"Private Justice" is a fast-paced, suspenseful mystery. The mystery was a who-done-it that kept me uncertain until the end. The suspense was created by the tension between Mark and Allie due to their marriage troubles and the fact that Allie and the other firemen's wives were being stalked by a killer.

The characters made mistakes that increased the suspense, but they were very believable, human mistakes. They were smart people. The mistakes were due to ignorance or the character thought he was making the right choice (and it was a reasonable one) or the mistake was followed by the thought, "I probably shouldn't have done that...but it shouldn't matter" and they had no real reason to think the mistake was a critical one. So it worked for me.

The characters were complex and very realistic. Allie was exasperating at times, but since her parents were exasperating in the same way, I can see where she picked up the habit. I initially had a hard time caring about Allie, though, since I didn't find her very likable. I liked Mark and many of the secondary characters, though.

The author writes "about flawed Christians in crisis and God's provisions for their mistakes and wrong choices" (from her bio). So the novel had a strong Christian element with the characters discussing (and struggling with) God's character and why He let bad things happen. It was realistically handled, and I wouldn't call it preachy. Christians and non-Christians were portrayed realistically, with both flaws and strong points.

There was a very minor amount of "he cussed" style bad language. There was no explicit sex. There was no graphic gore. Overall, I'd recommend this novel as well-written, clean reading.

Reviewed by Debbie from Genre Reviews