Marked for Death by Tony Kent

When a retired Lord Chief Justice is murdered and crucified, barrister Michael Devlin and his fiancé, ITN journalist Sarah Truman, are drawn to investigate. Leading the police investigation is DCI Joelle Levy, and the three are soon liaising. When both a retired solicitor and a barrister friend of Michael’s suffer identical fates, it becomes apparent that there’s a killer on the loose with a very particular hatred for certain members of the legal profession.

Having read the author’s debut, I was already planning on reading his second book. But when I attended a talk the author gave at the Capital Crime literary festival, I had an inkling that Marked for Death was going to be something special. The author, Tony Kent, is a criminal law barrister himself, and he told us that the murderer in Marked for Death is based on a real-life criminal, somebody who’s known to be one of the most dangerous people currently residing in the prison estate (this is something he also hints at in the acknowledgments at the back of the book).

While the author does not name the real-life offender or give any particular details of his actual crimes, he does give the strong impression (both during his talk at Capital Crime and in the acknowledgments at the back of the book) that the man is more than capable of committing the fictional crimes in Marked For Death. This imbues the tale with more than a little frisson. Needless to say, this piqued my interest even more and elevated the novel up my (burgeoning and constantly growing) tbr pile.

There are many things that make a good crime thriller, but if you’re like me and enjoy your fiction pitch dark and noir, then a good villain is a key ingredient. The criminal in Marked for Death is a benchmark in the sinister. Perhaps it’s because I knew him to be based on a real offender, his crimes based (loosely) on a real case, that I found him so compelling. It’s also helped by the fact that the author writes violence brilliantly, and there’s one scene, which lasts just a few pages, that is a masterclass in writing an action sequence.

Marked for Death moves away from the global conspiracy thriller genre that characterised his first book (and characterises Power Play, his third) and is set squarely in the UK and its legal system - though I should point out that this isn’t a courtroom saga, although there are some courtroom scenes within its pages. There are a number of subplots, such as a young man accused of murder, that run alongside the main plot and which perhaps introduce characters that might reappear in a future volume. As such, the barrister Michael Devlin is the main character here, while Joe Dempsey only features briefly.

I have to say that having read all three of Tony Kent’s books, Marked for Death is my favourite. All of them are very good, all of them I’ve awarded five stars, but if I could I would award a sixth or seventh star to this book. There’s something about it which just shines a little brighter, and while I have enjoyed immensely his conspiracy fiction, Marked for Death just stood out a little more for me.

5 out of 5 stars