Redemption Road – John Hart
There is a simple reason that John Hart is the only author to win back-to-back Edgars for best novel and I’ll let author David Baldacci tell you what it is…….
“John Hart can flat-out write….. read this novel and then go back and read all of his others. He’s that good”
I’ve been waiting for five years for a new John Hart book and, well, Redemption Road, his latest, was worth the wait!! It may well win Hart his third Edgar for best novel. Again, I’ll let some of his fellow authors tell you about Redemption Road…..
“Big, bold, impossible to put down, Redemption Road had me from page one. John Hart is a master storyteller” – Harlan Coben
It usually takes me about a week or so to read a typical novel. I read Redemption Road in two days and I literally could not put the book down on the second day!
Every new John Hart is a credit to the written word. Over the course of five books, he has raised the bar for commercial fiction, deftly blending the tension, pace and suspense of the classic thriller with characters so richly drawn characters so richly drawn and prose so elegant that his stories are worthy of being called literature…..” – Corban Addison – Author of A Walk Across the Sun
The Story
Redemption Road has two main twisting turning story lines The first one opens the book when 13 year-old Gideon Strange leaves his home and drunken father in the middle of the night, He intends to kill the man who murdered his mother – Adrian Wall. Adrian is an ex-policeman who is scheduled to be released from prison the following morning.
At the same time, Elizabeth Black is recovering from her daringly rescue of eighteen year-old Channing Shore. Channing was found by Elizabeth in the basement of a house.chained to a mattress, She had been brutally raped by two brothers for two days.. After the rescue, Channing’s two unarmed attackers lay dead, both shot eighteen times! Elizabeth was soon after, the focus of a police investigation to determine whether or not she should be prosecuted for murder!
The two stories intersect because Elizabeth has a connection to the Julia Strange murder. She believes that Adrian was not the killer. And as one of the few woman involved in the murder investigation she ended up caring for baby Gideon. She has continued to be a surrogate mother to Gideon for the last thirteen years.
Then a day after Adrian’s release from prison, a strangled woman’s body is found draped over the alter of an abandoned church. Everything about her murder matches the murder of Julia Strange. Questions arise! Did Adrian kill again? Did he kill the first time?
Other questions abound! What about Liz? Can she avoid prosecution? What really happened in that basement? Why did she snap and murder those men?
As the story develops so do the characters as the reader learns more about; Adrian’s life both in and out of prison, as well as, the demons that haunt Liz’s past and leave her hating her father – the Reverend Black. The supporting characters in Redemption Road are as equally well-drawn by Mr.Hart. They include:Liz’s partner on the police force Charlie Beckett, Adrian’s lawyer Crybaby Jones and the Warden of the prison where Adrian served his time.
/While reading Redemption Road I would often pause and think that I really should stop reading and do something else. I would set the book down, think about it, say “Nah”, pick the book up and continue reading.
Bottom Line
Redemption Road is a flat-out five thumbs up book for me! It’s one of those books that works on so many levels. First there’s just the plain fascinating story and then the psychological relationships between just about everyone. Liz and Adrian, Liz and her father, Adrian and the Warden, Liz and Channing amd Gideon. I could go on and on, so just go read this amazing book! and then all of Hart’s other books! Yeah,they’re that good!
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Goodreads: Redemption Road
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Book 43 of 2016
