A review by andrew61
The Retribution by Val McDermid

2.0

I am a big Val McDermid fan and have enjoyed the Tony Hill/Carole Jordan series repeatedly, thus I was looking forward to this episode particularly as it was the return of villain Jacko Vance. The first half went well as the escape was credible and his vengeance anticipates ripples through Bradfield and the relationships in the unique investigative team. Unfortunately the promise petered out and the final 20 pages felt too convenient with an implausible ending. Somewhat surprisingly, as often I consider books too long nowadays, I felt the book would have benefited from an extra 30 pages to allow a more tense ending with more input from Vance. That being said I will read on as the plotting and writing is great and I look forward to finding out how their relationship changes post this book.