Author’s Note on Vengeance Road
The International Thriller Writers (ITW) named Vengeance Road a finalist for a 2010 THRILLER AWARD in the category of Best Paperback Original and The Private Eye Writers of America named it a finalist for a 2010 SHAMUS Award for Best Paperback Original.
Vengeance Road introduces readers to crime reporter Jack Gannon in the first book of my Jack Gannon series. The murder of a broken-hearted woman and the chilling disappearance of her friend raise questions about their ties to a beloved cop regarded as a hero by his community. Privately, detectives are uneasy with the answers the cop gives to protect the life — and the lie — he’s lived. The case haunts Gannon, a gritty blue-collar reporter, and drives his obsession to find the truth.
Copyright © 2009 by Rick Mofina
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the creation of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book is for Barbara
I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.
– Lamentations 3
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.
-- Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene ii
William Shakespeare
VENGEANCE ROAD
(Excerpt)
Brooks, Alberta, Canada 1937
Majestic dust clouds ascended from the parched earth as a lone farm truck cut across the desolate prairie.
Norris Selkirk drove while his mother, Vida, sat next to him; the sky and worry reflected in her eyes as she searched the endless horizon.
Not a sign of life for miles in this quarter of dry grassland where the Blackfeet Nation once hunted the great Buffalo herds before treaties were signed and the white homesteaders arrived.
This morning Vida told her husband that she needed their son to take her out to the Rudd place.
“What for? I need Norris here, to help me with the tractor.”
“Clydell and Eva weren’t at church. The younger ones weren’t at school. And remember, that killer escaped from Stony Mountain prison in Manitoba and was supposed to be headed west.”
“Vida, we got our own business to mind.”
“You mind it. I’m going out to see if Eva needs help. Maybe they’re sick.”
Vida’s husband grunted the way most men did whenever they considered Clydell Rudd and anything related to him.
The Rudd place was at the edge of Newell County where Clydell kept his wife Eva, their five daughters and young boy, Deke, isolated from the community.
Except for church and school, they rarely left their property.
Clydell never permitted his girls, including the two who were full grown and unmarried, to go into town.
Clydell didn’t care for other people; which suited other people just fine.
Earlier on, there was talk that one of the Rudd girls had become pregnant, then came rumors that Clydell had a criminal past, or owed money to the Chicago mob. Somebody claimed that some nights people had seen Clydell drunk on his own brew, running naked on his land raging at the moon.
No one knew the truth about Clydell Rudd.
Vida didn’t care. She put no stock in childish folklore. She wanted to be sure Eva and her kids were all right. That’s what you did out here where living could be hard with men who couldn’t understand a woman’s heart.
Vida took stock as the Rudd’s ranch house with its peeling paint came into view. Their battered green Dodge was there all right, but no clothes were pinned to the line.
Odd.
With five children, you’d count on Eva and the girls doing a wash every day.
Norris halted the truck, shut it off, got out and released a whistle that normally summoned the dogs.
Nothing.
The chickens seemed agitated, clucking up a storm in the coop. As Vida approached the house, the air felt wrong, like something had been taken. The front door was open, swaying and creaking, as if beckoning Vida to continue.
Or warning her to turn right around and go home.
“Eva?” Vida called. “Clydell?”
No one responded.
Three fat mice darted out the house, over the threshold.
“Anybody home?”
Nothing.
Passing through the door, Vida and Norris met a wave of foul air.
“Whoa,” Norris said.
As their eyes adjusted to the light, they moved through the small living room. Vida’s calls filled the quiet. Nothing seemed out of place, but for the stillness. It was too quiet, as if all life in the house had stopped.
Then they heard the humming.
Vida and Norris exchanged a glance.
As they approached the first bedroom, the humming grew louder. Norris pushed the door open wider and they saw the source of the sound.
Vida’s scalp tingled.
Norris felt the little hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
-End of Excerpt – Vengeance Road-
Text Copyright © 2009 Rick Mofina
Cover Art Copyright © 2009 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited.
Text and cover art used by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A. and Harlequin Enterprises Limited ® and TM are trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its affiliated companies used under license.
About the Author
Rick Mofina is a former journalist and an award-winning author of several acclaimed thrillers. His reporting has put him face-to-face with murderers on death row in Montana and Texas. He has covered a horrific serial-killing case in California and an armored car-heist in Las Vegas, flown over Los Angeles with the LAPD Air Support Division and gone on patrol with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near the Arctic. He has reported from the Caribbean, Africa and Kuwait’s border with Iraq.
Rick’s true-crime articles have appeared in the New York Times, Marie Claire, Reader’s Digest and Penthouse while his thrillers have been published in 19 countries and praised by James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Michael Connelly, Sandra Brown, Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Heather Graham, Peter Robinson, Allison Brennan, David Morrell, Linwood Barclay and Kay Hooper.
Rick is a two-time winner of The Arthur Ellis Award and the International Thriller Writers, Private Eye Writers of America and The Crime Writers of Canada have listed his crime fiction as being among the very best in the genre.
