Waiting on Wednesday – Vendetta by Sarah Barrie

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy. I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings. Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them. For this week’s Waiting on Wednesday, I highlight an awesome upcoming Australian thriller from an outstanding local author, with Vendetta by Sarah Barrie.

Vendetta Cover

Due my geographical location, I am a massive fan of Australian fiction, especially as there are so many talented authors here creating some amazing and elaborate reads. I particularly enjoy Australian crime fiction that set dark and compelling stories in locations I am more familiar with, as this usually results in some truly outstanding reads. One of my favourite Australian crime fiction authors at the moment talented writer Sarah Barrie, who has been killing it over the last couple of years with her fantastic novels.

Barrie is a veteran author with several compelling Australian series under her belt. I am personally familiar with her due to her amazing Lexi Winter series, which so far features two great books. These novels follows titular protagonist, Lexi Winters, a vigilante hacker turned police officer, who uses her computer talents to take down the worst criminals around Sydney, often behind her superiors back. The first book in the series, Unforgiven, saw Lexi attempt to destroy a child paedophile ring that was connected to her own childhood abuse, while in Retribution, she faced off against a notorious crime family who were getting in the way of her vengeance. Thanks to their clever mysteries, complex characters, and very dark story content, both Unforgiven and Retribution were very impressive reads and they were some of the best Australian fiction I read in 2021 and 2022 respectfully. I am now a firm fan of this series and I was very happy to hear that a third Lexi Winter novel is coming out later this year.

This new Lexi Winter novel is titled Vendetta and is currently set for release in early November 2023. Vendetta looks set to continue several of the storylines from the previous two books, with the protagonist struggling to determine whether she is a vigilante or a police officer. This new book will also apparently dive deeper into her hidden criminal/vigilante past as she is forced to return to an outlaw motorcycle club she used to work for, this time to save some of her friends. It looks like Lexi is once again going to go rogue in her attempts to get justice and help the people she loves, and this should result in some compelling and emotionally charged storylines, especially as she tries to work out just what side of the legal fence she is on. The inclusion of a deadly motorcycle gang that the protagonist used to be a part of should also be an interesting feature, especially as they will find themselves at war with their former president who is out for his own form of justice. This outstanding plot has a lot of potential behind it and it should make for quite the awesome read.

This sounds like such a fun book and I am really glad that we are getting another Lexi Winter novel in a few short months. Barrie has really proven herself to be such a talented and intense crime fiction author and I cannot wait to see how she continues to explore her complex and damaged protagonist. I already know that I am going to love this book and I am very excited to see how Vendetta turns out.

Plot Synopsis:

Cop or criminal? When you’re undercover, the lines can get a little blurry. Former vigilante Lexi Winter, returns in a fast-paced, suspenseful crime thriller for readers of Candice Fox and Shelley Burr

Ace hacker, former sex worker and vigilante, Lexi Winter is now a cop and not keen to revisit her criminal past. But when old friends invoke the wrath of a local motorcycle club – the same club Lexi herself used to work for – she races to help them the only way she can: undercover.

If Lexi is to save a child’s life, she is going to have to go back – back to a life she thought she had outrun. Back to the person she used to be. But her timing isn’t great. Former club president Arthur Cronin has finished his long prison sentence and is out for revenge for the death of his wife and child. As he launches a series of bomb attacks on the club members who set him up and the cops who took him down, Lexi is caught in the middle.

Torn between old loyalties and new responsibilities, she must decide once and for all which side she’s on, but even if she does decide to break free, are her old criminal friends ready to let her go?