Exact Revenge

Review by Jeremy Taylor

Tim Green, an NFL defensive end turned lawyer turned television analyst turned novelist, has been writing books for over a decade, and his career as a writer has shown growth throughout. His 2006 novel, Exact Revenge, displays a literary awareness and thoughtful probing of human drive and emotion lacking in his earlier books.

Exact Revenge is a loose modern retelling of Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo. In Dumas’s 1844 classic, Edmond Dantès is wrongly imprisoned after being caught with an incriminating letter given to him by a dying military captain. In prison, Dantès meets an aging priest who provides him with a rich education in history, language, philosophy, and other disciplines before telling show more him about a cache of unimaginable riches on the Isle of Monte Cristo. Dantès escapes and uses the wealth to reinvent himself before tracking down and bringing to justice all those who had wronged him.

Green’s protagonist is Raymond White, an up-and-coming player in the financial world poised to launch a political career. On the eve of the announcement of his candidacy for Congress, he is given a letter by the dying former Congressman. When White delivers the letter, he is implicated in a murder. After trial, he is sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In prison, White meets Lester Cole, an old art thief who teaches him the ways of the world before confiding in him about the hideaway where he has stored billions of dollars’ worth of stolen masterpieces. After White escapes prison, he finds the treasure trove and uses it to carry out his vengeance against the people who destroyed his life.

Readers familiar with the Dumas’s plot will be either impressed with or frustrated by Green’s staunch loyalty to even minor story elements in his reimagined version. For example, both stories include a letter given to the protagonist by a dying man. In both stories, the letter leads to the carrier’s false imprisonment. Both stories include a government official who reluctantly allows the accused to suffer prison rather than risk his own career. Both stories feature a wizened benefactor, a hidden treasure, and unnecessarily complex (and expensive) plans for revenge. Other story elements (specifically the nature of White’s escape from prison) seem borrowed from the hit television series Prison Break and the 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption (based on a novella by Stephen King).

The writing in Exact Revenge is surprisingly good for an author whose previous works have been rather mediocre. His use of metaphor and descriptive prose makes the story enjoyable to read even when its similarities to Monte Cristo seem a bit over the top. I was reminded at times of Cormac McCarthy’s abbreviated writing style when Green left out certain details in favor of allowing his audience to fill in the blanks. That strategy mostly worked well in this setting, and I enjoyed the quality of the writing as much as the suspense and intrigue of the story.

Unfortunately, the book contains a fair amount of objectionable content, including multiple sex scenes, some gruesome violence, drug use, and illegal vigilantism. The book’s title comes from the most important rule White learns in prison: when someone wrongs you, no matter how trivially, you must exact revenge, and you must pay back the wrong tenfold. That’s quite a different message from that of Scripture, where Jesus commands his followers to turn the other cheek and repay evil with kindness. A telling moment comes when White, in the midst of his plotting and carrying out his personal brand of justice, wonders what has happened to his soul.

It’s too bad if Tim Green feels he needs to rely on the ideas of others. Giving tribute to classics from previous literary eras is a worthwhile endeavor, and if that was Green’s intention with this book, fine. But one would hope that future books from this author will display more originality; his writing is good enough to support ideas that are his own.

(http://www.cerebralexchange.com/books/reviews.asp?book=265&host=1) show less

Exact Revenge is basically a retelling of The Count of Monte Christo in modern times. In this case, the aggrieved party in this novel is Raymond White, a lawyer who is about to run for congress, and gets blindsided by three individuals in a murder rap. After a long prison stint where he attacks prison guards so that he can be in solitary confinement and not have to deal with the prison population, he is transferred to a prison close to his home and befriends an old man. Together, they escape from prison. The old man was a master thief and had amassed insane wealth that he kept in a cabin in a remote area. The old man dies, but Raymond escapes and claims the robbed treasure. Using this, he sets about a plan to destroy the three men who show more set him up for a murder claim.

Although I generally liked the retelling of this classic tale as far as the narrative style that switched from first person to third person, there were too many aspects of the tale that were either too convenient or not believable. The first is that the old man in prison had been working on his escape for forty years, and decides to go through with it as soon as he meets Raymond. Secondly, that he would have all of these masterpiece works of art, and jewels and the like untouched for all of these years in a cabin is a little hard to swallow. When Raymond amasses this wealth, he buys the New York Jets. The level of media scrutiny that a person buying a football team would go through is intense. The media would uncover every aspect of his life, including that he escaped from prison. Also, the part where he uses some drug that the CIA uses to make one of his betrayers crazy was just silly. I still found it entertaining and can recommend it on that basis.

Carl Alves - author of Blood Street show less

This modern take on Dumas'"Count of Monte Cristo" is interesting in it's approach to that classic tale of revenge. All the basics are there; a long imprisoned, railroaded into solitary confinement by a trio of corrupt friends along with the unknowing help of a loving woman. An unlikely ally reveals vast wealth available should they effect an escape. Which they do by tunneling only to have his ally killed by the prison guards as they reach the outside. Raymond finds his Jacopo in the person of Bert, an Akwesane indian. Together they proceed in search of "exact revenge" as it was defined by his prison mentor and ally Lester using the immense wealth hidden away.

I found some of the machinations a bit of a stretch but they did not hurt the show more story. The author, Tim Green, did a good job of fitting a revenge story using the skeleton built by Alexandre Dumas. But then, some would have it that was what happened in the Dumas version. show less

Overall a decent read. The first half of the story was excellent. The second half was okay. The story seemed to get garbled in the last half with too many events going on at the same time and things changing too quickly. One minute Seth is on a plane, the next he's in some obscure place in Russia, and the next minute he's sitting at his home with a drink in his hand overlooking a lake, and the next minute his girlfriend is hiding in the drapes. Silly really. Full of mystery, intrigue, and adventure. This is not Green's best writing, but certainly not his worst. If you liked the Count of Montecristo, you will like this story told in contemporary terms.

Exact Revenge is a very entertaining, if completely implausible, book about - you guessed it - revenge. Raymond White has everything and has it all taken away from him. He's framed for murder by a man who wants his fiance, a man who wants his congressional seat and a man who wants his money. After 20 years in prison, he meets a gnarled old man with a secret - a way out and an incredible fortune waiting for him.

The first half is "Shawshank Redemption", the second half is the most complicated revenge caper you could cook up with billions of dollars at your fingertips. As an audiobook, it was perfect commute reading - something to take my mind off traffic and the mess waiting for me at the office.

An excellent modern Count of Monte Cristo. It grabs the reader and doesn't let go.

At the beginning of the book I didn't expect to like it. It appeared to be only the story of a way a man was framed and imprisoned. But Raymond escapes, and more of the story centers around him, well, exacting revenge.