Stalked by Revenge by Lynn Lipinski
Zane Clearwater is turning his life around in positive ways when a dark specter from his past threatens everything he knows and loves in Stalked by Revenge (Majestic Content Los Angeles), the third novel in Lynn Lipinski’s propulsive Zane Clearwater series.
For Zane and his sixteen-year-old sister, Lettie, the past is a tableau of family trauma, drama and stacked odds. But two years after Zane was wrongfully charged with his mother’s death in a mysterious fire, things are finally looking up for the siblings: Zane is six weeks into Oklahoma’s consolidated police training, and Lettie and her boyfriend, Angel, are expecting their first child. Living together in their grandmother Verda’s mobile home, the siblings are hopeful of a new chapter when stunning news eclipses their joy: Clyde Doom, Zane’s imprisoned half-brother, is about to get a new trial. If he makes bail, he will be primed for revenge.
The alarming news of Clyde’s potential release comes as Zane is in the middle of a six-week officer-in-training course for the Skiatook Police Department just outside Tulsa, Oklahoma. Knowing what it feels like to be wrongfully accused of a crime he did not commit, Zane wants to become a police officer to “help people, not one who wears suspicion like a second skin.” The violence of the past still haunts Zane, however, especially the self-defense killing of his and Clyde’s biological father, Jeremiah Doom.
Family, the Good and the Bad
If Clyde is released awaiting a new trial, Zane is certain he will come to close accounts for his hated half-brother. Events move faster than Zane can anticipate, though, as he learns from Lettie about an unaddressed package left on their doorstep … a baby rattle. A strange coincidence? Or something meant to unsettle? Lipinski ratchets up the tension as Clyde’s bail hearing approaches, and Zane’s life gets increasingly more complicated: a false rumor is spread at the Skiatook PD about Zane that leads to his dismissal pending an investigation. Is Clyde and his lackeys behind this as well?
Luckily for Zane and Lettie, they are surrounded by people — and a new rescue dog, Ballpoint — who care and are willing to protect them: Verda, their formerly estranged grandmother who is making up for lost time; their older neighbor Leon, who has eyes for Verda but who also harbors a devastating secret; Angel, Lettie’s boyfriend and TikTok streamer extraordinaire; and Loris Trapper, a tough, no-nonsense military type who has many deadly skills to share with Zane. It will take all of them together to stand their ground, especially after Clyde’s bail is denied and he escapes prison with the help of a female guard. All the preparation, home security and sleuthing are about to bring Zane face-to-face for one final showdown with his kin. Will he survive to be the better man he wants to be?
Complex Characters and an Adrenalizing Plot
Lipinski’s series is a refreshing find among so many mediocre thrillers with forgettable characters. In Zane Clearwater, a half-Cherokee man from a broken home, she creates a three-dimensional character who knows what others think of him, but still tries to be and do better:
People had underestimated him pretty much his entire life. Others looked right past him like he didn’t matter, because he didn’t have money, had been in juvie, or because he lived in a trailer park. Or lately, because his life had been so profoundly altered by terrible family violence. The bad things stuck to him like a film.
Will Zane find a way to stop Clyde from enacting his revenge? Will his desire to “help good people navigate the grey areas” between the right and wrong side of the law come to fruition? Stalked by Revenge will satisfy fans of the series — and make new ones — with its taut prose, tight pacing and eminently likable characters.
Lynn Lipinski is a writer who channels an overactive imagination into fictional worlds where justice rules, karma is real and the good person comes out on top. Her second book, God of the Internet, was named to Kirkus Reviews Best Indie Books of 2016 list. Her Zane Clearwater Mystery series (Bloodlines (2015); Serpent Loop (2021); Stalked By Revenge (2023)) is set in her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which also happens to be her favorite place to write about. Decades of living in L.A. have worn away the Okie accent, though. She earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from Mount St. Mary’s University in 2018.
