Title – The Redemption Of Charm (Killing Sisters, #3)
Author – Frank Westworth
Genre – Thriller
Length – 200 Pages
Publication – March 2017
My Rating – 4/5 Stars

Synopsis

JJ STONER HAS EVERY REASON TO KILL.

The ex-black ops assassin and former soldier has been betrayed three times over. His enemies brutalised his woman, corrupted his best friend. Stoner is now a danger to anyone who knows him. He’s isolated. Neutralised. Vulnerable.

Now he must confront Charm, the final Killing Sister, and find out whether any of his former friends and allies will stand by his side when the bullets start flying.

JJ Stoner has every reason to die.
Can he find a reason to live?

In ‘The Redemption Of Charm’, anti-hero JJ Stoner prowls the threatening territory familiar to readers of ‘Galveston’ or ‘The Winter Of Frankie Machine’ but with a distinctly British twist. Imagine what might happen if Jack Reacher lost the only fight that really matters…

Black humour and wry realism underscore intense episodes of brutal, no-holds-barred conflict. Snappy dialogue segues into surreal, sometimes deadly sexual encounters.

Finally, Stoner must take his last stand and face his ultimate foe. Survival is far from certain.

Perfect for fans of Lee Child, Don Winslow and Nic Pizzolatto.

Review

I must admit coming late to the series so I’ve not actually read the first two books in the series yet but I really wanted to see how the book would read without prior knowledge of the first two books. Well let me tell you, it wouldn’t be recommended to read this book as a standalone. The author does a great job at giving you tit bits of information to explain what has happened to get to where Stoner is right now but I feel you lack the character development this way, I was lucky to have read all the Stoner short tales so I knew a bit about JJ’s world and the characters to expect so can honestly say while it’s a great book regardless I think you’re better off having a fuller picture so you can enjoy it more.

Now on to the story..JJ is a man who knows how to kill, he’s a man of few words and emotions but in this story we find him broken after the events of the previous book. (If like me you come to the series at this stage don’t worry, the author explains everything nicely so I wasn’t confused at any time).

One thing is for sure..he won’t remain broken for long..he has an itch to scratch but first he needs to figure out who he can trust..not so easy for a man who is more than a little paranoid.

What we get is another great tale from Frank, it’s dark and gritty but Stoner adds his own humour to the tale which makes it fun. What makes this book different from the rest I’ve read from the author is the emotional development with Stoner. He’s a man of few words but we see in this book that he’s not a machine and he has to bring himself back from the brink.

Stoner slowly puts the pieces together and this is where Frank Westworth really shines..the suspense. You know everything is building up to the ending but you never know when a big event will happen and that ending certainly had the bang I was after.

Westworth did a great job of keeping me interested throughout the book. As with all the shorts Frank knows how to make his characters appeal. Motives are never clear at first and you can’t help but want to read more to find out what the hell is going on and who Stoner is going to kill. It’s all mystery and suspense building into one hell of a thrilling final act.

I won’t pretend to be some authority on authors but in my opinion Frank is a very unique writer and my only reason for a 4* is coming to the series late I found it took me a little while to figure out the killing sisters as their names are all very similar Charity, Chastity and Charm . I had to reread a few lines of text to remind myself who was who but it didn’t take any enjoyment away from the tale at all.

Full disclosure, I was given a review copy of the book in exchange for an honest review but if you’ve read my previous reviews for this author you know I’m more than happy to buy his work and that’s exactly what I’ve done.

To find out more head to Amazon or Goodreads.