Two Good Men

Redfearn (In an Instant) impresses in this taut thriller about an FBI agent tasked with trailing a desperate vigilante. Physician Dick Raynes is aghast when he learns that sex offender Otis Parsons has been released from prison early and has moved next door to his sister, Dee. Twelve years earlier, Otis raped the younger brother of Dee’s then boyfriend; when Dee gave birth to a son while Otis was incarcerated, Otis sent her a taunting note saying that he couldn’t wait to meet the boy. Convinced that Otis will assault Dee’s son at the earliest opportunity, Raynes feels he has no choice but to take the law into his own hands. When Otis dies, officials chalk it up to anaphylactic shock from peanut exposure, but FBI agent Steve Patterson, who investigates crimes against sex offenders, suspects he was murdered. Eventually, Patterson discovers a string of similarly suspicious deaths—most carried out by Raynes, who’s become obsessed with doling out justice to sexual predators. The resulting Heat-style battle of wits between Raynes and Patterson remains consistently gripping as Redfearn excavates each man’s ever-shifting definitions of right and wrong. This tense and thought-provoking game of cat and mouse isn’t easy to shake. Agent: Gordon Warnock, Fuse Literary. (Oct.)