Retribution

Lexi Winter, Book 2

De: Sarah Barrie

Narrado por: Cecelia Ramsdale

Ace hacker, ex-prostitute, Jack Daniels drinker and part-time vigilante Lexi Winter is now working with the police, with a new enemy in her sights and an old foe on her mind.

Most probationary constables would baulk at chasing a drug dealer into a train tunnel in the dead of night – not Lexi. But when she emerges, injured but alive, to face the wrath of her boss it’s clear that while Lexi may now be in uniform, she has as much trouble with authority as ever. Just to prove it, Lexi is quietly using her hacking skills to investigate a notorious drug-dealing Sydney crime family with links to her old prey, the paedophile Damon Vaughn.

As her colleague Detective Sergeant Finn Carson investigates a death on a Sydney building site that leads him to the picturesque Wondabyne train station on the Hawkesbury River, Inspector Rachael Langley oversees an enquiry that is becoming ever more complex as multiple lines of investigation seem to interweave.

What they don’t know is that Lexi is the only one who can unravel them – if only she’ll toe the line.

©2022 Sarah Barrie (P)2022 Bolinda Publishing

Reseñas de la Crítica

'Dark, gritty and filled with unexpected twists and turns…there’s no way you’ll be able to put it down.' (Better Reading)

Retribution

I have had this one only to-read list since Nov2022, which makes it part of my “Cleaning Out the To-Read Closet” challenge. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to finally get around to reading this second installment of the Lexie Winter series. Lexie, an abused child, turned prostitute, turned computer hacking vigilante, turned police officer, has had quite the life. LOVE LEXIE!!! Barrie has created a wonderful and brilliant, snarky, bad@$$ FMC in Lexie Winter!

The book summary introduces the different storylines of Lexie and her motley crew of street informants that she employs in gathering info on a local crime family, the Hamills, (from the last installment). Lexie is also working with DI Rachel again by providing Rachel’s team with the info Lexie collects from her street informants so that Rachel’s team can go after the Hamill crime family. Lexie is also working with DS Finn (from the first installment) again in hunting down pedophile, Vaughn and his accomplice, Debbie. Vaughn and Debbie had fled the country but are rumored to be back in the country (Australia).

Suffice it to say that Lexie has her hands in a lot pies and is just a little ragged and has no patience for her DS, who is irritated and resentful of Lexie, a probationary Constable, having friends in high places that basically tell him that Lexie is to be granted some latitude in order for her to be able to work with DI Rachel and DS Finn on some high level, top secret assignments.

Lexie is all over the place helping Rachel and Finn, while trying to protect her CI’s from getting killed by the Hamill family and their crew of “butchers” who go after people who have dirt on them and are providing it to law enforcement. It’s around the halfway point that my armchair detective has narrowed in on a couple of characters that I suspect are not who they are portraying themselves as and a whole other set of suspicions of how the story may go are beginning to formulate. The end comes in a flurry of scary and intense scenes for Lexie and the team as well as a twist I never saw coming.

I enjoyed the continuing development of the story’s characters, and especially liked the way that Lexie, Rachel and Finn are developing as tight and caring friends. The storyline is steady to fast and a reader needs to stay sharp not to miss all the activity going on. The storyline is interesting and I really like Lexie’s interactions with certain characters and her perfectly timed snark is entertaining. The writing was good as well as entertaining. However, I do want to say that if you are one of those types of readers whose enjoyment of a fictious story is contingent on the story’s level of believability, this probably isn’t the story for you. For me, where the crazier the better, it’s just right and why I read mostly fiction. I’m looking at an overall rating of 4.2 that I will be rounding down to a 4star review.