#BlogTour ‘Vengeance Is Mine’ by Steven Torres

About the book…

Ray Cruz is a killer. When his daughter is attacked, he’ll do anything and spill anyone’s blood to protect her.

Elena Maldonado struggles to reach her father’s home after she’s been beaten brutally by the henchman of a local businessman, Robert Meister. At one time, Elena’s father, Ray Cruz, worked as hired muscle himself, but he thought he’d left that life behind. When Elena knocks at his door, a wreck and unwilling to explain, his instincts kick in – the instinct to protect his family and wreak vengeance on whoever was behind the brutal message his daughter seems to have understood all too clearly – stay quiet, do as we say or worse will happen and no one you love will be safe.

A trip to the hospital attracts the attention of the police and Detective Jack Carver. Carver warns Ray to let the police handle the case, but Ray is not the type to let this attack go unpunished. It doesn’t take long, however, before the FBI gets involved telling Ray that Elena is working with them. None of this stops Ray from asking his questions, bribing some, intimidating others and beating the hardest cases. Soon, he finds the henchmen, but they know very little about who hired them and nothing about why. Ray makes them pay for their ignorance and their brutality. Detective Carver and FBI agent Ramona Esposito warn Ray against taking things into his own hands not knowing how far Ray has already gone or is willing to go.

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the blog tour invite, and publishers Flame Tree Press for the e-arc of Vengeance Is Mine  which is available in e-book and hardcover editions.

The phrase ‘vengeance is mine’ rang a bell at the back of my mind, and, on looking it up I found it comes from the Book of Deuteronomy which is brilliantly apt for this thriller. Opening with a shocking act of violence that catches the reader off guard as much as it does the victim, you spend the rest of the book picking your jaw off the floor and wondering just who the hell the good guys in this situation are.

Just for starters, it sure as hell is not the police.

In New York City, a young woman named Elena, is viciously beaten by heavies hired for the job by Robert Meister, a local face and name. What she has done to incur the beating-which is absolutely and completely not her fault-is not immediately clear. What is , however, is that she anticipates any form of repayment will not be seen through the courts of justice and through the police. After attending a ER and refusing to give any details as to how she sustained her injuries, it is clear that prejudice against those of non-white backgrounds has seriously undermined Elena’s circle of trust in any form of restorative justice,

As her father, Ray, used to be heavily involved in this life, he is the one she turns to for protection and although she does not ask for it, some part of her must know that seeing his daughter bought so low and in such pain would activate his previous persona. And it does, in spectacular and bloody ways. The book pulls no punches, and neither does Ray, as he goes to work finding out who did this, why, and how he can send a public message to Meister about this unwarranted act of violence.

The staccato nature of the sentences reflects Ray’s character, he is someone who lets his actions do the talking and does not waste his time on pointless conversation. His deeply religious conviction has the reader returning to the title of the novel, it invokes the old Testament vengeful god whose anger is all encompassing and also completely in accordance to the crime committed. It is not the ‘turn the other cheek’ rhetoric which drives Ray, rather the swift decent of flaming swords to avenge his daughter’s beating.

The dual storylines of Ray and Elena run parallel with the police investigation, and invoke the gritty , down to earth realism of a New York set tale which comes engrained with the dirt and hope and stories of this city’s residents. Deeply disturbing but also enormously enjoyable , this is my first Ray Cruz novel and I anticipate reading others in the future.

About the author…

Except for a year and a half spent living in Puerto Rico, Derringer award winning author Steven Torres was born and raised in the Bronx in New York City. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School and Hunter College and earned a doctorate in English from the City University of New York.

His first novel, ‘Precinct Puerto Rico’ came out in 2002 to starred reviews. His stand alone novel, ‘The Concrete Maze’, came out in 2007.

His short stories have been published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Crimespree Magazine as well as anthologies like Bronx Noir and Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery. His short non-fiction work has appeared in Mystery Scene Magazine and The New York Times.

Steven and his family live in central Connecticut. When he’s not teaching English, he is writing stories. If he’s not doing either of those thing he might be gardening, listening to music, reading or traveling.

Links-http://www.steventorres.com/

Twitter @RandomTTours @FlameTreePress