Wild Justice by Kelley Armstrong (2013) Plume

Nadia Stafford is back in the concluding novel in the trilogy.  As you will have noticed that I have reposted my reviews of the first two books and the interview I did with Kelley Armstrong three years ago.  Well finally here is the end of the story.

In reading this story I was reminded of this quote from Scream 3:

"Because true trilogies are all about going back to the beginning and discovering something that wasn't true from the get go. Godfather, Jedi, all revealed something that we thought was true that wasn't true.... Number 3. The past will come back to bite you in the ass. Whatever you think you know about the past, forget it. The past is not at rest. Any sins you think were committed in the past are about to break out and destroy you."

Because in Wild Justice Armstrong takes what we thought we knew about Nadia's past and shows us just how little Nadia and the readers really know about her. In the review of Exit Strategy I summed it up as  "Nadia Stafford came from a cop family and when she was 13 witnessed her cousin Amy getting raped and murdered, only to see her killer found not guilty and walk away unpunished."

Wild Justice reveals that there was much, much more to the story when Nadia's hitman mentor Jack tracks down the man Nadia blamed for the death of her cousin - Drew Aldrich.  But when Nadia goes to confront him, she finds him already dead and a search uncovers Aldrich's journal of all his crimes.  

Nadia is shocked to discover that while Aldrich was involved he did not rape and kill Amy.  In fact his involvement was with Nadia - a discovery that makes Nadia question everything.

Wild Justice then becomes about tracking down Amy's real killler.  There is action aplenty as the killer knows that Nadia is after him and he sends several hitmen to kill her - none of who know that she is a hitwoman.  

The Contrapasso Fellowship introduced in the second book plays a significant role in this novel also as the killer may have a connection to them.

I really enjoyed this book, my only gripe is that there is a significant subplot about the romantic triangle between Nadia, Jack and Quinn that runs through the book - although not to the point of dominating the book.

The novel wraps up Nadia's story quite nicely but leaves us open for more adventures if Armstrong decides to write them   You'll have to read the book to see if she joins the The Contrapasso Fellowship or if she retires from the life.