Book review: The Reckoning by Vikki Petraitis

I received The Reckoning by Vikki Petraitis for review a while ago and dived on in shortly after it arrived. It was only then I realised I’d not read the second in the series featuring Detective Antigone Pollard and the opening pages made it seem like I’d missed some juicy stuff. So I put it aside with the intention of getting hold of book two. I’d enjoyed book one and was reminded how much I liked Antigone the first time I was introduced… but then time passed and life happened (my mum broke her hip!) and all of my writing and reading disappeared into the ether. When I finally found time nothing else on my reading list tempted me, so I returned to Deception Bay despite having missed some of the more recent happenings.

About this book

When two convicted rapists walk free on appeal, the town of Deception Bay splits down the middle. The men swagger onto a packed cricket ground on Australia Day to a hero’s welcome. Before lunch is over, dozens of people fall ill. Among them, the newly released men.

As panic rips through the town and emergency services buckle, Detective Antigone Pollard and her partner, Wozza, scramble to figure out what has happened. Is it an accident? Or was this deliberate?

When Antigone’s mother, a doctor, vanishes while responding to a call for help, Antigone enters a desperate race to find her. But time is running out.

Antigone faces a choice and, this time, she doesn’t wait for permission. With no good options left, she does what she always does – relies on herself.

My thoughts

I love the characters Petraitis offers readers in this series. Antigone… of course, but also her mother and grandmother, her (recently discovered) brother and niece as well as her partner (the delightfully monikered “Wozza”).

This opens with the return to Deception Bay of two young men, arrested by Antigone and Wozza for drink-spiking, rape and murder, being released thanks to lobbying of a dodgy lawyer, misogynistic journalist and radio show host (and I’m sure Petraitis wasn’t short of inspiration there!)

To Antigone’s horror – and that of young women who’d been victims of the men – the town welcomes them with open arms… celebrating their return at an Australian Day BBQ.

Antigone and Wozza are initially called to a scene where a violent man has met a (actually quite fortunate) end following an attack on his wife, but then sent to the BBQ where most attendees have suffered food poisoning, including the two heroes rapists. Of course the question is… whether it’s accidental or if it was done on purpose and to what end.

Antigone’s ex (a senior police Inspector) arrives in town to oversee the investigation and we wonder if their romance will (again) be rekindled… but in the midst of all of the chaos Antigone’s mother and grandmother are taken hostage by a man whose son and wife are missing and who’s also holding his young daughter hostage.

So there’s a lot happening but Petraitis easily unfurls several themes around domestic violence, misogyny and extremism which ultimately come together to remind us that sometimes the ends does justify the means.

There’s a smidge of romance here for Antigone and this ends in a way that has me looking forward to book 4 in the series.

The Reckoning by Vikki Petraitis was published in Australia by Simon & Schuster.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.