Retribution (2 page)
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Retribution
C.J. Townsend [1]
Jilliane Hoffman
Penguin (2003)
Rating: *****
Tags: Suspense, Fiction
One rainy night in New York City, outstanding law student Chloe Larson wakes from a terrible nightmare. But it's not a nightmare - it's real. Not only is she savagely violated in her own bedroom, Chloe then has to deal with the horror of nobody being brought to justice.
Twelve years later a very different Chloe is forging a formidable reputation in the Miami Dade State Attorney's Office, as a vicious serial killer nicknamed Cupid terrorises Florida - tearing out his tortured victim's hearts while they're still conscious. When the police stop a driver on the McArthur Causeway and a mutilated corpse is found in his trunk, it seems the hunt for Cupid is finally over. But as Chloe begins the task of prosecuting the suspect, she soon realises that this case will be anything but easy. Because her past is about to force itself on her present - and the terror is only just beginning.
Sometimes there's a price to be paid for justice. And sometimes that price is awful. Revenge could cost Chloe her sanity. The truth could cost her her life.
THE PAST. THE PRESENT. THE TERROR.
About the Author
Jilliane Hoffman was an Assistiant State Attorney between 1992 and 1996. Until 2001 she was the regional advisor for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement advising special agents on complex investigations including narcotics, homicide and organised crime. She lives in Florida and Retribution is her first novel
PENGUIN BOOKS
RETRIBUTION
‘An intensely readable tale of personal horror, thrills and vengeance guaranteed to follow in the bestselling footsteps of Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs, Tess Gerritsen and Karin Slaughter. Strong, compelling stuff’
Guardian
‘A gripping, well-crafted suspense story… so sharp it has to be read in the shortest time possible. A belter of a book’
Sunday Express
‘You won’t be able to put this book down. Will keep you on the edge of your seat till the final moments’
Star Magazine
‘A genuine page-turner’
Sunday Telegraph
‘An outstanding debut from a writer who may turn out to be a female Grisham’
Independent on Sunday
‘As accurate as it is gripping. This remarkable debut really succeeds’
Bullit Magazine
‘Fast-paced and action-packed, this thriller was one of the best I’ve read for some time. In a word: absorbing’
Herald Sun
‘Jilliane Hoffman’s first effort at crime writing shows she has a very promising future. The bottom line: Chilling and Compelling’
NW Magazine
‘Decidedly unputdownable’
Woman and Home
‘A dream of a debut thriller’
Publishing News
‘A gripping read’
Best
For Rich, the love of my life
and the one who never doubted.
And for Amanda and Katarina,
who always believed.
Retribution
JILLIANE HOFFMAN
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London
WC2R 0RL
, England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road,
Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4V 3B2
Penguin Books India (P) Ltd, 11 Community Centre,
Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany,
Auckland 1310, New Zealand
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,
Rosebank 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London
WC2R 0RL
, England
First published by Michael Joseph 2003
Published in Penguin Books 2004
6
Copyright ©Jilliane Hoffman, 2003
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
ISBN: 978-0-14-192511-0
Part 1
1
June 1988 New York City
Chloe Larson was, as usual, in a mad and blinding rush. She had all of ten minutes to change into something suitable to wear to
The Phantom of the Opera
– currently sold out a year in advance and the hottest show on Broadway – put on a face, and catch the 6:52 P.M. train out of Bayside into the city, which was, in itself, a three-minute car ride from her apartment to the station. That left her with really only seven minutes. She whipped through her overstuffed closet that she had meant to clean out last winter, and quickly settled on a black crepe skirt and matching jacket with a pink camisole. Clutching one shoe in her hand, she muttered Michael’s name under her breath, while she frantically tossed aside shoe after shoe from the pile on the closet floor, at last finally finding the black patent-leather pump’s mate.