First Published 1995
A Wild Justice is probably Craig’s best thriller since The Last Raven. My opinion anyway! Part of the appeal is that he’s ditched nearly all of his old characters and created brand new ones. There’s not even a mention of Aubrey which is refreshing (although I am fond of old Aubrey!). There is however one link to the past in the shape of Alexei Vorontsyev, who was the KGB hero of Snow Falcon.
In America John Lock, an ex-CIA agent, finds his sister and brother-in-law murdered. His search for the killers puts him in bother in the States and eventually brings him to Siberia where an American natural gas company and the Russian mafia sit side-by-side in the frontier town of Novyy Urengoy. There the Russian chief of police, Alexei Vorontsyev, is the last honest cop. He and his loyal team are trying to get to the bottom of a murder of an American and to stop the drug smuggling in the area.
Naturally the two events are linked and soon it transpires that the stakes are a lot higher than could have been imagined.
An excellent novel from Thomas. I found it to be a genuine page-turner which is something I’m very picky about. If I loose interest in a book I can put it aside for weeks or months. This took just a few days.
As the book built towards the climax I actually thought that Craig was starting a new series which would feature Lock and Vorontsyev teaming up to fight crime in post-Soviet Russia. Hell, I loved that idea. But it seems I was one step ahead (or is it behind?) Craig. He had other plans for his characters. (Remember Aubrey’s niece?)
For some reason this is was the last of Thomas’ books to be published in America.
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