A review by Elizabeth Manthos
Nadia Stafford, bed and breakfast owner by day, paid assassin by night. Wild Justice is the third and final instalment of the Nadia Stafford trilogy. Her number one mantra, protect the innocent, is something she believes she failed to do as a thirteen year old. Nadia Stafford is haunted by her past and her failure in protecting her older cousin Amy from being raped and murdered.
When she fails again, botching a hit and causing the brutal murder of a woman and her child, her mentor Jack brings her a gift, something to set the scales right. The name and location of the man that killed her cousin, a man that disappeared when the murder trial failed. Vengeance and justice seem simple in Nadia’s mind. With the murderer in her sights, nothing should seem so easy. But justice is never simple, especially when the whole world is against you.
I first picked up this novel thinking it was a standalone novel and would be an interesting read and with Kelley Armstrong being one of my favourite YA authors, what could go wrong?
Without reading the first two novels, I thought I would be stuck with understanding Nadia’s motivations and her past but Kelley Armstrong has a talent for explaining everything in a way that makes you feel like you’ve been reading the trilogy since the beginning. Although, reading anything more than this story would have been overkill.
Nadia as a character was enjoyable, you saw the struggle of a business owner as well as the struggle of her assassin persona, Dee. She was a strong female lead and I found as the story progressed, I was interested in what would happen to her, but not as much as I suppose anyone would with a lead character. Personally, secondary character and mentor Jack, was by far my favourite character in the novel. He was dark and brooding and mysterious and I found myself wanting to know more about him and his past rather than following the story of Nadia and her past.
The twist and turns in the novel had me on the edge of my seat and some of them even surprised me. Just when you thought you had figured something out, Ms Armstrong had everything thrown upside down, with nail biting moments and surprising turns, this book was definitely thrilling. Generally I am not a fan of the thriller genre, but I enjoyed this book as a standalone novel.
Kelley Armstrong definitely knows how to write a good adult drama/thriller and I recommend this to anyone who wants an interesting and thrilling read.
