It must be noted that the word “actually” is viewed as a deadly insult in my family – the implication is always that one expected otherwise. “Actually, that roast lamb turned out ok!” ; “Actually, I quite like your partner.” So when I say that these are actually getting better… yeah, I just expected that I’d be reading some ongoing treadmill trash. I reread the first two books in the series before starting Vendetta, and I was surprised to find that by the time I got through the third book, I was quite attached to the characters, and prepared to recommend the series more widely (than just Mum and Nan).
The Adventures of Lexi started with Unforgiven, where we met our hacker-come-vigilante, a formerly-homeless prostitute moonlighting as an agent of chaos and doom for paedophiles. When we meet back up with her in Retribution, she’s a rookie cop, putting in her hours before she can sit a detective exam and move up the ranks to work with Finn and Rachel (homicide detective and homicide queen of the world, respectively, for those new to the series).
It doesn’t take long before a combination of Lexi’s loose cannon ways and unlucky timing result in a death that she blames herself for, kicking off the most interesting plot… one of many. Unforgiven was quite different to Retribution, in that it was laser focused on the A Plot, with character development filling the gaps for our ongoing trio and their offsiders. Retribution is less of a character-focused novel, with Barrie branching out into a more purely crime-focused style.
This has both pros and cons. The writing and plotting are tighter and better than they were in Unforgiven, but some of the plot lines are a lot less interesting than others. Finn’s resolution with his ex wife, for example, may have been satisfying, but it really dragged the pace of the book down. The different narrative strands had different levels of success, and while Lexi’s driver was tangentially related to the previous book’s escaped Big Bad, it was easy to forget that they existed.
Vendetta was a better book again, with the plots tighter, the character development a bit more balanced. Nothing really dragged me out of the action in the way that parts of Retribution had, and I felt a lot more connected to the Big Bad through-line than I had. Vendetta comes with a trigger warning for sexual assault/rape, though, so if you’re interested, proceed with caution.
I look forward to the next one – I’m still really enjoying Lexi’s jaded naivety, and her tendency to be solution-oriented to the point of breaching process. She’s a refreshed version of the “he’s a loose cannon, Captain!” detective, and Aussie crime fic is better for her being around.