Vengeance

by Joseph Locke

When twenty-year-old Butch gets out of jail, he is driven by an insatiable desire for revenge against Margaret Louise Connelly, the attorney who put him in prison, and he decides to get even through Margaret's sixteen-year-old daughter.

Genres: Horror

176 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1994

About the author

Pseudonym of Ray Garton.

Reviews

[Grace Chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, stop what you're doing and LOOK AT THAT COVER. Look at those clenched butt cheeks hahaha!! This guy MUST mean bizznessss 🤣🍑💥

Joseph Locke seldom disappoints and this one was a blood-soaked extravaganza. Few random notes:

- A trigger warning that there is a lot of gun violence here. On the more extreme spectrum of what is allowed in YA but alas this was written in 1994 😅
- Our nasty villain "Butch" talks like a 40's gangster with his "Whadaya mean ya don't wanna go out with meee" which gets a little grating at times, but I decided to just go with it 🤣
- Ummmm there is a scene with a rattlesnake that was nothing short of wild 🐍🤣

Ultimately, this was a high-stakes thriller which was a lot of fun and plays out like a 90's guilty pleasure cheeseball thriller film. You know how some of our beloved YA's don't have exciting finales until like the last chapter? This one starts about half-way through and the tension is ramped the eff UP!

[Paul Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual page number- 170 pages

first half was boring as nothing much happens but when the action starts, it gets really interesting.

That's all I can say. The book would have deserved higher rating, had the writer condensed the first half so the action starts quickly.

[Matthew MacIntyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the main characters is the same main character from Kiss of Death so read that first. This book is definitely more of a thriller than horror but it was a fun fast paced ride. We start off following Butch a 20 year old who escapes from the police in a pretty brutal way who vows revenge on the prosecutor who had put him in jail for murder. He vows to get his payback. We then meet our protagonists Erin and Jimmy. Erin’s mother was the prosecutor. They are going to tennis camp for a couple weeks. We meet them as they are having some relationship problems because Jimmy won’t open up about his past totally (basically the events of Kiss of Death). When they get to camp they meet Butch although he is now going by CB. Jimmy immediately suspicious but Erin is quickly drawn to him, which just happens to be Butches plan. He wants her to fall in love and bring him home to his mother to act out his revenge. Why do so many people like to cheat in these books? Erin kisses Butch and everything. I don’t want to spoil much but it ends pretty dramatically with some gruesome violence. Definitely worth a read, one of his better books.

[Brianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vengeance was an amazing story. I honestly half-expected Margaret to die instead of her husband since she was the one Butch was after in the first place. I cannot believe Erin would even consider kissing someone like Cormann Bartholomew Cassett, even if she didn't know who he really was and what he wanted with her. I would TOTALLY reread this book. I recommend it to anyone who likes a thriller but still wants a somewhat happy ending.