A month ago, the La Ley del Talión trilogy was launched in Spain and the copies are already sold out in bookstores (a second reprint is already underway). Many readers who insist on reading on paper are waiting to receive their copies. Others have given up and are buying the eBook version to enjoy the top US trilogy of 2022 now. Why so much interest?
An Eye for an Eye is a gripping thriller about how a man’s pain transforms his need for justice into a bloody campaign, not only against those responsible for his misfortune but also against the judicial system itself. In its fast-paced sequel, Tooth for a Tooth, the hunter becomes the hunted, setting up an eerie game of cat and mouse that grips the reader from the start. In the third book of the trilogy, Life for Life, if they want to save themselves, the protagonists must outwit the police and neutralize their adversaries. If not, his days of revenge will end behind bars. . . or underground. This latest book brings the journey of revenge to a shocking conclusion, with one final twist that leaves us all open-mouthed.
For the American author J.K. Franko, The Law of Retaliation —a name that makes a biblical reference to demanding a punishment equal to the crime committed— tries to answer questions like: how would we have reacted if the same thing happened to us as to the characters? Or what steps would you take to execute a perfect crime? The trilogy constantly challenges the public throughout more than 1,500 pages full of unexpected twists, a frenetic pace and an outcome worthy of the great masters of the genre.
Under these premises, the fast-paced La Ley del Talión trilogy was born, three works that brilliantly combine the best of the detective novel, the action thriller and judicial intrigue. Published by Booket, a publisher of Grupo Planeta that has also published authors such as Dolores Redondo and Carlos Ruiz Zafón, the novels Ojo por ojo, Diente por diente and Vida por vida make up a celebrated literary saga that presents a novel twist on Strangers on a Train. , the work with which the crime master Patricia Highsmith debuted. And it is that this addictive trilogy also presents an extraordinary moral dilemma to the readers.
In his trilogy, J. K. Franko has produced a prodigious story in narrative and structural terms, while the plot moves at great speed. The author assembles a puzzle as he deals with topics such as revenge, pain, murder, police and legal investigation, as well as therapist-patient and attorney-client confidentiality. All this without forgetting the background that sustains the trilogy: looking at the darkness that nests in each one of us and questioning ourselves about the reverse of justice and revenge.
“I am fascinated by the idea that we are all capable of murdering,” confesses the author, born in Texas, to a Cuban mother and a Spanish father. “I turned to my characters to think about the series of circumstances that would have to take place for apparently normal people, model neighbors and social winners to take that step”, he affirms, referring to the protagonists of the trilogy.
In addition to being a writer, J. K. Franko is a lawyer, which has served to enrich his stories. The author has taken advantage of his personal knowledge in the field of law, giving them a marked weight in the novels since he knows the ins and outs of the legal system with its cracks and limitations. Thus, fans of the black and police genre will enjoy the lesson on the investigative methods used by homicide detectives in the US and the legal details of a criminal accusation.
Another attraction of the trilogy is the variety of locations. Audiences will travel to the ski slopes in the mountains and valleys of Colorado, to the marinas of Miami, to the island paradise of Bimini in the Bahamas. and J.K. Franko does not forget Spain: almost half of the second book is set in Mallorca. For the author, the places chosen, in addition to being known to him, contain a metaphorical value. “I like to make links between physical sites and psychological states,” he says.
The public will be able to be captivated by the atmospheres generated by J. K. Franko and see their reading experience enriched. Realistic, chilling, impossible to abandon, magnificent, ingenious and provocative are some of the qualifiers that the world press has dedicated to The Law of Retaliation. There are plenty of reasons to delve into its pages. The trilogy, which is on sale in bookstores throughout Spain, can also be purchased online at Casa del Libro and Amazon.
J.K. Franko is an author from the US and writer of the Law of Retaliation trilogy. His next book, Killing Johnny Miracle, is published in English at the end of 2023 and in Spain in 2024. The J.K. Franko in Spanish is here.
