Sin and Vengeance
C. J. West
(Reviewer - Narayan Radhakrishnan)
2005 22 West Books
ISBN: 0976778807

Sidelined by injury a sports superstar joins his family's business only to be caught up in a friend's deadly lifestyle.

Sr. Associate Reviewer Narayan Radhakrishnan writes:

This debut mystery from C.J. West reads like an action movie -- like a Schwarzenegger Commando type flick -- the action in Sin and Vengeance is just as thick & fast.

Charlie Marston is leading a life of shattered dreams. His passion to make it big in the game of football has vanished after a permanent career-ruining injury. Reluctantly he turns to his family business of wine making. But the slow pace of life in the vineyard is getting to him, & his relationships with his family, especially his Pop, are far from cordial.

While Charlie dreams of escape, he meets the enigmatic Randy Black, part stunt-pilot, part Casanova, & part drunken Pied Piper who gives scant respect for morals, life & the law. Charlie is mesmerized by Black, & when he introduces Charlie to the seductive, sultry Deidre Deudon, Charlie's dull little life explodes.

After a series of bad moves that have him heading into places he never imagined, Charlie must find his moral compass & cope with the after-effects of his misdeeds which now threaten him & his family. It is the “sin” that leads to “vengeance” which forms the theme of this tale.

The most intriguing part of the Sin and Vengeance is not the plot, nor the theme -- it's the mystery the author hides within the book. Ever since Dan Brown placed a clue to his next thriller in the cover jacket of The Da Vinci Code (well, to the uninitiated, the clue to the title of the next Langdon thriller, now named The Solomon Key was in fact put it in “code” in the cover jacket -- & no, I didn't find it out), a message within a mystery seems to have caught the fancy of mystery writers. C. J. West is no exception -- & hard as I hunted I couldn't decipher the “message” -- so if C.J. West is reading this -- one clue pleaaaaaseeeee!

Good read! Looking forward to C. J. West's next.
(03/12/06)

Narayan
2006©Narayan Radhakrishnan
A RebeccasReads.Com Sr. Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
I am a 26 years old lawyer practicing in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Along with my legal practice, I have finished post-graduate studies for both Business Law & Human Rights. I am a self proclaimed numero-uno legal thriller lover & am the proud owner of all of Grisham's & Turow's novels. I enjoy John Mortimer's Rumpole & relish an occasional Martini & a rare Scot(ch)t-oline with a Patterson on the side.

My work A FICTION OF LAW is now about 500 pages in length & features 500 lawyer authors & 2000 legal thrillers covering a 300 year period - inclusive of entries from the USA, UK, Asia, Europe, China, Middle East etc. Still in search of a publisher.
www.keralatourism.org