Book Review – Closure (A Jack Randall Thriller)

Closure – Randall Wood  (2013) – FBI Agent Jack Randall finds himself assigned to a high profile case in a very peculiar manner, by the killer.  High profile people are being killed with frightening efficiency across the country.  It’s clear that it’s all the same killer but finding the connections is a challenge.  From New York City to the deserts of Nevada with many stops in between  Randall is constantly one step behind the vigilante killer and forced to face some of his own personal history.

If you like classic thriller novels put this one on your list.  Wood does a great job of creating believable characters, putting them in a fleshed out story and then slamming his foot down on the accelerator.   It’s been a while since I have been as wholly pleased by a thriller novel as I was with this one.  The kind of book that makes you resent the need for sleep.

Yeah, I liked it.

I will admit that right at the end I realized I had one major chunk of uncomfortable I had to deal with along the way.  The “bad guy” is a vigilante, someone who has decided to take justice into his own hands.  That’s not a spoiler since Wood follows both sides of the story and the motivation is pretty clear from very early on.  What the author has done that is quite clever is to make this a triangular story.  It’s not good guys versus bad guys.  The very clear “bad guys” are the people getting killed.  The greatest weakness in the story is that the victims are cardboard cutouts.  They aren’t really human, they have no depth and no nuance.  They’re just scum, so you don’t really mind when they get killed.  The other two sides are the vigilante and the FBI team Randall is leading.

There is a cathartic aspect to the vigilante’s mission.  In the end all we really want is for the REALLY bad guys to get what’s coming to them.  Unfortunately, if we raise the vigilante to the role of hero, the very fabric of civilization is torn.  We are no longer a society of laws.  There’s no good ending to that story.

I think I know where Randall Wood may come down on that discussion.  But you know, I can’t say I’m sure.  He made me think, he made me uncomfortable with how I felt sometimes about the characters and what they did.

And that’s called good writing.

If the victims had been more like actual 3D people, “Closure” would be damn near perfect.  I’ll keep my eyes open for Agent Randall in the future.

Rating – **** Recommended