Tuesday, May 25, 2010

“No Justice”

By Darcia Helle
http://www.quietfurybooks.com

Fiction action/adventure

Book Review

By Richard E. Noble

No Justice starts with a bang. A man is blown to bits. A bomb was placed in his car. The victim was murdered by a … software programmer – a rather unique software programmer by the name of Michael Sykora.
The love of Michael’s life, Christina, had been murdered brutally. But that is not the motive for this particular murder. The death of Christina had led Michael down a very unusual path. In addition to being a software programmer, Michael was now murdering people for money – a paid assassin. What could be lower on the scale of humanity?
Maybe Michael’s victims. Michael murdered only “bad” people – rapist, child porn creeps, gangsters, pedophiles, drug pushers etc.
The reader now has a problem. Is a man who blows people up and shoots people between the eyes any better than the “bad” people that are his victims?
This is a moral dilemma that Michael has already solved. Michael feels that the world is without justice. Hence the title “No Justice.” Not only is society without Justice, but so too this existence. Michael has lost hope for world justice and Divine justice.
I think it was Socrates who said, “When a man surpasses his fellow man in moral righteousness, he then, in effect, becomes a law unto himself.”
Michael Sykora has become a law unto himself. He will be the judge and the jury. He will be the avenging angel … or devil depending on your point of view.
We follow along with Michael as he murders one bad person after another. We wonder if we like Michael or we don’t like Michael. Does he have a point or doesn’t he?
John Brown is considered an historical hero by some because he murdered people and tried to promote a revolution to free slaves – a revolution that resulted in the death of over a million of his fellow countrymen. Michael Sykora kills admittedly evil people who are able to elude the justice system. Is he a mini-hero of sorts or a cold blooded killer?
As this dilemma sits fermenting in the back of our mind we follow Michael in his everyday life. We meet his friends, his personable secretary, her son the cop and his ailing dad. We get to explore his relationships. We get to know Michael up close and personal.
Michael is a tormented man. Michael has had a difficult beginning. Then came the brutal murder of Christina. Michael can not put Christina behind him. He has few intimate friends. And then we meet Nicki.
Michael met Nicki after Christina’s murder. She has a unique background and some serious immediate problems. Michael with his unconventional talents is her only hope.
This is a great action/adventure story with enough intellectual content to keep everybody interested. I see no reason this could not be a production up on the silver screen – Great characters, good dialogue and a gender neutral prose style. This is a very well written and well thought book. And this is coming from a reviewer who took his wife to see Murder on the Orient Express and fell asleep … twice.

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