Review: The Prison Guard's Son by Trace Conger

A Mysterious Review of The Prison Guard's Son by Trace Conger. A Finn Harding Mystery.

Review summary: This is a superbly crafted crime novel. The characters are richly drawn with a rare combination of nuance and depth. A twist at the end that doesn't add any value to what was already an exceptionally well-constructed and delivered story is a minor quibble. That point aside, this is one of the year's best books; don't miss it. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

The Prison Guard's Son
Trace Conger
A Finn Harding Mystery
Black Mill Books (July 2016)

Publisher synopsis: Thirty years ago Jacob Vance and Raymond Turner committed a gruesome crime that shocked a small West Virginia town. Only nine years old themselves, they kidnapped and murdered four-year-old Josh Baker.

The two boys were quickly arrested, tried and convicted, but were released after serving only eight years in a juvenile detention facility. Because of the heinousness of their crime and the town's thirst for retribution, the government gave Vance and Turner new identities and relocated them to parts unknown.

Now, the victim's father has hired Finn Harding to find his son's killers so he can levy the justice that was denied so long ago. Along the way, Finn clashes with a tenacious US Marshal determined to protect the killers' new identities and crosses paths with an infamous triggerman hired to do what the courts didn't.

What begins as a typical job for Finn quickly spirals into a moral struggle between revenge and forgiveness as he learns details about the lives Vance and Turner have been living.

As he fights with his conscience, Finn learns that monsters truly exist, you can't hide from your past, and some cases should stay buried.