MJ Arlidge’s Eye for an Eye (Orion) opens with a horrific death. Mark Willis is on his way home when three men wearing latex pig masks corner him. He can’t escape. But this propulsive thriller isn’t an investigation into his death – or at least not that alone. Mark was one of a handful of criminals in the UK granted lifelong anonymity and a change of identity because of the appalling nature of their crimes. Somehow his identity has been leaked – and the probation service now fears that eight others in the same situation are also about to be exposed.
Arlidge shifts perspectives between these (somewhat) rehabilitated offenders, the victims’ relatives, still traumatised, and the vigilantes responsible for the leaks. “He would see that they were punished for their crimes, enduring the anguish that they had inflicted on their victims. They would feel the terror, the agony, the fear that was their due.” Eye for an Eye is fast-moving, disturbing and thought-provoking.
