By
L.W. Wedgwood
Redemption Kills is a great book in the tradition of James Patterson’s Alex Cross’s novels. Only the protagonist, Dane Larusio is a wealthy hotel magnate who owns a string of high end hotels and resorts throughout the world. As the book opens, the reader learns that Dane is a risk taker as he and his friend, Koso, play a life and death game of Riviera Roulette. I’m not going to commit a spoiler by discussing Riviera Roulette, but let’s just say it puts Russian roulette to shame.
In a flashback, Dane recalls his youth, when as an eighteen year old, he is recruited to plant bombs for a criminal duo named Sticks and Stones. Dane’s memories trigger his final job with Sticks and Stones when he assists them to plant a bomb which kills his uncle and cripples his father. Dane re-visits the destructive scene and finds a metal case which contains five million US dollars and this money serves as the seed money to launch his hotel empire.
Then as Dane visits home for the first time in fifteen years and reads of other bombings, he vows to seek out criminals and destroy them as redemption of sorts for the guilt he feels for the bombing which killed his uncle and maimed his father.
The author takes the reader through a labyrinth of intrigue as Dane wreaks his redemptive vengeance on the heads of major crime families and begins a pursuit of Krait, the person controlling the International Underworld Syndicate (IUS). Once a criminal organization reaches a level of success encompassing receipts of a hundred million US dollars, they are encouraged to join and the IUS and the result of a refusal to join the IUS is life-threatening. Dane’s focus is to eliminate these criminal masterminds as he travels his quest to destroy Krait.
The journey leads Dane and his new friend, Angelica Skiathos, the daughter of a major criminal arms trafficker, through a maze of trust issues, betrayal, intrigue, and action from Europe to South America to the steppes of Mongolia, the jungles of Cambodia and beyond. Mr. Wedgwood has mastered the art of characterization as he portrays the various criminals and other players in his narrative.
In addition, he keeps the reader engaged as he moves from plot twist to plot twist; cross, double cross and triple cross in this thriller. Through all these machinations, the author has salted a clue or two to keep his readers guessing about the resolution of the plot and the identity of heretofore unknown villains.
Each chapter has the action one would find in a single full-length novel and this book is jam-packed with sixteen chapters of action. I highly recommend this book and encourage all thriller and action readers to buy it and read it
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