Six crime novels about settling old scores

Lesley Kara is an alumna of the Faber Academy Writing a Novel course. She completed an English degree and PGCE at Greenwich University in London, and has worked as a lecturer and manager in further education. She has now relocated to the small town of Frinton-on-Sea on the North Essex coast.

The Rumor is her first novel. Her new novel is The Dare.

[Q&A with Lesley Kara]

Kara writes:

In The Rumor, loosely inspired by the real-life case of Mary Bell who killed two little boys when she was ten, I wanted to explore how the families of victims often feel that justice has not been done, particularly in cases where the child perpetrator is rehabilitated and enabled to start afresh under a new identity. The novel addresses the ongoing grief and anguish of the victim’s family and how such unresolved feelings can sometimes spill over into righteous anger and vigilantism.

At CrimeReads Kara tagged six crime novels about settling old scores, including:

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby is a unique and moving take on the revenge narrative, written in fast-paced, muscular prose. Two fathers, one black, one white, join forces to avenge the murders of their gay sons, whose marriage they never accepted. Ike Randolph and Buddy Lee have little in common except their criminal pasts, their prejudices about each other and about their sons’ sexuality, and a desire to do better for them in death than they did in life. This novel doesn’t pull any punches. It is gritty and violent, but also profound and redemptive in tone.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue