REDEPTION ROAD: JOHN HART

I have been waiting for another novel by John Hart for a couple of years.  This, his fourth, met all my expectations. Gerard Manoli, a colleague introduced me to Hart seven or eight years ago.  This is typical Hart, engrossing and maddening until the end because we want to know who done it.  To begin, there's a serial killer on the loose and three major characters, Channing, Adrian Wall, and Elizabeth Black, a emotionally crippled detective, the center of the book.  Early in her career, she becomes emotionally involved in a murder case.  Adrian Wall, a fellow cop, her mentor more or less, is convicted of murder and gets 14 years in prison.  The novel begins as he's released.  Just before this,  Elizabeth has been in the news for rescuing a teenage girl, Channing  the daughter of a wealthy family,  from two drug dealers and rapists, both black.   The problem, however, is that the two black men were found shot dead, with 18 bullets in each.  As a result,  Elizabeth may be indicted for murder.  Meanwhile, Gideon, the 14 year old son of Julia Strange, the woman who Adrian Wall supposedly murdered fourteen years ago, waits for him at a local bar, hoping to avenge his mother's killer but is shot by the bar tender to protect the just released Adrian.  As I write this, it sounds awfully silly but I enjoyed it.

Because another woman is found murdered, the cops think the newly released Adrian did it. As both Elizabeth (now wanted for murdering the two rapists) and Adrian go on the lam, we find that the sadistic prison warden, with a hatred for his former prisoner Adrian and Elizabeth's partner have reasons to find both Adrian and Elizabeth. They become involved in the hunt for the two, the warden because he thinks Adrian has knowledge of a stash of millions of dollars, the partner because he's being blackmailed by the warden.   Meanwhile, the serial killer, thinking he's ending his spree by killing Elizabeth, ends up kidnapping the recently raped Channing, who has been staying at Elizabeth's home.  This is beginning to sound so silly I will leave it at that.  They find the serial killer and Channing is also found still alive and Elizabeth, Adrian, Channing and Gideon live happily ever after. The one big surprise is the identification of the serial killer.