Vigilante: A Vigilante Series crime thriller

I first bought six of the Vigilante series in 2012 and the last six were purchased earlier this year. For the first time, I am reading the entire series from beginning to end. I did not remember any of the storyline, it was like I was reading the book for the first time. I became a Claude Bouchard fan when I read "ASYLUM", a psychological thriller (with an AWESOME ending, in my opinion).It is the summer of '96 and a vigilante is at work in Montreal. He is hunting down and executing people who have made others suffer. The newspapers have dubbed the unknown man the "Vigilante" and the police cannot find him. Most people would not care as he's ridding Montreal of some of the worst kind of people: drug dealers, pimps, gang-bangers, murderers, and the like. There have already been sixteen murders in six months and they are no closer to identifying the man behind the murders.Claude Bouchard grabs your attention at the prologue and keeps you glued to the book until the end -- I read this through in one sitting. The people are interesting and you want to follow the storyline just to see what happens next. You want to see the mystery solved so you know who the vigilante is, but you secretly hope he keeps on executing evil people who have done very evil things. There are many twists & turns along the way in this thriller that you will change your "suspect" several times before you get the the end of the book (the last vigilante action in the book is my favourite).Some people were upset with the ending because it left some questions unanswered. I'm under the impression that series writers will leave a "cliffhanger" to keep you interested in the series and to make you want to read the next book (much like a prime-time television shows do at the end of each season to get you want to watch next season). It's okay if you don't get all of the answers (or you might not feel like you got only part of the story), read the books in order & you will most likely "get it".Having had been a victim of a violent, horrifying crime (a case remains open, with no leads or suspects, to this day), I can understand how someone might be inclined to become judge, jury & executioner -- especially when police cannot get enough evidence to solve case(s), prosecutors that do not want to try a case they might not win and/or the justice system fails to properly punish the evil in this world. Anyone who has suffered at the hands of another, who remains free to prey upon others has probably felt the same way at one time or another...Thank you, Mr. Bouchard for this great series -- I'm already reading book two: "THE CONSULTANT"!

I have always enjoyed a good vigilante story, from Batman, Jessica Jones, really every comic book hero ever, to the more nitty gritty like Boondock Saints. There is something deeply satisfying about a bad guy getting his dues no matter what happens in our broken court systems. Not that I would ever encourage someone to become a vigilante, and I certainly would not want a vigilante targeting me. This is the greatest version of realistic escape that I enjoy reading.So perhaps I went into this with too high of expectations. I wanted to love the story, and instead got meh. This is why I recommend that young women don't get too invested in romantic movies. Rarely are men portrayed accurately, and it makes finding the right guy hard.Except that this is a book, not a husband, so I can be as picky as I want! Lets start with the positives: I liked how we got to see the vigilante evolve. How he starts out with a signature kill of beating the baddies with a bat (this bothered me at first because it is too much like a serial killer.) and over time he began planning deaths that fit the crime. I liked that we get to see early on why he is motivated to help others and that it is not just revenge, though this got convoluted later. I loved that his wife knew what he was doing and fully supported him doing it. Although, this got convoluted as well and that leads me to the thing I hated about the book.I get what the author was going for. He wanted a surprise reveal of who the vigilante was. He was mixing thriller with suspense with police procedural. He had too many red herrings and it annoyed me.The story is told from many perspectives LT McCall, his agent Frank, his expert Chris Barry, Barry's man Carl, and about six other people who are minor characters.... and interspersed throughout is the perspective of the vigilante, cloaking those thoughts in mystery and bland details.I felt like I was reading a story as poorly thought out as My Bloody Valentine. I knew who the vigilante was, and the red herrings were so painfully set up that it really bugged me. Of course, I am glad that it wasn't like Saw where there is no way you could have known who the baddie was because he didn't exist in the story except for one ridiculously stupid cut. There is that, I suppose.It did bother me that the vigilante had so many pathological tendencies that are linked to serial killers. I suppose it makes sense because technically that is what he was, but it makes it hard to root for a guy who reminds you more of the BTK killer than the Boondock Saints.Still, there were moments that were fun. I already got the next two books in the series, so I will inevitably read them and hopefully the story gets better now that the author isn't trying to trick the readers with who the vigilante is.

