Eye of Vengeance [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Jonathon King (Author), Mel Foster (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 18, 2006

A veteran crime reporter, Nick Mullins was no stranger to scenes of violence and loss. He was well practiced at keeping tragedy at arm’s length with a professional detachment - until he was forced to face his own tragedy when a drunk driver took the lives of Nick’s wife and one of their two daughters, forever shattering his world. Now, with a nine-year-old to raise on his own, Nick struggles to balance single fatherhood with a career that daily puts him into the dark corners of death and justice. When a convicted murderer is dramatically and publicly gunned down with a single bullet to the head in front of a county jailhouse, Nick is immediately dispatched by his newspaper to cover the story, pressing his old police contacts with his usual mix of subtle charm and brazen questioning. But when he realizes that the victim was the subject of one of his old stories, Nick is drawn into the investigation himself. Before long he’s one step ahead of the cops in the hunt for a cold-blooded killer…a sniper who has a talent for targeting criminals, and who makes it clear that he has his eye on Nick. With his career, family, and life on the line, Nick plays a delicate and potentially deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the police, the Secret Service, and his editors - all of whom are watching Nick’s every move as he fights to find the shooter before he strikes again. A stirring page-turner bristling with an intense, gritty realism and filled with vivid and unforgettable characters, Eye of Vengeance is Jonathon King at his very best.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Veteran journalist King, the Edgar-winning author of the Max Freeman novels (The Blue Edge of Midnight, etc.), sets this edgy, brooding stand-alone in a milieu he knows well, the world of the professional crime reporter. Nick Mullins, who covers the crime beat for the South Florida Daily News, is still shattered two years later by the deaths of his wife and one of his twin daughters in an auto accident with a drunk driver. Obsessed with revenge, Mullins spends his off hours stalking the driver, who's just been released from prison after serving only 18 months. Mullins's reputation for honesty and integrity endears him to a devoted cadre of readers, including Michael Redman, an ex-cop and former military sniper who begins assassinating criminals Mullins has profiled. As the body count rises, it becomes clear that Redman is indeed working from a list, and that the final name will fulfill a personal debt that he feels he owes Mullins. While the plot unfolds predictably, King's crisp writing and insights into grief and loss give this novel a depth and poignancy unusual for a thriller. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* King, who won the Edgar Award for The Blue Edge of Midnight (2002), is a former daily journalist who brings both the newsroom and the field to vivid life in his Max Freeman series. His latest is a stand-alone tale about another newsman, Nick Mullins, a crime reporter for the South Florida Daily News. Mullins is a crime victim himself, having lost his wife and one of his twin daughters to a drunk driver. The scenes of Mullins trying to mimic a normal life with his surviving nine-year-old are harrowing. Pressures build for Mullins as he learns two things: the DUI offender who tore apart his family has just been released from prison, and another prisoner, en route to a courthouse plea, has been killed by a sniper. As Mullins investigates the sniper shooting, he learns that the killer has a hit list, all of whose victims have been subjects of Mullins' own stories. Tension skyrockets as Mullins fights to save his daughter and to surmount his own need for vengeance. Intriguing views of crime scenes from the media side of the tape, masterful plotting, and a credible, striving hero make this a winner. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio Unabridged (May 18, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596003731
• ISBN-13: 978-1596003736
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Born into a blue-collar family in Lansing, Michigan in the mid 50s with the generational expectation of becoming an autoworker. Discovered John D. MacDonald as a teenage reader and unknowingly began a circuitous path that would eventually lead to Fort Lauderdale (home of Travis McGee) where I began my own mystery writing career.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Get in. Kill Quickly. And get out without being seen.", May 18, 2006

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eye of Vengeance (Hardcover)

In Jonathon King's "Eye of Vengeance," Nick Mullins is a crime reporter for the South Florida Daily News. He is bereft after losing his wife and daughter in a car accident caused by a drunk driver named Robert Walker. Nick is trying to be strong for his remaining child, nine-year-old Carly, but he is sometimes lonely, bitter, and depressed. Walker has recently been released from prison, and Nick stalks him, trying to find a way to make this beast pay for slaughtering his family. Work has always been Nick's passion, but he has promised himself that he will try to spend less time on the job and more hours tending to his child's needs, something that he failed to do when his entire family was alive.

Nick is assigned to cover a shooting at the local jail, and he is startled to learn that the victim was Steven Ferris, a convicted pedophile and murderer. Three years earlier, Nick had covered the Ferris trial extensively. Now, an unknown assailant has shot Ferris as he was entering the jail, and further investigation reveals that the shooter was an extremely skilled sniper. Even more alarming, this individual has targeted other felons whom Nick has profiled over the years. Does Nick have a groupie who is very good with a high-powered rifle?

"Eye of Vengeance" is a fast-paced novel in which Jonathon King tackles the subject of journalistic ethics and excesses. Although Nick loves being a reporter, he is becoming sick of the hype and competitiveness that often drive editorial decisions. In addition, King explores the understandable temptation to seek revenge against those who have wronged us. If an expert marksman is conveniently executing some seriously bad people who would be no loss to society, should Nick applaud the effort or step in and try to stop the carnage?

King's dialogue and prose style are fluid and realistic. The sniper, whose identity the reader learns early on, is an intriguing and methodical man, not your cookie-cutter psychopath. The author wastes no words as he builds his suspenseful narrative to a satisfying, yet not entirely tidy, conclusion. "Eye of Vengeance" is an entertaining, thoughtful, and engrossing thriller that has substance as well as style.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Huge Disappointment, August 3, 2006

By 

Patricia P. Taylor (Houston, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eye of Vengeance (Hardcover)

I needn't rehash the plot which has been so ably described on this page. In fact the idea of the plot, plus the excellent reviews, drew me to buy the book in the first place. What a disappointment. Nick, the protagonist, is a one-dimensional character, and Michael Redman's story is unfortunately overshadowed by Nick's constant guilt. Nick Mullins works too much. He didn't pay enough attention to his family while his wife and other daughter were alive. He fights with Dierdre, his editor, all the time because she has no ethics. By the fourteenth time I had read all this, my patience wore thin. Worse was the author's practice of telling me everything and showing me nothing. Because the cast of characters is so thinly sketched I could barely tell one cop from another, and the other reporters at Nick's papers were barely more than shadows. For a novel to work, we have to care about the characters, or be fascinated by them, or repulsed. By the end of the book, all the sloppy shortcuts the writer had taken simply wore me out. I cared nothing for the people in the story, or the story itself. My prevailing emotion was anger that I'd wasted the money in buying it. Perhaps I'm alone in my disappointment, but I would suggest no one purchase Eye of Vengeance unless you've read two or three chapters first, and find the style to your liking.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Predictable but well done, June 1, 2006

By 

Wendell Henderson (AL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eye of Vengeance (Hardcover)

This was the first of Jonathon King's novels I have read and I will likely go back for more. "Eye of Vengeance" is not particularly unique and any semi-intelligent reader will know pretty early where it is going. In such cases, the make or break factor is how well the book is written. If you can figure out the ending, the key is in the telling. Is the book bad enough that the reader puts it down or good enough that, despite the predictability of the plot, it is worth staying with? In this case, it's clearly the latter. King clearly knows his way around a newsroom; considering his background, he should. But he doesn't just know it, he makes it come alive and gives a good feel for the pulse and pace of putting out a paper (alliteration not intended). He puts a nice spin on stock situations (the pressuring editor, the stoic detective, etc) and weaves a tale that holds attention. I really liked the book and found it a compelling read.