Broken Hope

Former physician Rubin (the Liza Larkin series) impresses with this disquieting thriller about an unusual vigilante. Boston internist Hope Sullivan is jogging past an alley when she spots one of her elderly patients being mugged. She intervenes and sends the attacker fleeing, but the encounter convinces her that too many violent criminals walk free. Two years later, Hope is far from over the incident: despite insisting that “as a doctor, I don’t enjoy deliberately inflicting pain,” she’s become a self-appointed (and violent) guardian angel, even going so far as to kidnap and torture a patient’s abusive husband. Hope’s new “macabre pastime,” as she calls it, gets disrupted when she receives an anonymous email that insists “I know what ur doing.” That message is followed by several others, each with escalating threats. Hope realizes she’s met her match when another vigilante drugs and kidnaps her, seeking revenge on behalf of one of her victims. Rubin manages to make Hope an empathetic figure, despite her transgressions, and maintains taut suspense straight through to the devilish climax. This is a winner. (Self-published)