The Hanging Club

September 26, 2016
In Parsons’s solid third novel featuring London Det. Constable Max Wolfe (after 2015’s The Slaughter Men), Wolfe and his Murder Investigation Team view a video of a group of masked individuals abducting and hanging Mahmud Irani, a taxi driver whom they discover was once convicted of molesting underage girls. For Wolfe, a single father to five-year-old Scout, it’s difficult to drum up sympathy for those the Hanging Club, as they come to be known, target—a man who ran down a small child, a preacher who spews hate speech—but Wolfe’s determined to remind the public that the law must apply to everyone. Complicating his life is the sudden reappearance of childhood friend Jackson Rose, whom he and Scout discover one night sleeping rough on the city streets. Rose is as charming as Wolfe remembers, but his oldest friend can also be dangerous. Parsons does decent work mixing the messy particulars of Wolfe’s personal life with a case that demonstrates that the good guys and the bad guys are not always such distinct entities. Agent: Sloan Harris, ICM.

A group of vigilantes goes after bad guys who received little more than a slap on the wrist.In his latest Max Wolfe outing, Parsons (The Slaughter Man, 2015, etc.) explores whether criminal justice is truly just. This series continues to grow in both its excellent writing and subtly paced character development. When a child groomer--someone who gains a child's trust in order to set the child up for sexual exploitation--is caught and hung by a mysterious group of masked individuals, London Metro police investigator Wolfe and his squad inherit the case. The victim, Mahmud Irani, was convicted in connection with a child sex ring and received a scant six years in prison. After his release, the vigilantes, wearing masks portraying Britain's most famous hangman, videotaped his death and released it to the world, dumping the body in Hyde Park. The next body, found near the Marble Arch in Tyburn where thousands of public executions were performed, is broadcast live. Hector Welles, age 35, hit and killed a young boy riding his bicycle. And this wasn't any young boy--he was the grandson of famous gangster Paul Warboys. Another televised hanging takes place, and, with events in his personal and professional lives tumbling out of control, Wolfe begins to wonder whether the system really does work. Killers go free or receive token sentences, while families grieve and pine for justice. When his best friend, Jackson Rose, walks back into his life, Wolfe faces a dilemma: stay true to his oath as a cop or give in to his instincts to shield the people he cares about. Parsons' latest takes on the frustration that both cops and society as a whole have with a slow-moving system that often results in punishment that in no way reflects the anguish of those affected by the crime, weighing not only the legally correct responses to those imbalances, but also the morally correct ones. This case tests Wolfe's humanity as well as his sense of duty. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2016

When vigilantes, wearing masks of famous hangmen, film their lynchings of insufficiently punished criminals, London Metro DC Max Wolfe and his murder squad wonder if the justice system is completely broken. Not only are the criminals being murdered, their bodies are being dumped at the site of notorious executions. Does society really care if child killers and pedophiles perish? In his third foray (after The Slaughter Man), Wolfe is not only angry at the system; his life as a single father is spinning out of control. VERDICT Excellent writing and subtly paced character development are the hallmarks of this British crime series. Give this one to Ian Rankin and Peter James readers.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2016
Parsons' first two novelsThe Murder Man (2014) and The Slaughter Man (2015)taught readers what to expect: a narrative that hits on all cylinders, a likable detective hero, and a deceptively unadorned prose style that carries terrific emotional force. Parsons again chooses a subjectthis time it's vigilante justicethat's in danger of being overworked, and then forces us to reconsider that position. Three evil people who escaped punishment are kidnapped and hanged. Videos of their excruciating deaths are placed online, and the public's response is predictable: I hope they get away with it. Standard plot fodder so far. But then the son of a London cop is mutilated by a punk the law can't touch, and Detective Constable Max Wolfe finds himself seeing revenge-fueled violence in a new way. Parsons helps the readers see it, too, by allowing the vigilantes to express their bottomless sadness and a grief that's never-ending. Any novel that ends with the words, What's wrong with a bit of revenge? can be expected to generate some strong feelings, but Parsons is never strident and always thought provoking.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)