Escape to Redemption

 Escape to Redemption

Reviewed By  Grasshopper2       June 27, 2016

 

Author  Peter M. Parr

Distributor:      Zero Books
ISBN:                 978-1-78535-227-0
Publisher:         John Hunt Publishing Ltd
Release Date:   June 2016  

Website:    www.zero-books.net 

Murder, whether accidental, planned or just mismanaged is the taking of a person’s life, and needs to be punished. This fast paced story shows how two people plan to go to a man’s house and using a gun, frighten him. It is riveting to see how flawed people make flawed decisions, never expecting the plan to alter. After the deed is done, time is spent examining the feelings and stages which the perpetrators of this crime pass through.

 The main characters are Josie, and Snaz.  Josie is from a well to do family with a father who is mostly absent through business, although is very loving to her. Her mother has always been cold and aloof.  Josie is independent, has plenty of money to do with as she wishes. Snaz, or Simon, was at a night club, when he saw a man slip something into Josie’s drink; he warned her and she left the club with him. From that time on, they became fast friends and then lovers. Josie asked Snaz if he would accompany her to meet a woman who wanted to give her some information that could prove Josie was not related to the woman she thought was her mother, but that her father was her biological father.

 It seems that Josie’s mother was a prostitute that her father visited but when Josie was three years old her mother was stabbed to death in a violent attack. The pimp, who was there on the night, was still around and so Josie persuaded Snaz to borrow a gun and go around there to frighten him.

 The plan goes horribly awry, with Josie running to Poland where an ex-boyfriend was living. Snaz stayed behind with his loving aunt, to face the Police, very afraid and not sure how to work out his degree of blame or guilt. His thoughts and those of his aunt are mainly focussed on his guilt and how to find redemption. Josie finds she cannot live in Poland forever, and finds a top lawyer willing to defend her. The nightmares, dreams and terror live on in Josie and she needs to come to terms with what has happened.

 The author examines how people who have committed terrible crimes eventually come to find peace. His background is that of a Quaker, with redemption a concept he explores. Perhaps Josie was not old enough to have become cynical and disassociated, but she is able, with help, to move on.

  This is a murder story with a moral and thoughtful ending, quite different and readable.

Crime, Fiction