This is a crime novel, and the crimes are pretty violent. The first in the Barry/McCall series, it introduces us to Dave McCall, police investigator with a problem, and Chris Barry, Executive Vice President of a computer security firm who has a brilliant mind and a sense of moral justice. Barry offers his firm’s services when the police are baffled by the cyber aspects of a series of murders by someone who styles himself Vigilante, and a new crime fighting partnership is formed.I like the pace of this story. Sometimes thrillers these days are too ‘all action’ for me. This allows glimpses into private lives, enabling the reader to get a more rounded view of the protagonists. It also does a nice job of offering you a range of suspects. For readers who like the psychological side of crime fighting, it is very engaging indeed. It kept me guessing, and discarding my own theories as new data was presented, which is what I think all good crime novels should do.This is a very good crime novel. I saw reviews which criticised certain aspects of it. In my view these criticisms must have been addressed by the author as, in the edition I read, there were no traces of those aspects. It is a well constructed, well written, tense, convoluted and satisfyingly completed story.

"Vigilante" poses the difficult moral question of how to feel about a criminal that kills individuals who are "evil" or that have committed horrific acts, whether they are domestic abuse, rape or murder. And this vigilante killer sends messages to the police after every killing; messages that cannot be traced and seem to almost not exist. The lead detective engages in a chase for the killer in which he never seems to get ahead and he begins to wonder whether the culprit lies closer to home than expected.The basis of the novel is interesting and certainly has its merits although the narration and style of writing is not as sophisticated as you might hope. It certainly "gets the job done" but there is no flair or elegant prose within which is disappointing when readers, such as myself, know that modern crime writing can be undertaken in a thoughtful and striking manner rather than merely writing for the sake of a plot.The plot has peaks and troughs of interest and at points, I alternately felt eager to continue and then eager for the book to finish. The finale is intriguing and as this is a series, I would be interested to know it continues however, this was a free download and I probably wouldn't pay for the second in the series.This isn't a particularly hard-hitting novel with literary merit - the style of the author is not comparable to say, Harlen Coben, Tess Gerritsen or Jeffrey Deaver, but it is an easy to read so-so thriller that will serve you well if you are looking for a brief but not absorbing distraction.

I got 2 of these books when they were free, and in spite of a few irritations, I have bought all of the series.There have been several good synopses given of this book, so I won't retell the story, but I really enjoyed this one best of the whole lot (I'm on my 5th book now).The main irritant is the authors constant use of 'cuz' instead of 'because'. I realise people do shorten it, along with many other words, but the constant use of this one word got on my nerves and I noticed it mored as I read more books. No other words were shortened in this wayThis first book has such an intriguing plot and is well written (apart from 'cuz!!) with few mistakes from translation or not being written in the author's mother tongue. I stayed up until the early hours for 2 nights reading this, as I usually only read in bed, but it was so exciting I had to keep reading! Mr Boucharde is to blame for severe loss of sleep.I highly recommend this book, and I'm sure few readers will stop at just one book!

I found this to be a well-written book with a reasonable plot - not original (Death Wish etc), but with enough differences and credible characters to make it enjoyable so you don't keep making comparisons. The plot concerns an unknown individual who is bumping off undesirables who the police can't lock up due to red tape or insufficient evidence. The police (although secretly admiring the vigilante) are not making progress and enlist the aid of an investigative company specialising in computing and technology headed by a "whizz kid". The story ends with a twist, and there are some loose ends; these are actually addressed in the sequel (which I've just started). Hopefully the vigilante will exterminate many more vermin.I actually got the first 3 in the series free, but I think that the present price of £2.50 per book is reasonable (at least for the first; the second seems to be holding up well so far).

I got this book and it's follow-on The Consultant as freebies and have just read them back to back. There're plenty of posts here re the plot so I'll stick to the my usual gripes about grammar, editing, and proof reading. Well there are no gripes.Written in a style that reminds me very much of John Grisham, one of my favourite authors, I was locked into the story from the first to the last words. Every word used was relevant to the story, no over powering use of irrelevant adjectives. So if you want 'he crept steathily, like a panther, through the unbelievably autumnal reds, golds, and oranges of the leaves rustling in the frisky breaze' this isn't for you. If you'd rather have 'treading carefully through the fallen leaves' then this is very much to your liking. Enjoy.