Wrath, by T.R. Ragan

T.R. Ragan's Faith McMann trilogy takes on the horrible, pervasive, and usually well-hidden crime of sex trafficking.  Better said, Ragan's Faith McMann takes on sex traffickers--hard.  In Furious, Faith's husband is murdered and her children are snatched.  She hunts down some of the traffickers but does not recover her children.  In Outrage, she continues the pursuit, takes down some bad guys, and gets her son back.  In Wrath, she continues the hunt, gains some new allies, and seeks to get her daughter back and shut down this awful trade once and for all.

In this series, and especially in Wrath, the bad guys are really, really bad.  Ragan leaves no doubt in the readers' minds that perpetrators of human trafficking are the worst sort of human.  The gray(ish) area is the customers.  The johns and the politicians and community leaders who grease the wheels and fund and enable the system may not be cold-blooded killers and kidnappers, but their participation, whether paying for sex or turning a blind eye, is every bit as bad.

In Wrath, Faith's army of support grows from her family and friends from anger-management class to include a network of warriors fighting human trafficking.  They are willing to take risks and even put their lives on the line to defend the innocent and rescue the victims.  If Ragan's fictional account is based on reality, and I suspect it is, more power to these teams.  They are out there, observing, watching, reporting, and taking a bite out of the horrible criminal trade.

If you haven't read Furious and Outrage I would recommend you do so before reading Wrath.  This is a trilogy that might best be viewed as one long three-part novel.  But that's really what a trilogy is, right?  Faith's commitment to her children, her family's commitment to her and her children, the faithfulness of her friends, and the passion of the anti-trafficking crusaders all inspire and drew me in to feel personally involved in Faith's plight.  Wrath isn't exactly a tear-jerker, but there are some emotional moments, close calls, and losses.  It's a thriller with a feminine touch, and a great finish to an engaging trilogy.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!