the wealthy kidnap victim whose father taught her to handle a gun.  Layer upon layer of previous events tie these characters together in a cleverly woven story of loyalty, betrayal, grief, retribution, and redemption.

While this is my first John Hart book, it certainly is not my last.  He writes a powerful and riveting tale.  No wonder all of his books are New Times best sellers.