Read The WORLD by Pushpinder Khaneka
Thriller set across NEVADA
9th October 2025
Redemption by Jack Jordan, thriller set across NEVADA
LONGLISTED FOR THEAKSTON’S OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2025
Shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize 2025
Evelyn and Tobias are very much in love, and early in the novel, the author draws a vivid picture of their entwined relationship. They have a son, Joshua, and then move from London to San Diego for Tobias’ work. One day a man (Aaron) kills their son in a hit and run and leaves him dead by the side of the road. A traumatic event like this inevitably changes the adult couple relationship: Evelyn sinks into depression for a month and then rouses herself and determines that, once the driver has finished his prison sentence, she will seek him out and kill him. An eye for an eye. Tobias somehow gets caught up in her fervour and once Aaron is released, it’s game on.
They head to Beatty, the gateway to Death Valley and it is here that Aaron lives. Tobias struggles to find his backbone to call a halt to the mad-cap plan, and try as he might, he is outwitted by her determination. He clearly has attachment issues to his wife that he can’t shake off.
The story has plenty of inventive, hand-brake turns as the story veers this way and that, which generally makes for a good read. When, however, Evelyn manages to lever the deadweight of a knocked-out police office into the boot of his own patrol car (a pretty impossible feat), my engagement began to wane. Tobias is determined to follow the chase because he “doesn’t want to lose his wife“. Frankly, by a third of the way through the novel this rather lame reason for galloping through the desert felt like rather a stretch – she has already clearly disconnected from him physically, mentally and emotionally. If she takes a life for a life, states Tobias at one point, then “the woman she was will be gone and there’ll be no going back“. I hate to break it to you, pal, but she has already gone and there is no going back. And yet Tobias is stuck to her emotionally with a determination that defies logic.
The main thrust of the story is the chase through a variety of locations, innumerable motels, violent events (with a good deal of blood loss) and an encounter with a small group of Proud Boys, adding a further layer of savagery.
Redemption, as per the title, can take many forms and the author plays fast and loose with the concept as the story comes to an end.
There is a good sense of place in this novel. Wild fires are raging and threatening to engulf some of the places, as the action moves through the desert landscape. From Beatty to Reno, across Death Valley, the backdrop enhances the crazy chase to find a sense of justice.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
Join team TripFiction on Social Media:
Twitter (@TripFiction), Facebook (@TripFiction.Literarywanderlust), YouTube (TripFiction #Literarywanderlust), Instagram (@TripFiction) and Pinterest (@TripFiction) and BlueSky(tripfiction.bsky.social) and Threads (@tripfiction)
Please wait...
