Book info

• Title Vigilante
• Author Claude Bouchard
• Year 2009
• Genre Mystery

Montreal, the long, hot summer of 1996, and in the dark of night, moving like a shadowy wraith, a vigilante prowls the city's streets. The targets of his bloody rampage, the worst of the worst; murderers, gangbangers, rapists... Six months, sixteen murders and the harried police are still without a clue, until they receive an email from the assassin himself. Lieutenant Dave McCall, head of Montreal's Special Homicide Task Force, needs help to crack the secrets of the killer's taunting message. He calls on an expert, Chris Barry, who runs a security firm specializing in computer communications. Together, McCall and Barry launch a grim quest to track down a man who preys on predators - an urgent quest to bring this remorseless killer to justice. But whose justice will prevail? Theirs, or the Vigilante's?

Thoughts

It’s an interesting premise, this one, but it didn’t quite deliver on what could have been a great story. As the title suggests, there’s a serial killer on the loose - but the victims are all bad types who “deserve” it. We follow the detective trying to figure out who’s behind it, as well as the security firm that he calls in to help crack the case.

There were a few too many characters to start with, it took me a while to understand who was who, particularly as the way they were introduced was often sudden and at random. I also guessed the ending quite early on, which didn’t spoil it but did take away from the effect of the big reveal at the end. There was a bit too much “tell” instead of “show” which felt stilted at times, but it wasn’t too bad. It kept me reading until the final page, so no major complaints.

Rating: 3 / 5