A Taste of Honey

Plot and detail on a par with Frederick Forsyth – as hard and raw as Tarantino meets Death Wish…

This latest book from Scottish born Tom Benson epitomises what the author does best – fast paced and hard hitting retribution themed action. On the surface this is a relatively simple story of revenge for the loss of a loved one but as the story progresses and expands, the reader is plunged into a nightmare world of unimaginable horror and brutality where the official wheels of justice just don’t suffice; there are some crimes for which the sanctions of a civilised society simply don’t bear any relation to the deserved punishment for said crimes, where the prescribed punishments available most certainly do not fit the crime, and it is in this dark place that the central character, police officer Kimberly Forrest, with the help and expertise of colleagues and contacts made through here police work, emphatically redresses that problem. Rather than follow the official lines of inquiry and investigation, Kimberly Forest decides to embark on her own quest of justice, soon discovering the true extent of the horror of what has happened – the central protagonist maybe a police officer, but she’s also a human being; whilst most people would be stricken with grief at the death of a loved one, particularly if that death was in horrific circumstances, and no doubt speculate as to what they would do were they to confront such brutal killers, for most it would remain just that, grief-fuelled anger and speculation. But when such anger is combined with the requisite training and skills to carry out such thoughts of retribution, there will always exist the potential for extreme retaliation, which is what we have here…

The story gets off to a quick start, immediately alerting the reader to the tone and pace of the book; equally and as quickly apparent is the author’s trademark attention to detail and the obvious degree of research that has gone into the writing. Although born and raised in Scotland, the author has ensured that this American based thriller is wholly accurate in its portrayal: the dialogue, object nouns, and terminology – even down to the alternate American spellings – has been written from an American perspective, giving the book an added authenticity that might otherwise be missing. A particular point in mind with regards to this is where the main character thanks an ex-marine for his service to his country, a typically American characteristic.

The descriptive elements regarding the assorted weaponry that crop up in the book is both accurate and detailed, just as I would expect given the author’s own background, but what was more impressive was that these were effortlessly incorporated into the narrative without reading like a list of gun specs; likewise with other elements – at various points there are descriptive passages interwoven into the dialogue and narrative, but in such a way as to be totally relevant to the story and what the characters are doing – such as when there is a brief account of the rear seating set-up within a police custody vehicle and the reasoning for it (as some featured bad guys also learn to their cost).

Remaining with the descriptive elements though, it must be said that the level of detail in the violent aspects of the book is both full and explicit, as is the language and dialogue – this is not a book for the faint hearted or for those who prefer such detail to be left to the imagination. It could be argued that perhaps such levels of explicit detail might be construed as gratuitous, but for me personally, they worked well in bringing home the levels of grief, horror, and anger it would take to drive an otherwise law-abiding police officer to such drastic lengths. Such explicit detail does inevitably though raise questions of right and wrong and the morality of taking the law into your own hands, blurring as it does the fine line between justice and bloody unadulterated revenge. It’s in this one respect I would have liked to see a greater exploration of the central character’s grief and perhaps an eventual reaction to it. I appreciate that she had to remain unemotional and totally focussed to carry out her plans but at times the consistency of her hard unemotional persona was slightly too much to accept given the horror of her loss.

For fans of action, violence and retribution themed justice this will be a real treat. This is more a plot and story driven book as opposed to one of literary depth and characterisation, though the characters are still believable, rising well above the clichéd level I’ve occasionally read in superficially similar books. It’s also worth mentioning there is a brief appearance of a character, and reference to a couple of other characters from one of the author’s other books, Beyond the Law, which although not essential to have read previously does give an insight into the wider framework of the characters and world in which the author’s novels take place… Overall? Absolutely loved it!