Laws of Wrath

by Eriq La Salle, Lavette Books (Other)

Overview

"All thriller; no filler—a white knuckled treat." —James Patterson

"[A] nail-biter that never sacrifices character for plot." —Publishers Weekly

Some people fight the devil inside them… others worship it.

NYPD Detectives Phee Freeman and Quincy Cavanaugh are back and working to stop another serial killer. Freeman has his own battles to fight, too, as he navigates his family's refusal to accept his sibling AJ's identity. When AJ is found brutally murdered, he can't step away from the case. Before long, a pattern of shockingly similar ritualistic murders emerges. Freeman, Cavanaugh, and FBI Agent Janet Maclin must join forces with a brilliant but deranged cult leader to hunt down the killer. As the bodies begin piling up, Phee and his partners must rethink their entire investigation—what if their suspect and their so-called expert are actually the same person?

Apart from his critically-acclaimed thriller titles, La Salle is a masterful mystery/crime storyteller. He may be best known for his acting roles in productions such as ER, Coming to America, and Logan, but his background in crime fiction was finely honed as he directed and executive produced countless episodes of popular shows such as Law & Order, Law and Order SVU, Law & Order: Organized Crime, CSI: NY, and Chicago PD with Dick Wolf.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728261034
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	05/02/2023
Series:	Martyr Maker , #2
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

ERIQ LA SALLE is an actor, director, producer, and author best known to worldwide television audiences for his portrayal of the commanding Dr. Peter Benton in the award-winning, critically acclaimed medical drama, E.R. He was raised in Hartford, Connecticut, and educated at Juilliard and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Editorial Reviews

03/20/2023

La Salle’s second thriller featuring NYPD detectives Phee Freeman and Quincy Cavanaugh (after 2022’s Laws of Depravity) is another nail-biter that never sacrifices character for plot. Freeman and Cavanaugh have become celebrities after stopping a killer who targeted New York clergy. Their moment of glory is derailed, though, by news that Freeman’s older sibling A.J. has been murdered: the killer removed A.J.’s eyelids and internal organs before abandoning the corpse in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Freeman is wracked with guilt, having been estranged from A.J. for years, and winds up working on A.J.’s murder with Cavanaugh. The investigation gets even more complex when the partners learn that several murders with a similar m.o. were committed in Queens three years earlier. Police believed that killer was Daria Zibik, who’s since been incarcerated, and now fear a copycat is at work. La Salle treads lurid territory without straining credulity. Fans of Jeffery Deaver will be pleased. Agent: Rockelle Henderson, Rock Inked. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Another nail-biter that never sacrifices character for plot...La Salle treads lurid territory without straining credulity. Fans of Jeffery Deaver will be pleased." — Publishers Weekly

"All thriller; no filler—a white knuckled treat." — James Patterson

"Penetrating and incisive…Laws of Wrath is outstanding fiction, with its basis firmly planted in the nonfictional evil man is capable of committing." — Lee Ashford, Readers' Favorite

From the Publisher

2023-03-11
The grisly ritualistic murder of New York detective Phee Freeman's tricking, cross-dressing brother, A.J., makes his investigation of a series of similar killings intensely personal.

Phee is the younger son of powerful career criminal Clay Freeman, whose ruthlessness he inherited. After their recent killing of a serial murderer under questionable circumstances, Phee and his partner, Quincy Cavanaugh (whose own older brother, a priest, has dark secrets to hide), have been suspended from the force. But that won't stop Phee from going after A.J.'s killer, who also is the target of a new "Mirror Project" run by FBI agent Janet Maclin that temporarily releases convicts to help the feds catch criminals at large. The big question is whether the FBI's helper on this case, Harvard-educated Satanic cult leader and murderer Dr. Daria Zibik, is an asset or a lethal threat. Not for sensitive readers, the second installment in La Salle's Martyr Maker series, following Laws of Depravity (2022), has victims carved up while they are still alive—the better to "capture" the departing souls of the corpses. Though the dialogue and action scenes tend to be flatly rendered, La Salle, the former ER star, exerts a tight grip on his exceptionally bleak narrative, which strives for a Godfather-like dynamic in its family dramas. Everyone, it seems, has been touched by murder or suicide or physical abuse. Which is fine with Dr. Zibik, for whom retribution—as opposed to mere revenge—"puts us all on par with what you call God."

A devilish thriller in which no one escapes the darkness.

Kirkus Reviews