audiobooks

Jilliane Hoffman, Retribution (Putnam, 2004)

It's not often that a single book causes me to put aside everything else I'm reading to concentrate on it. I got my copy of Retribution in the mail, and started paging through it about half an hour later. Thirty-six hours later, with little food and sleep in the interim, I'd finished it, having put aside the other books in the queue to concentrate solely on Jilliane Hoffman's debut novel.

Some books are best summed up with the same "what if?" question the author likely asked when forming the idea for the book, and this is one of them: what if an ADA found herself prosecuting a defendant whom she had a vested interest in seeing go to the chair? Such is the premise of Retribution. C. J. Townsend, an Assistant District Attorney in Miami, was raped and tortured in 1988, while still in law school in New York, by an assailant she knows only as The Clown. He left her for dead; she survived, and a nervous breakdown and twelve years of therapy later, she's relocated to south Florida, changed her name, and managed to erase her past. Then a man is pulled over for a routine traffic stop, and in the trunk of his car is found the tenth victim of the serial killer known as Cupid. Many of the details of the case are all too well-known to Townsend, for they remind her of her own violation so many years before. Then, in court, she sees a distinctive scar her rapist had, and knows she's prosecuting her own assailant... but that can't sway her niggling doubts about whether he really is Cupid.

Hoffman, an ex-Florida ADA herself (begging the autobiographical question, of course), delivers the goods in her debut novel. She gives us a well-drawn and engaging cast of characters, a fabulous plot, and almost perfect pacing. The novel rarely slows, and when it does, it picks back up again promptly. While it lacks the onion-like layers of mystery of, say, Erin Hart's recent debut Haunted Ground, Hoffman zeroes in on the simpler mystery she supplies us here and relies on the ethical subtexts for layering; when the prosecutor knows the defendant in such a way, does the case become prosecution or persecution? And how will keeping all the necessary secrets affect Townsend's life, and the lives of those around her, especially in a case where everyone knows the media will be digging so far into it that someone's bound to turn something up?

It's probably not the greatest of form to describe a book with a January release date as great summer reading, but that's exactly what Retribution is. It's got the feel of a literary Law and Order episode (even more so that L&O staff writer Giles Blunt's novels); we see both the police and the prosecution side of the case, there's all the courtroom drama one could ask for, all the twists and turns to keep the suspense in gear until the final pages. (The ending does go a bit over the top. But it's such a fine rollercoaster ride we'll forgive Ms. Hoffman the stock serial killer climax.) Oh, and one other great thing about those twists and turns-just when you think you've figured out the end of the novel, Hoffman springs what you just figured out on you in the next few pages. The revelations of various bits of information throughout are as well-constructed as they are in a Hideo Nakata film, leaving the reader wondering what's coming around the next turn.

A fine debut. Jilliane Hoffman is going places. ****

I have a confession to make; I really did not like this book. I couldn't finish reading past about a quarter of the way through - but because I ALWAYS read to the end I forced myself to skim read the rest. I can't understand such great accolades for stereotypical characters and a plot that, beyond the chilling rape scene at the beginning, failed to impress me.

I didn't like the style of writing from the beginning. Chloe Larson came across as irritating as hell in the first couple of chapters. I wanted to shout "Okay, I understand that she has perfect blond hair, a perfect size 4 body, a perfect life - enough already!' The plot was spoilt by over-the-top physical descriptions that sounded as though they came from notes on a Hollywood movie. Seriously though, the fact that the heroine had blond hair was mentioned far too many times in the first twenty pages, why didn't the editors notice this?

The book seemed to plod by, with paragraphs that went on forever and led nowhere. So much of it was predictable: Young blond woman is brutally attacked, she changes her looks and comes out the other side 'tough' but vulnerable, falls for brooding, dark-haired Italian Detective...and so on. I don't mean to sound patronising, it's just that I read a huge number of books and I've read this type of thing so many times before. What's more, I've seen the movie so many times before.

Overall I could not recommend this book because it was so hackneyed and stereotypical. The scariest and best-written scene was near the beginning and it all went downhill from there.

JoAnne

This is a good book to curl up with on the beach this summer. A real page turner! It wasn't without it's flaws, but I argue that it is much better than some of the tripe that is being pawned off as "thrillers" these days. While the characters were in large unlikeable, it is also the case with MYSTIC RIVER by Lehane, yet everyone upholds him to be a fantastic author. The plot wasn't any less surprising as DA VINCHI CODE, yet people seem to think that was the best book ever written. In other words, it's amazing that the criticism applied to this book turns a blind eye to other books that suffer the same flaws. I wouldn't pick this book up to be intellectually stimulated, but for an entertaining read on the beach, this is perfect.

That being said, I was somewhat confused by the ending. The therapist confesses to the crimes, but nothing becomes of it, and the villian's guilty verdict is upheld by appeals. So was he actually framed, or was the therapist just crazy and saying things to mess with C.J.? I can't tell. It was probably the biggest chunk of plot development, yet it was rushed at the end. C.J.'s ethical transgressions were pretty much excused in the epilogue. It would have been fascinating to see how she dealt with her wrong doings, as well as the defense attorney, who seemed to be torn apart regarding her ethics at one point. So there are ways this book could have been made better, but take it as it is - a book for the masses to enjoy. I would be happy to read Hoffman again, which is more than I can say for other authors, such as Lehane and Brown, who people have touted over Hoffman in their reviews.