A Sudden Vengeance Waits

A Sudden Vengeance Waits
by Nik Morton
(5/5 stars)

There's a whole subgenre of revenge stories out there, running the gamut from ancient times to Westerns to distant worlds. "A Sudden Vengeance Waits" is far more contemporary and closer to home, taking place in a small British community that nonetheless is plagued by crime thanks to the recent recession.

That crime hits close to home for the Knight family when their grandmother is killed during a break-in. There are four Knight children: police officer Paul, college student Lisa, mechanical genius Stu, and rebellious young actor Mark. Soon after the funeral (like pretty much the same night) someone beats up some burglars and leaves a note proclaiming him(her)self as the Black Knight. Now can you guess which Knight might be going out at night to bust criminal heads?

The answer is kind of obvious, but I won't spoil that. Anyway, "A Sudden Vengeance Waits" is a decent entry in the revenge subgenre. It's not as gory or violent as some more recent entries. Really there's no gunplay at all, just one brief sword fight and some martial arts stuff. That doesn't make it fun for the whole family but it does mean you probably aren't going to lose your lunch either.

Overall this was a quick and satisfying read on the Kindle. And being an American the good thing about reading this on the Kindle is that I could look up some of the British slang in the dictionary, which was very helpful in figuring out what a trilby is for instance. (It's a hat.)

My only complaint, a minor one, is that there were so many names to keep track of. Besides the Knight family there were police offices, criminals, victims, and so forth. It was sometimes confusing.

That is all.