Collective Vengeance by Joseph Stanley

Joseph Stanley

Author

Collective Vengeance

Discover Dark Secrets and High Stakes in This Gripping Thriller that Dares You to Look Away! In the heart of New York, Samantha Mieras, a seasoned private equity specialist, collaborates with Jack Gallagher, a pardoned felon, on a dangerous quest for vengeance. The catalyst? A haunting demand made twenty-seven years ago, shrouded in secrets, deception, and the dark corridors of judicial power. Step into the pulse-pounding world of Collective Vengeance, where Joseph Stanley weaves a tapestry of suspense, mystery, and high-stakes drama that will keep you on the edge of your seat from the first page to the last. Follow Samantha and Jack as they confront their own demons to find a delicate balance between their working and personal relationship. All while exposing the clandestine motives of a privilege-minded organization, Aegis, and its Supreme Court nominee, David Jaymes, who raped and impregnated Samantha when she was a sixteen-year-old minor. The cast of characters, including an investigative reporter, Jaymes’ executive assistant, a Senator and his young promiscuous wife, and a seasoned wartime photojournalist, adds layers of complexity to the narrative. As treacherous adversaries lurk in the shadows, manipulating events to their advantage, Samantha's team struggles to navigate a maze of concealed relationships, menacing threats, and illicit encounters. Will vengeance be their reward, or will it come at a price too high to bear? Collective Vengeance is more than a thriller; it's a mirror reflecting the contemporary debates on individual rights, political interference, and the judiciary. Dive into a world where every revelation raises the stakes, and justice hangs in the balance. Are you ready for the truth?

Plot/Idea: 7 out of 10

Originality: 7 out of 10

Prose: 7 out of 10

Character/Execution: 8 out of 10

Overall: 7.25 out of 10

Assessment:

Plot/Idea: There is much to like in Stanley's fast-paced, intriguing mystery, which centers around family secrets and an incident of sexual assault by an individual ascending to a position of great power and privilege.

Prose: Stanley's prose is straightforward and clear, but exposition often stands in for more subtle, in-scene development. Dialogue can similarly come across as heavy-handed.

Originality: Collective Vengeance draws from contemporary concerns, particularly the #MeToo movement, but the work offers unexpected twists that will keep readers guessing.

Character/Execution: The author effectively builds the characters, though they tend to emerge via their broad actions and overarching roles within the story rather than through more intimate interactions.

Date Submitted: May 13, 2024

Reviews

A politically charged thriller of accountability and abuses of power, the first of Stanley’s Vengeance series, Collective Vengeance follows Samantha, a private equity investor who, in the early 1990s in North Carolina, was raped and impregnated by David Jaymes, the son of a “cartoonish but ruthless old-world plantation master.” David’s father Jonathan plotted to save his son’s reputation by demanding an abortion against the will of the sixteen-year-old Sam. Now, decades later, David is the president's ultraconservative nominee for the Supreme Court. But David’s older sister, Ryleigh, is enacting a long-term plan to get revenge on behalf of Sam. Ryleigh will keep Sam and her twins out of the Jaymes’ clutches and see to it that David never secures confirmation—preventing him from using his power to let the right-wing political action group Aegis enact an authoritarian plan for America, stripping citizens of civil rights.

Ideal for readers who are politically minded, with an interest in civil rights, but still look to books for escapism, Collective Vengeance centers on a high-stakes, long-game battle that finds Ryleigh making desperate choices both in past and present, some unbeknownst to even Sam—readers should expect surprises. Stanley keeps the stakes high as, in 2019, Sam and Ryleigh put together a team to expose the Jaymes family’s many corruptions, while dodging a hired thug for the Jaymes family who quickly accelerates from intimidation to assault. Sam and her team must think two steps ahead because Jonathan, a convincing villain, will stop at nothing to silence them.

This inspired-by-the-headlines novel moves quickly and is sharply plotted, making for a swift thriller, edged with real-world concerns, that stirs real tension but at times might benefit from slowing down a touch. An unaddressed irony that stalks this book is that the main character of a story focused on a woman's right to choose rarely gets to make choices for herself, or her moment of rage about her manipulation. Still, the stoy’s jolts all jolt, and characters like Cynthia James prove gripping.

Takeaway: Political thriller of a long-ago victim and a supreme court nominee.

Comparable Titles: Anthony Franze’s The Advocate’s Daughter, Stacey Abrams’s Avery Keene series.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

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