Jonathon King Eye of Vengeance

Eye of Vengeance

Jonathon King

Dutton, May 2006, $24.95, 304 pp.

ISBN: 0525949534

Daily News reporter Nick Mullins works the police and crime beat, but has only recently returned to the job. He took time off after a drunken driver killed his wife and one of their twin daughters. The culprit was convicted of manslaughter, but did only eighteen months.

Nick's latest assignment is covering the execution style murder of convicted child molester and killer Steven Ferris. Judging by police actions, Nick assumes the assassin was on top of a building where he made the kill from; the journalist concludes that the twisted sniper is a professional. When a second former con is murdered, Nick looks over his recent records; he realizes that there are other sniper kills in the South Florida area in which he covered the stories in-depth. The assassin contacts Nick to inform him he has one more kill to go. The police and the reporter work Nick's files trying to find the next victim from the clue the sniper gave Nick.

Jonathon King, the author of the Max Freeman mysteries, has written a fantastic stand alone thriller told from two perspectives, the reporter and the sniper. Readers will sympathize with the killer even though he does wrong as his motives illicit sympathy. Surprisingly the hero learns a lesson from the assassin that should make him a better father to the other surviving family member.

Harriet Klausner