Bravo to this darkly amusing romp of a thriller. It belongs to that peculiar sub-genre whose lead character leads an active life as a serial killer-avenger who wreaks overdue Karma and gruesome carnage upon really bad guys. To borrow a line I heard in a movie, Cordelia Black, a gorgeous Pharma sales rep, enthusiastically functions as the 11th Commandment - Thou Shalt Not Get Away With It.
Cordelia, her identity and persona reinvented after surviving her own horrific childhood, now delivers unmerciful torture and death to monstrous rapist-killers of women and girls. They may have escaped the law, but there's no escaping Cordelia once they catch her attention. In what you might call her "normal" life, she's staunchly devoted and protective of the two people she considers her own little family - her best friend since college Diane and Diane's 12 year old daughter (and Cordelia's beloved goddaughter) Samantha.
The fun here comes from author Emma C. Wells throwing a non-stop blizzard of troubles in Cordelia's path, most of which will expose her bloody pastime and land her in prison. At work, her job and reputation fall into jeopardy in the aftermath of a defective drug she represented. And her personal life turns upside down and backwards when Diane falls head over heels for a fake 'nice guy' who sets off Cordelia's sixth sense for smelling a rat.
I wouldn't dream of spoiling anybody's fun describing the sometimes, grisly, sometimes witty parade of catastrophes that befall Cordelia as she desperately dodges in and around every new tribulation thrown at her. And since this is all from her point of view, you find yourself somehow rooting for her every step of the way.
Not only does this book take a reader along for a hairpin-turn ride, when it's over, you just find yourself craving a sequel. How about it, Ms. Wells?
5 stars (*****) Have yourself a nasty good time with this one...
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