Jilliane Hoffman Retribution

Gripping; the development of the characters; intelligently written - loved it! Read it! Brilliantly written, thrilling, a real page-turner - I can't wait to read Last Witness. I would also thouroughly recommend Plea of Insanity which I could not put down!

Jilliane Hoffman Retribution - Isn't it wonderful when you receive a book as a free gift and it turns out to be the most riveting read of the year so far.

Retribution is Jilliane Hoffman's debut novel and if this is anything to go by she will become as popular as James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell and John Grisham rolled into one. Hoffman, a new name to add to the long list of American lawyers who have turned from prosecuting crime to writing about it, has come up with a winning formula.

It's NYC, June 1988. Chloe Larson spends evenings in study groups preparing for the bar and a job at a top firm. As she prepares, a stalker is also preparing. In a hideous latex clown mask, he lies outside her first floor apartment window, blending in with thick foliage. The stalker is ready for this night, knowing Chloe's intimately from previous break-ins and surveillance. He waits till she is asleep, then climbs in through a window. The attack and torture last hours, yet the only thing she can identify is the voice and a small tattoo revealed in a lightning strike.

Left for dead, she is found the next morning by a friend and rushed to hospital where she is told devastating news. Her attacker is never caught.

12 years later after a breakdown, psychoanalysis, and a change of scenery, Chloe has changed into a nondescript, skilled prosecutor for Dade County, with the new name C.J. Townsend. She is part of a task force involved in the investigation of the disappearance and murder of eleven young girls over the last year. Ten of the girls have eventually been found but have been dead a long time before discovery and their hearts are missing, giving the serial killer the nickname "Cupid". No trace evidence is ever found at the scenes.

Then on an anonymous tip, drug dealing William Bantling is pulled over by a young police officer. There in trunk of his car is the eleventh girl with her heart missing.

It's then in the courtroom that C.J's terror returns, the voice, the tattoo, it's him. Now there is an ethical dilemma, should she admit to her bosses that this is the man who raped her 12 years ago or keep quiet and make sure he gets what he deserves. Her decision is not helped by the fact that after investigation she discovers the statue of limitation has passed for her rape, so he can never be prosecuted for that crime.

This book is good on a lot of different levels. It's a thriller that'll have you turning the page, it's a courtroom drama, that'll really suck you in, and it's got some twists and surprises that has you guessing until the final few chapters, is he or isn't he "Cupid". There is even a love interest for you romantics out there. I must admit some of the crime scenes described are a bit explicit and not for the faint-hearted.

I wouldn't pick this book up to be intellectually stimulated, but for an entertaining read this is perfect. I managed to read this over two days even though it is 497 pages long. The time flew by with missed meals, sleep and housework.

Retribution is only available at the moment in hardback:

ISBN: 0718146743

Publisher : Michael Joseph

Mystery & Thriller Club £7.99

Just Good Books Club £8.99

WH Smith £12.99

Amazon £9.09

Blackwells Online Books £10.39

Jilliane Hoffman, Retribution - One of the most brilliant written books I've ever read. The twists throughout the book were amazing. I'm currently looking for anything the author has written.

Jilliane Hoffman's Retribution keeps your mind racing without the predictable result often found in the genre. Excellent character definition. Just when you think you have it figured out, there is a new twist. Excellent first effort, can't wait for the movie.

Retribution

Jilliane Hoffman

Putnam, Jan 2003, $24.95, 432 pp.

ISBN 03991512273

Twelve years ago, Chloe was an average person worrying if she will pass the bar examination and hoping her boyfriend will propose to her. The night she thinks he is going to give her a ring; he gives her instead a diamond heart as an anniversary present. He wants to go up to her house but she is angry and tells him to leave her off at her apartment. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, a man wearing a clown costume rapes and tortures Chloe.

In the present, the serial killer who has raped, tortured, and killed ten blonde women ages eighteen to twenty five is caught with a dead body in the trunk by a rookie patrol officer in a routine traffic violation. Chloe, now going by the name of C.J. Townsend, is the prosecutor assigned the case. At the first hearing, she lays eyes on the face of William Robert Bantling and recognizes him as her rapist from his voice and a scar on his arm. She doesn't tell anyone that she should be excused. She decides to prosecute Robert seeking justice or is it retribution?

The new star in the legal horizon is Jilliane Hoffman if RETRIBUTION is any indication of her skills. If the answer is yes and more books as great as this follows, fans will discus her name along side of Patricia Cornwell, Linda Fairstein and Perri O'Shaugnessy. The characters are well developed (especially the villain and avenging angel), and the storyline is original with spellbinding action. The trial scenes are particularly fabulous and quite polished as RETRIBUTION is on the way to the bestseller lists.

Harriet Klausner