Rage and Retribution Blurb
Can two wrongs ever make a right?
A man is found by the side of a canal, comatose and brutally attacked.
It quickly becomes clear that someone is abducting men and subjecting them to horrific acts of torture. After three days they’re released, fighting for their lives and refusing to speak.
A councillor is accused of fraud.
Montague Mason is an upstanding member of the community. That is until he’s publicly accused of stealing the youth centre’s funds – an accusation that threatens to rip through the very heart of the community and expose his best-kept secret. But how far would he go to protect himself?
Two cases. One deadly answer.
As the two cases collide, D.I. Paolo Sterling finds he has more questions than answers. And, when torture escalates to murder, he suddenly finds himself in a race against time to find the killer and put an end to the depravity – once and for all.
Review
Rage and Retribution is book four in Lorraine Mace’s DI Stirling series. You can tell you’ve come in partway through a number of in-progress storylines, but it’s very easy to enjoy as a standalone story. While some things might have more emotional impact if you’ve read the other stories and got invested in the characters already, there’s definitely no lack of clarity if—like I did—you jump into book four with no prior experience.
The story has plenty of plot threads on the go to keep you busy, but doesn’t feel crowded. Time is fairly evenly shared between Paolo Stirling’s home life, his management dilemmas and the case he’s working on. I liked most of the character work, and the interpersonal drama going on amongst the police was interesting. Although I think it would have been more effective with a bit more nuance. What we had was a case of some characters stirring up trouble and being unpleasant, with the ‘good’ characters just trying to get on with their jobs. It kept me engaged as a conflict, but I felt like there were a couple of missed opportunities to introduce greater depth to that plotline. Generally speaking, I thought the various sub-plots were very well handled. Particularly since Mace has to keep pausing to catch us up on vital context from books one through three!
There’s some grim sexual violence in Rage and Retribution, something to bear in mind if that’s a trigger for you. There was also a moment that bothered me a lot, where Paolo questioned whether a character revealed to be gay might by extension pose a risk to young people at the community center. Worse, his daughter doesn’t even question the connection he’s made, essentially saying she’ll keep an eye on things just in case. This is a really damaging and gross stereotype, and it pulled me out of the story completely for a bit. I don’t think main characters have to have values that align with mine, I’m often happy to read or watch things where the point of view character has beliefs I completely disagree with. The weird thing about DI Stirling is that he seems to be written as a character who’s generally open-minded, so this massive blind spot definitely stands out.
The pace is consistently quick, and ramps up dramatically during the last section. I enjoyed how the investigation moved along, and even when the characters hit dead-ends there was plenty going on to keep the story from stagnating. The narrative twists and turns come at you fast, but with enough groundwork that they feel logical. Nothing that is revealed feels like it comes completely out of nowhere, which makes for a satisfying read. The stakes build nicely as the story progresses, in both the main investigative story and the sub-plots, so everything feels like it comes together in the conclusion.
Rage and Retribution is a gripping read, very dark at points but fast-moving, and with some great character moments to keep you going. A compelling example of the crime genre. You can buy it on Amazon (UK/US) or Kobo.
About the Author
Born and raised in South East London, Lorraine lived and worked in South Africa, on the Island of Gozo and in France before settling on the Costa del Sol in Spain. She lives with her partner in a traditional Spanish village inland from the coast and enjoys sampling the regional dishes and ever-changing tapas in the local bars. Her knowledge of Spanish is expanding. To stop her waistline from doing the same, she runs five times a week.
When not working on the D.I. Sterling series of crime novels, Lorraine is engaged in many writing-related activities. She is a columnist for both Writing Magazine and Writers’ Forum and is head judge for Writers’ Forum monthly fiction competitions.
A tutor for Writers Bureau, she also runs her own private critique and author mentoring service.
Social Media:
witter: https://twitter.com/lomace
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lorraine.mace.52
Website: www.lorrainemace.com
Blog: http://thewritersabcchecklist.blogspot.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mace_lorraine/
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