Promise by Tony Cavanaugh

Hachette Australia, 2012. ISBN 9780 7336 2647 4
(Adult only) Crime fiction. Tony Cavanaugh has put us in the head set of two people in this novel. One is a very successful detective now retired from the Victorian Police and the other a psychopathic sexual predator and serial killer.
They both wish to escape from the confines of society and live their own lives. Both have chosen the Sunshine Coast because it gives them the anonymity they crave. Both are able to justify what they do though both are flawed. It is up to the reader to decide which, if either, has any justification for their actions.
Cavanaugh describes the actions in Promise  in graphic detail, which will make this book a turn off for many, indeed it should be an adult read; the violence both implied and described, sexual, physical and emotional, is extreme. More subtle is the use of emotions, lies and manipulation that the ex-detective Darian Richards uses to get his way. He risks the lives of a number of his friends and colleagues to achieve his end, which is that of a vigilante.
A book recommended for adult readers with a strong stomach.
Mark Knight