Vicious Circle , A beautifully written story that captures the true essence of what revenge tastes like in all its sinister ways. This story, a sequel to ‘Those in Peril‘. Its a roller coaster ride that you experience with the hurt and vengeful characters.

The Plot:

Hazel Bannock, billionaire owing to the windfall of her first husband, shes pretty, smart and sassy, everything you can expect from Wilbur Smith’s masterful character development.She is however, short lived. She meets a disastrous end and it breaks your heart, you may end up thinking about it more than you should! Hector Cross, the co-founder of Cross Bow security, the best character in the book and Hazels beau. He loves Hazel Bannock like a guy would love a girl only in the books.(*excuse the pessimism*).

After the death of his lady love, Hector Cross is like a rabid dog, thirsty for the vengeful end of those who killed Hazel, also to protect is beautiful daughter Catherine Cayla. This journey begins with Hector and his partners at the Cross bow security firm going over the details of that fateful night.

What follows is pure drama, carefully and tactically unfolding through the turning of the pages.Hector cross uncovers, that the snake is in the family of the Bannocks.The book has a book within it! In my opinion that’s the best part of Vicious Circle. It is pure evil,gut churningly sinister. It defines the word evil defines the pure sadism that Smith has wonderfully laid to his readers.However I admit, its not for everybody. It may be too gory, graphic for the weak hearted(*nothing wrong with that*). While hector takes you on a journey from London to Abu Zara to the mystical Africa(Yayee moment for Wilbur smith readers)

Carl Peter Banncock is a character so well developed by Wilbur, it takes you back to the timeless books like When the lion feeds, The Sunbird (Only for the character essence). Carl is like the child of Satan himself. The acts of Carl depicted in the book makes you question humanity, or the total lack of it. He leaves you with a shuddering memory. Carl will continue to be one of those characters you will refer to, when you talk of the worst villains ever written.

The negatives, if I have to list would be that, this isn’t on top of Wilbur Smiths writing style. Jo Stanely is one if the most underdeveloped characters and fails to do what she was meant to. The love angle that Smith tried to weave, for the first time sadly failed.

The end, well this is the tricky part. There are two evil branches to the tree of vicious circle.One might feed your satisfaction purely for the level of sadism being brought to an end. However, the other evil was much predictably given a bizarre end that may not go down well with the readers.

Summary

All in all, it is a good read. There is a certain way that Wilbur smith tries to hold your attention and he does so effortlessly. However given his other books, this one does not quite reach that mark.

I would rate this book :