Schoolteacher Faith McCann, the heroine of this searing first in a new crime series from Ragan (Evil Never Dies), returns one afternoon to her Sacramento, Calif., home to discover the members of her family bound and gagged: her husband, Craig, and their children, 10-year-old Lara and nine-year-old Hudson. The bad guys take the kids, slit Craig's throat, and leave Faith for dead after a vicious beating. After a stint in a drug-induced coma and intensive care, Faith finds new purpose in searching for Lara and Hudson and their captors. Frustrated by the slowness of the official investigation, Faith assaults a police detective and winds up in court-mandated anger control classes, where under the sobriquet "Furious" she meets "Rage" and "Beast." Rage and Beast become unlikely allies in her effort to penetrate the world of human trafficking, the evils of which are highlighted in chapters revealing what happened to Lara and Hudson. Readers with strong stomachs will eagerly await the next installment.
Okay I'm reviewing both Furious and Outrage together because I just don't have enough proper words to adequately review them both separately. No spoilers. These are intense books. Human trafficking, sex slavery, violence - these books don't shy away from the hard topics. They are not overly explicit but they do adequately relate these issues. Faith is an extremely strong woman. She is hardened by the loss of her children but she uses the anger she feels to fuel not only her determination to get her kids back, but to fight all injustices against children. The more she discovers about the sex and human trafficking industries, the more she commits herself to exposing these worlds to society at large.
I really like Faith's family. Her parents and siblings are extremely supportive of Faith and her campaign to find her children. They are all clearly very close and it's nice to see them working together in what are obviously difficult circumstances. Beast and Rage fit into the group well and bring their own unique brand of justice. The use of multiple POV's gives a deeper insight into the industries and the emotions and feelings everyone is facing.
The only thing I wish I had known before I started reading was that Wrath isn't out. I kept seeing it on Amazon and didn't realise it was up for preorder, not sale and I'm kind of dying waiting. Yeah #firstworldproblems but man - I really need to know how it ends, cliffhangers suck. At least I didn't start this series earlier - like when Furious first came out, or Outrage - I only have ten days, so I guess I'm better off than most.
