Redemption Point: A Crimson Lake Novel

I read the first book and bought the series. Can’t put it down. The book sucks you in and makes you want to skip bedtime and keep reading.

The Crimson Lake series has everything I enjoy in a crime thriller. The descriptive atmospheric setting transported me to Northern Queensland. The small settlement of Crimson Lake and its surroundings and its rainforests and crocodile infested lakes was so well written I could visualize it. The plot was complicated but easy to follow.The main characters are complex, unique and sympathetic. Tom Conkaffey was a respected member of the Sydney drug squad. He was arrested for the abduction and rape of a young girl and later released due to insufficient evidence. His reputation in shatters, his fellow police officers and his wife turned against him. Due to media attention he is unable to escape the hatred from people all over the country who consider him a pedophile. He lost his home, his job and access to his infant daughter. He located to Crimson Lake near Cairns with the futile hope that he wouldn’t be recognized. Depressed and living alone, he rescues a wounded goose and her goslings which lifts his spirits. He now works as a private detective alongside private investigator, Amanda Pharrell. She hired him as the only person in Crimson Lake more hated than herself. Cases come their way from people who don’t trust the police to do a decent job. Amanda is a petit, tough trash talking, rhyme spouting woman. She is heavily tattooed and her body art is defaced by scars from a crocodile attack. Her behaviour and inappropriate conversation cause townspeople and police to judge her as a ‘weirdo’. They know she spent 10 years in prison for killing a classmate. What can I say about Amanda? I would feel uncomfortable in her presence but as a fictional character I love, love her! She has great intuition for crime solving and she and Tom make an effective investigative team.The father of the young girl Tom was accused of molesting and injuring arrives at Tom’s doorstep bent on revenge. He beats Tom and plans to kill him unless Tom can prove his innocence and help him find the actual pedophile. He might just kill Tom anyway. He moves into Tom’s home on a forced temporary basis. Two young bartenders have been shot at work and Amanda is determined to solve the crime. Tom has left to go to Sydney for a TV interview with a hostile host and to try to reconnect with his estranged wife and daughter. A new police officer has been assigned to Crimson Lake. She has never worked on a murder investigation before and lacks confidence and experience. Surprisingly she and Amanda become partners in solving the bar shooting and bond as friends. There are many twists and turns for Tom in Sydney. The TV station claims to have more proof of his guilt. Meanwhile the victim’s brutal father is living in Tom’s house, looking after the geese and plotting revenge. One person who believes in Tom’s innocence is a notorious drug lord who assigns two hulking body guards to protect him from haters. The conclusion was action packed and full of tension with Amanda in the North and Tom in Sydney both in danger of being killed. The ending was unexpected and not one I predicted. I hope that the author will consider another Crimson Lake mystery. Highly recommended!!

Candice Fox’s work is soooo underrated!!! I wish her work would gain more popularity. This is a 2nd installment of Crimson Lake series, with the same set of key characters from the 1st book – Ted Conkaffey and Amanda Pharell, now being the official PI team in the Crimson Lake area, trying to solve yet another murder case at a local bar when a pair of young people found dead in the bar they worked at. And in this sequence, aside from the bar murder, the key focus was for Ted to find out the true attacker of Claire Bingley, whom he met on the side of the road a year ago and got brutally assaulted, with Ted ended up being the major suspect which started his exile to Crimson Lake to begin with.The two storylines simultaneously ran with Ted scrambling his time to solve the local murder case while flying back and forth between Crimson Lake and Sydney to find the Claire's true attacker, with the help of his old lawyer, support of his ex-wife, and the unexpected appearance of Claire’ father who made his life mission to solve Claire’s case. The parallel stories were pumping with suspense and excitement, but also developed with ease and humor. What makes this book great (and better than the first book in my opinion) is how well the author makes readers connected and sympathized with Ted, and the incredible transformation of Amanda from being a total whacko to someone with incredible inner strength and ability to care at a personal level. The characters just leapt out of the pages like you wouldn’t believe, with more depth and dimension than the first book. You can’t help but falling in love with Ted and Amanda, the most wanted man in Australia and the number 1 weirdo in Crimson Lake. I admire author’s geniuse and originality in creating this amazing pair, and her writing seems to be more at pace and well thought than the first book. It completed the Crimson Lake series with a heartfelt ending.I simply could not put down the book and did not want it to end, that’s how much I like Redemption Point. Candice Fox is a rising star in the genre and I look forward to reading more of her work!

