Dr. Deadly's Book Club

From Cambridge Dictionary online:

Justice = fairness in the way people are dealt with

Revenge = harm done to someone as a punishment for harm that they have done to someone else

The time is midnight. The novel is Carter Wilson’s Tell Me What You Did. As the pages fly by, Dr. Deadly’s mind spins with the story and sees – in the eye of the storm – a theme of justice. No, revenge. No. Justice. Hmmm…time for more analysis.

No spoilers here; from the novel’s own description we know the plot features Poe, a true crime podcast host, who interviews a guest claiming to be the man who murdered Poe’s mother. But Poe believes she found that man years ago…and killed him.

We turn pages to chase down truths in different timelines: did Poe kill the “right” man, and – whether this podcast guest killed her mother or not – why does he want to get to Poe now?

Those who read the novel will see how Tell Me What You Did goes further to spark thoughts on justice and revenge. But if you’ve seen only this post, you know enough about Poe’s situation to consider a question that could touch the hearts and minds of readers of a lot of crime fiction: is there a difference between seeking justice and seeking revenge?

Dear reader, whether or not you’ve pondered this question before, it could be thought-provoking to explore it now. Regard Poe as a starting point. Someone kills her mother. She goes looking for him, believes she found him, and – let’s imagine she thinks he may not be convicted for the crime, and justice might not be done – decides to kill him.

He cruelly killed Poe’s mother; Poe kills him in return. An eye for an eye. Not the legal route, but…according to Cambridge’s definition, can we consider it justice? And also revenge? And, as a thriller reader…the kind of plot we cheer for?

Dr. Deadly would say many things in our world are on a spectrum, and it’s usually easy to spot the ends. If a person in Poe’s situation tracked down her mother’s killer, followed him to his extended family reunion – pets and all – and made him watch while she blew up their hotel, it’s easy to classify that as revenge, rather than justice. Many readers wouldn’t clap at the end of that scene.

What about when it’s in the middle? When justice and revenge don’t perfectly align (and they don’t in Tell Me What You Did; it gets way more complicated!), but they also aren’t miles apart? What if a man killed a mother by pushing her off a cliff, and then the victim’s daughter Dear reader, have you ever struggled or disagreed with how far a character went to right a wrong? And what resonates more for you in a novel? Is it a character holding to the reasoned, fair bounds of justice, or is it exacting revenge until it feels like it’s enough?

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