I hope you like pigs

A year after Paul Reavis dies under suspicious circumstances, his son Paulie is killed in a dreadful accident. It has not been a good year for his mother, Lana, but at least she has the shoulder of Chief Deputy Will Moser to cry on.

Will and his boss, Sheriff Ernie, start digging into what appears to be a cover up in so many senses except that there is no tangible evidence. All clues point to the involvement of Oris Martin and his henchmen. Oris is the powerful and influential owner of Martin Farms, a hog-breeding business – the biggest in the area. He is liked by few but feared by many so the law has to tread carefully and be very persuasive.

This is a very enjoyable yarn. The characters are well fleshed out and totally credible and there are sub plots within sub plots. In fact, it is a good reflection of true life within a small, close-knit community. Hanes’ writing style is effortless and the plot flows well and is fast-paced. It lost a star because I felt that Will’s flashbacks to his time in action abroad was confusing, unnecessary and interrupted the smooth progress of the plot.

There is a good deal of action and excitement throughout the story but the pace changes often to give the reader time to catch his breath and reflect on the events. It does not give anything away to state that there is a happy ending despite the perpetrator of the final crime never being apprehended. I wonder why not!

mr zorg

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

You would think that greed and corruption is the province of Wall Street and City of London but no it is alive and well in the pig farming industry of North Carolina. With the tragic death of a father and son within a few months of each other, Will Moser the local deputy sheriff takes on the most powerful man in the county to try expose the truth. You will be fascinated how interwoven and connected the families in the county are and how everyone knew each other when growing up. This is a very good novel, about a widow who has lost everything and tries to understand why she has suffered this injustice. Providing the story line is good I will judge the merits of book by how easy it is to read. EC Hanes novel passes muster easily. I was attracted to the book initially by the synopsis which set the story in unusually in hog land, I was not disappointed. Recommended.

This is a good, workmanlike mystery, with something of the feel of a John Grisham. Set in small town, rural American, it offers a good sense of place, some well drawn characters, an interesting love story alongside the main narrative drive. A very satisfying final twist in the tale adds to a good read.

I did not want to put this book down. There were so many characters that you liked and some you disliked but it was hard to really decide at times who was good and who bad. Will Moser is a deputy and friend of Lana Reavis whose husband dies under suspicious circumstances and then a year later her son dies during a flood. Are these two things related? Will starts to look into this possibility. This draws him into some big twists and turns. Can this be solved or are there too many important people involved in the town? I received this book from the author for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

Good read. Hard to put down. Had me from the first page. Interesting characters and good story flow. Has intrigue, mystery, likeable characters and not so likeable characters. Getting to the end to get answers was taking a complex journey through the mysteries of what happened and why. Would recommend reading! I voluntarily review this book.

A little while back I received a review request for ‘Justice by Another Name’ by E.C. Hanes. After I read the book description I was immediately fascinated by this read and planned my review. And this book came right on time, since I was really in the mood for a crime mystery novel.

In ‘Justice by Another Name’ we meet Will Moser, chief deputy of Hogg Country. Will’s best friend Paul died after an accident a year ago. Things were a little suspicious then, but when Paul’s son Paulie dies after a hog farm dam brakes things seem even more suspicious to Will. Will Moser is determined to find out what is really going on and he doesn’t care if people don’t like him asking questions.

From the moment I started reading ‘Justice by Another Name’ I really enjoyed the story. The writing was easy to follow and kept me interested, the characters where interesting to get to know and there was plenty of mystery to keep me hooked. On moments when I found myself slipping away a little, something happened that grabbed my attention right back. There were definitely plenty of twists and turns in this book.

The main character Will Moser, was one I loved early on. He really was kind, wanted to know the truth above all else and he loved passionately. Will Moser definitely fascinated me, and I would love to read more about this chief deputy.

The part about the hog production industry wasn’t really that interesting to me, but I enjoyed reading and finding out how much the author must have learned about this field of work. I can’t imagine the smell that must hang around these kind of farms.

‘Justice by Another Name’ is a good, fun mystery that I would definitely recommend to other readers out there. That cover is the only thing that doesn’t really work for me. This book deserves a much more interesting looking cover.

I had no idea when I downloaded the ARC of this book from NetGalley just how much I was going to enjoy Justice by Another Name. I had never heard of E C Hanes and had no expectations that a murder in the hog-producing industry would be so enthralling.

But as soon as I began reading I had a feeling that this was going to be a good book. It has a dramatic opening as two boys, Paulie Reavis and Hank Grier are playing in Mitchell Creek in Hogg County, North Carolina. There’d been a violent storm and water was pouring down the creek sweeping huge tree trunks and other debris with it. At the top they saw a gigantic whirlpool and were taken by surprise when the lagoon of hog waste from Oris Martin’s farm above the creek burst through its retaining wall. Five million gallons of putrid black hog faeces and urine flooded down the gulley, taking the boys with it. Hank, survives, although badly injured, but Paulie dies. Imagine the horror of drowning in pig waste!

From that point on I was fascinated by the investigations into Paulie’s death and into the death of Paul, his father, a year earlier. Paul had worked on Martin’s pig farm and Lana, his wife is convinced his death was not an accident. I was just as fascinated by the details of the pig farming, the conditions the pigs are kept in, the diseases they carry and how the pig waste is dealt with, the whole process of constructing and operating the lagoons.

The mystery is not just how they met their deaths, but why. Was Paulie’s death an accident, a result of the storm damage or has someone been negligent? Was his father’s death really an accident? And just what caused the hog cholera epidemic that had hit the Martin Farms?

I was engrossed in the mystery, amazed that I found the details of the pig farming industry so interesting. The setting in North Carolina and the characters came to life as I read on. The feelings of fear, hate and grief escalated and as the book moved to its conclusion I realised that, as Lana says, ‘what’s revenge but justice by another name.‘

My thanks to the author, the publishers and NetGalley for my copy of this book.

Hogg County North Carolina is known for its hog production industry. In the area, Martin Farms, Inc. owned by Owen Martin contracts and controls the majority of the hog industry for smaller farmers. On the day of a violent Carolina storm, two young boys, Paulie Reavis and Hank Grier are playing in Mitchell Creek below Wallace May's hog waste lagoon. When the storm proves too fierce, the lagoon breaks and the boys are swept away in a mix of water and hog manure. Paulie Reavis dies and Hank Grier is seriously injured. For Lana Reavis, the death of her son after the suspicious death of her husband Paul Sr., is too much to handle. Especially because both deaths were suspicious accidents connected to Martin Farms. Chief Deputy Will Moser is on both cases, especially since Paulie was like a son to him, and some local folks are beginning to blame the Griers for Paulie's death due to the color of their skin. As Will begins to dig deeper and question those involved in Martin Farms, he finds a lot of new information. For Lana however, she now seeks justice in another name- revenge.

Justice By Another Name opens with the most beautiful description of the outdoor environment of eastern North Carolina and a very realistic scene of young boys at play that instantly grabbed my attention and allowed me to picture everything perfectly. Then, quickly turned into one of the most terrifying death scenes I could imagine- drowning in pig manure. From here, I was intrigued by Will's investigation into the hog production industry and Lana's involvement into the veterinary side of hogs. Learning about all of this was really interesting to me, especially about how the pigs are treated and different diseases that they carry. Will's investigation brought out the seedier side of the industry and what farmers might do in order to cover up when something goes wrong. The suspense and mystery of the book was not so much who caused Paul Sr. and Paulie's deaths, but the reasons why they were killed. Will's journey into the mind of the killer and Lana's sophisticated way of revenge lead to an exciting and thrilling ending.