Crimson lake is a place very strange people go - the displaced, disgraced and damaged . Ted Conkaffey and Amanda Farrell are 2 such people. Ted is unfairly considered to be a pedophile. He went to prison, but had to be released due to lack of evidence. Nonetheless, he remains guilty in the public eye. He lost his job with the police, his marriage and respect. Amanda actually committed murder and went to prison for eight years. She is now free and has a private investigation company. She invited Ted to join her. They are truly an odd couple - kindred spirits in their outcast status. Ted is a strong, experienced former policeman. Amanda is a sight to behold. She is covered with tattoos and crocodile bites. She is completely insensitive to other peoples feelings. However, she has brilliant insights and simply sees things before other investigators do. Together Ted and Amanda are very effective, but to successfully conclude cases they have to work through all sorts of resistance and misunderstanding. Read about the goings-on in crimson LakeFred Dimond

Can’t remember why I chose the first book, Crimson Lake but it sure hooked me. This book was just as good, I couldn’t put it down. Thank you, Ms Fox, for giving me a great escape into another world. I love your characters!

The characters are quirky and likable. The plot is great and twisted. ExcellentThe second was even better than the first.

I came across Candice Fox by accident with Crimson Lake, and now Redemption. I've since tracked down her other books, and unfortunately now have to wait for the next! Her writing is fluid and engaging, her characters larger than life but so vividly drawn that you feel as though you know them. Crime writing, I've found, is sometimes driven by superb plots with two-dimensional characters, or the opposite - lush characters, but a storyline that either leaves you cold or is easy to figure out. This is one of those rare books that combine both - Ted and Amanda are damaged but compelling leads; their personal stories and the crime central to the novel are beautifully intertwined; there is a wonderful sense of place in the sweltering and claustrophobic setting of small-town Australia, and a fabulous sense of humour. This has drawn comparisons recently to The Dry, which I did enjoy, but personally I found this book and the others by Fox to be superior works - less publicity and less of a 'book of the month' vibe, but much more individual and engaging. Feel sad to have finished and am fascinated to see where Ted's story goes next.

Candice Fox is my current favourite author. Before reading this, you should read Crimson Lake.The characters are engaging, chapters not too long and the multiple story lines easy to follow.Can’t wait for the next book in the series

Great book

Al igual que su primera parte, Redemption es un thriller policíaco espectacular, original y diferente a lo que te puedes encontrar dentro del género. Tramas bien llevadas y resueltas, la autora maneja la tensión como nadie y los personajes son muy buenos y están fantásticamente escritos. Me sorprende mucho que estos libros no estén publicados en España, porque son buenísimos. Actualmente, de mis favoritos dentro del género. A ver si hay suerte y llegan algún día a España, porque merecen ser más reconocidos y leídos.

Un grande triller, uno stile incalzante e impeccabile, colpi di scena: i due investigatori più odiati dell'Australia sono cresciuti, la loro amicizia si è consolidata, mentre collaborano con la polizia per risolvere un doppio omicidio incomprensibile. Ted rivela tutta la sua sofferente umanità e sensibilità quando si trova a rintracciare il vero colpevole del crimine di cui era stato accusato, mentre la sua socia rischia la vita incappando negli autori del duplice omicidio. Le oche di Ted saranno costrette a convivere con Celine, il brutto e zoppicante bastardino scampato alla violenza dello stupratore. Avvincente, surreale, umanissimo crudele come la vita.