The latest pulse-pounding thriller from the master of the moral dilemma and Sunday Times bestseller Jack Jordan.

Aaron Alexander has just been released from jail after serving eleven years for causing the death of Joshua Moore in a hit-and-run. Now a free man, all he wants to do is stay on the straight and narrow and leave his troubled past behind him.

But for Joshua’s mother Evelyn, eleven years in jail isn’t nearly enough. Consumed by grief and rage, she has been waiting for Aaron’s release, counting down the days until she can exact the revenge he deserves. And now that time has come.

However, as Evelyn and her husband Tobias embark on a road trip to track Aaron down, they soon find themselves caught on two different sides of a gripping game of cat-and-mouse. Because Tobias knows what Evelyn is planning, and he will do anything to save her from herself. Even if it means protecting the man who killed their son.

Locked in a collision course set in motion eleven years ago, Aaron, Evelyn and Tobias are about to find out whether the road they have chosen leads to retribution . . . or redemption.

I purchased a copy of this book for my own reading.

Redemption is a dark tale of manslaughter, vengeance and families torn apart. It had promise to be a gritty, edge of your seat story that builds out the story of events that lead up to the pivotal moment where everything shifts, interspersed with the tale of a mother bent on exacting the kind of justice that the law failed to do. Sadly, it was a book that fell short for me, and became a disappointing cliché filled with average tropes and predictable twists.

I can’t say for sure if the issue was more the story, or the characterisations as I listened to the Audible version of this book. What I do know is the story seemed wildly predictable in the worst possible way. And the two main characters were so far beyond believable or likeable I really had to labour through this book.

A mother torn apart by grief over the loss of her baby turns to revenge. A father distraught and torn between preventing further devastation and protecting his wife. Unfortunately I felt no pity towards the mother. She was cold, vindictive and completely devoid of emotion. There was nothing about her relatable or redeeming.

The father was no better. He had no spine or strength of conviction. Despite many opportunities to do the right thing, he didn’t. Because he could not bear to be without her. He let her run and run and run until things came to a devastating climax. The outcome was predictable, the characters did exactly as it looked like they would from the very beginning. There was no shocking revelation or juicy twist. The story played from start to finish exactly as it seemed like it would.

My rating: