3 out of 4 stars
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Have you ever watched with horror as a mass murderer, who is evidently guilty, walks free from a courtroom based on a technicality? Take that rage, combine it with a master plan to use terminally ill patients as human-bombs of revenge, mix in the moral struggles of an ex-policeman, and you get the plot of Terminal Justice by Lyle Howard.
This action-packed thriller tells the tale of August Bock, the CEO of a company called Worldwide Dispatch Incorporated. Officially registered as a shipping company, the real enterprise is much, much darker. Having previously been let down by the criminal justice system as a lawyer, August Bock created this company in order to take justice into his own hands. He seeks out terminally ill patients with money problems, offers them extravagant amounts of money to be bequeathed to their loved ones after their death, and sends them in to kill violent criminals that haven’t been rightfully convicted. What would you do?
Ex-policeman, Gabe Mitchell, is presented with just this dilemma. Having lost his wife, lost custody of his seven-year old son, and just been told that he will not survive the next six months, Gabe Mitchell is approached by August Bock with a proposal. Gabe has 24 hours to decide whether he ensures his son is taken care of for the rest of his life by killing someone else, or to stand by his personal morals and try to expose the whole operation.
Terminal Justice is a book that keeps you flipping the pages over and over and ensures that you are engrossed until the very last chapter. This book had me second guessing myself many times throughout and had me continually trying to figure out where the next twist was going to come. I loved the premise of the book and how the author makes August Bock’s horrifying proposals seem attractive. You can’t help but put yourself in the shoes of these terminally ill patients and wonder what you would do in their stead. Besides the moral questions in the book there was quite a bit of action as well. Between the operations that August Bock undergoes to the hi-jinks of Gabe Mitchell, dull moments are few and far between. My favorite part of this book would have to be how, especially in the second half of the book, there are many plot twists and turns that keep you struggling to guess where the plot is headed.
The main issues that I have with this book are directly related to its realism. I realize that this is a book of fiction and that liberties can always be taken, but when a book is supposed to be entirely plausible there are some items that are hard to ignore. First, for a company that is based on taking the law into one’s own hand in order to correct injustice, there are immense amounts of collateral damage. With the, apparently, bottomless bank accounts, you would think that the company would be able to not kill numerous innocent bystanders along with their target. Unfortunately if that happens, the plot line of using terminally ill patients tends to crumble with it. In addition to this, without giving away any spoilers, some characters survive some very sticky situations where, quite frankly, they would have had no chance whatsoever. The thing that I disliked the most would have to be this lack of realism.
Despite the potential plot holes and the issues with the book being believable at times, I give this book 3 out of 4 stars. The book won its third star since I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and would recommend that others read it, but the fact that I could pull apart the whole premise by suggesting the company only kill the intended victim, prevented me from giving it fourth star. I would wholeheartedly recommend it for those that are looking for a fast paced action/thriller that has plenty of twists and turns to keep you amused. If you don’t read action based novels, are squeamish with plots that have a lot of death, or are not intrigued by multiple plot twists, this book may not be for you.
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Terminal Justice
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