David Fox has a life anyone would envy-a flourishing career as a lawyer, a condo in Denver, and a beautiful girlfriend, Ellen-until he begins investigating a lawsuit against the Denver City Ballet. It seems like a commonplace allegation of misspent funds at first, but soon David finds himself caught in a web of blackmail, betrayal, and dark secrets. To escape, he'll have to answer some uncomfortable questions: Who was responsible for the embezzlement, and how far will they go to cover it up? What precisely is Ellen discussing in those sessions with her psychiatrist? And is telling the truth worth losing everything? The Price of Revenge follows David across boundaries both professional and personal as he tries to find his way out of the maze of intrigue into which he has stumbled.
Those of us who swear by legal thrillers/suspense novels may become enticed by The Price of Revenge. David Vaughn has joined a slew of other authors who have based their novels on courtroom intrigue. While the topic offers for a lot of leg room for authors to create a great story, not everyone has been able to pull it off successfully. In my mind, whether David Vaughn has been able to pull it off is still up for debate.
The good news that is The Price of Revenge is a good, original concept. It depicts the life of a well-to-do lawyer who gets caught up in a cycle of revenge that ultimately ruins his life. The excitement gets going pretty early on in the book as we get a flash back of David being black mailed and being faced with a difficult decision. Naturally this sets the tone for the entire book. The story is told in third person so you get an insight into all of the characters and their motives in the story. The Price of Revenge is not riveting but it's not obvious either. With each trial that the protagonist faces, the reader at times enters into them blindly.
Having said all of that, the bad news is that the story was really poorly executed. I didn't think that revenge played a critical role in this story as it help to send David's life into chaos. I thought that the foolish actions of all of the characters are what ultimately led to their down fall. Additionally their actions were not sufficiently explained and it was a bit frustrating trying to understand their motives. I thought that telling the story in third person would have allowed the author to help build the stories of these characters but that was not the case. They all seemed one dimensional, irrational and uninteresting.
The story did flow pretty quickly especially because the chapters were shorter and there was some element of suspense that kept you interested in the story. However the author couldn't keep the reader's attention for too long since the writing was rigid and lacked depth. I really was expecting more from this story but sadly it just left me in two minds.
From all the reviews that I have read about this book, everyone seems to disagree with my stance. However I'll let you guys be the judge. I will probably not give this book a second read but I am always open to passing it along to my friends.
Overview
David Fox has a life anyone would envy-a flourishing career as a lawyer, a condo in Denver, and a beautiful girlfriend, Ellen-until he begins investigating a lawsuit against the Denver City Ballet. It seems like a commonplace allegation of misspent funds at first, but soon David finds himself caught in a web of blackmail, betrayal, and dark secrets. To escape, he'll have to answer some uncomfortable questions: Who was responsible for the embezzlement, and how far will they go to cover it up? What precisely is ...