Vicious Cycle by Terri Blackstock

Reviewed by Vennessa Ng

"...realistically portrays the dangers of drug addiction and its long term effects."

Barbara Covington couldn’t wait for her daughter Emily to finally graduate from rehab and life to get back to ‘normal.’ Deep down she knew things would never be exactly as they had been over a year ago, but she never expected her fifteen-year-old son Lance to end up in prison.

When Lance heard that his pregnant friend Jordan had left rehab, he drives to her house to find out why. Upon arriving, he finds that not only has Jordan just given birth at home, but she is about to reluctantly hand her baby over to a couple of shady looking strangers. Forced by Jordan’s mother and brother to leave, Lance heads home disheartened and worried about what will become of his friend and her baby. A cry of a newborn emitted from the backseat soon spins Lance’s life into the path of the law when he is later accused by Jordan of kidnapping her baby.

Desperate to get her son out of jail in time for Emily’s graduation, Barbara calls on Detective Kent Harlan, an officer she met a year previously when Emily went missing amid accusations of murder. Kent flies to Jefferson City to help the woman he has grown to love over the past year and soon finds himself caught up in a case involving drug abuse and child trafficking.

Vicious Cycle is the second Intervention novel by Terri Blackstock and is as well written and fast paced as the first.

Blackstock depicts a very real criminal underworld in both books which left me cringing each time Emily and Lance were thrust into it. Vicious Cycle realistically portrays the dangers of drug addiction and its long term effects. I was completely drawn into the lives of the Covington’s once again and found myself rooting for this family struggling to overcome the effects of Emily’s drug addiction.

You don’t need to read Intervention to follow Vicious Cycle as Blackstock has done a fabulous job of providing just enough information to make this a standalone story. But to get the most out of both stories and really immerse yourself in the Covington family’s trials, I strongly suggest you read both.

Vennessa Ng lives in New Zealand with her husband and three children. As an avid reader with a passion for Christian worldview fiction, she works to help authors improve their craft through her freelance editing service, Aotearoa Editorial Services (www.aotearoaeditorial.com), and helps publicize books and authors via her review site, Illuminating Fiction (www.illuminatingfiction.com). She has also reviewed for Focus On Fiction, Infuze Magazine, Novel Reviews, 1340 Magazine, and now TitleTrakk. In her spare time she pursues her own passion for writing and is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers.