Book Review: Vengeance is Mine

Reviewed By: Gina Metz - RAM

Vengeance is Mine     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Helen Sanders
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Little Red House Press, 2002, 398 pages

"In her debut novel, Helen Sanders skillfully weaves a story of psychological suspense delving into the twisted mind of a killer. This tale of revenge and retribution spans four decades in the life of a psychopath whose very existence is nurtured by the overwhelming desire for revenge." (From the Book Jacket)

This novel begins in the early 1960s in the small college town of Columbus, Mississippi with the killing of two young members of the Delta Social Club. A mentally disturbed young college student named Geoffrey Bockker is quickly apprehended and sentenced to life in the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Thirty years later, the bodies of two women, who also had been members of Delta, are found in an isolated cabin in Columbus. Both have the same marks left on the earlier victims. Are the crimes being committed by a copycat or has the Triangle killer returned to finish what he started?

This was a good attempt for a first novel but I personally found it lacking in depth. Ninety-nine percent of the novel revolved around the life of Geoffrey Bockker however I still felt quite distant from him. The initial killings are resolved quite quickly with very little investigation. I felt it needed more characters fleshed out. The investigators are barely introduced so you do not get to know them. There is little or no information given on the victims so I never developed any feeling for them either. The deaths did not have an effect on the reader as you did not know anything about the victim to feel like they were a person.

For me there were also too many extras and coincidences thrown in the book to make them believable. I basically felt it would have been a much better book if she had stuck to the basic plot line and added dimension to the investigators, victims, family and/or the killer himself. But perhaps it was just not a book for me and others will find it more enjoyable.

Gina Metz - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Gina Metz - RAM