Praise for Rick Mofina’s books
In Desperation
"A blisteringly paced story that cuts to the bone. It left me ripping through pages deep into the night." -- James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author
"Hell hath no fury like a mother wronged. In Desperation is "A superbly written thriller that plumbs the depths of every parent's nightmare. Timely, tense, and terrifying, this book is sure to be a big hit!" -- Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author
The Panic Zone
"The Panic Zone is a headlong rush toward Armageddon. It's brisk pace and tight focus remind me of early Michael Crichton." -- Dean Koontz #1 New York Times bestselling author
Vengeance Road
"Vengeance Road is a thriller with no speed limit! It's a great read!" -- Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"A gripping no-holds barred mystery ... lightning paced ... with enough twists to keep you turning pages well into the wee hours." -- Allison Brennan, New York Times bestselling author
Six Seconds
"Six Seconds should be Rick Mofina's breakout thriller. It moves like a tornado." -- James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"Six Seconds is a great read. Echoing Ludlum and Fors
ythe, author Mofina has penned a big, solid international thriller that grabs your gut -- and your heart -- in the opening scenes and never lets go." -- Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author
"Everything we need from a great thriller." -- Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author
"A perfect thriller in every way. Very powerful and very very clever." -- Nick Stone, international acclaimed bestselling author
"Filled with chills and thrills ... don't miss it." -- Heather Graham, New York Times bestselling author
"An essential read for thriller fans." -- Library Journal, Starred Review
"Suspense-packed rush." -- Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review
A Perfect Grave
"A lightning-paced thriller with lean, tense writing . . . Mofina really knows how to make the story fly!" -- Tess Gerritsen, New York Times Bestselling author of The Mephisto Club
"Swiftly paced . . . a story of slow-simmering revenge." -- Adam Woog, The Seattle Times
"Mofina writes family tragedy as powerfully as Ross McDonald with a modern twist." -- Jennifer Jordan, Crimespree Magazine, Milwaukee
"Mofina has woven an intriguing tale about how the past always catches up to you, sooner or later . . . does a wonderful job of creating suspense." -- Sandra Ruttan, Spinetingler Magazine
Every Fear
"Pushes crackling suspense to the breaking point and beyond... a must read!" -- Kay Hooper, New York Times Bestselling Author
"Mofina shows his strength at creating gripping plots enhanced by realistic characters and social awareness in Every Fear." -- Oline H. Cogdill, Mystery columnist South Florida Sun-Sentinel
The Dying Hour
"Don't start this book late at night because you'll find yourself staying up to finish it." -- The Mystery Reader
"The Dying Hour starts scary and ends scary. You'll be craving Mofina's next novel." -- Sandra Brown, New York Times Bestselling author
Be Mine
"Rick Mofina is writing a fine series of thrillers: Swiftly paced, entertaining, with authentic details of police procedure." -- Dean Koontz, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of The Face and Fear Nothing
"Mofina continues his string of gripping, tense thrillers that explore the intricacies of crime reporting, the culture of a big-city newsroom and the fallout of what happens when those who report on the news become the news." -- Orlando Sentinel
No Way Back
"No Way Back is my kind of novel — a tough, taut thriller — Mofina knows the world he writes about." -- Michael Connelly, New York Times Bestselling author of Lost Light, Blood Work, City of Bones
"A tightly wound spring of suspense and terror." -- David Morrell, author of The Protector
Blood of Others
"Tense, realistic, and scary in all the right places." -- James Patterson, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
"This is urban grit with a vengeance." -- The Globe and Mail
"Drawing on his experience as a journalist and crime writer, Rick Mofina (Cold Fear) brings a gritty realism to the printed page in Blood of Others... Mofina's flawed but sympathetic characters draw readers into the action." -- Publisher's Weekly
"Mofina is a very talented writer capable of creating not only exceptional characters but a plot that is so riveting that pages fly by. The pacing is especially impressive. The story starts out quickly, slows down for character development then accelerates to a rapid, yet satisfying climax. Rick Mofina is a news reporter and his writing skills are immediately apparent. His first book has been nominated for the Arthur Ellis award in Canada. So he is well regarded there. He deserves a large following in this country, as well. Highly recommended." -- Deadly Pleasures, REVIEW OF THE WEEK, by Larry Gandle
Cold Fear
"A powerful gut wrenching thriller." -- The Midwest Book Review
"Bursts with suspense. The action is so intense, the writing so realistic, it's as if we are there during the search. This is a book to cause icy shivers." -- Toby Bromberg, Romantic Times Magazine
"Mofina's chilling tale is one of the best mysteries you'll read." -- The Ottawa Citizen
"An entertaining, suspense-filled ride." -- Quill & Quire
If Angels Fall
"If you buy it for the flight, you'll be reading it on the escalator." -- National Post
"Guaranteed to keep readers flipping the pages." -- The Toronto Sun
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