Cover Image: The Pinebox Vendetta

The Pinebox Vendetta

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I wanted to enjoy this one. Really and truly, I did. I could not get my grip on what was happening, and around 20% in, I called it quits.

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The Pinebox Vendetta by Jeff Bond

This story of two families that have dominated the political landscape of America since the Revolutionary War times just isn't for me. I'm not usually into political books but characters that I can care for can make such a book good for me. Yet I could not connect with any of the characters in this book. The two characters that I would most likely connect with turned me off with their whining, blaming, and unwise decisions. This may be better for folks who can grab onto the big picture of the story but I surely didn't identify with either of the powerful, wealthy, get what you want at all costs, political families. Samantha Lessing is the main character and the best thing she could ever do for her daughter is to take her daughter and leave her horrible marriage. Instead she uses the excuse of her daughter to stay with a man who is bad for both of them. This is the first book in a series about the Pruitt-Gallagher centuries old war and they don't care who they take down with them. 

Thank you to Jeff Bond Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

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i really enjoyed the first book in the Pruitt-Gallagher saga, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the mystery in the book.

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The Pinebox Vendetta was ok. It seems to want to be the beginning of a saga, but I had a lot of unanswered questions that aren't keeping me up at night.

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The Pinebox Vendetta by Jeff Bond is the story of the Gallaghers and Pruitts, two families that have been feuding since the Revolutionary War. Jonas Pruitt and Ephraim Gallager quarreled over a pinebox, the contents which were unknown. At one time they were friends and associates but they vowed that they would never be friends again.

The twenty-year reunion is fast approaching and with members of the two families, Owen Gallagher who is hoping to be the Democratic-run for President and Rock Pruitt, a nasty man who wants to reclaim his reputation. Twenty years ago his roommate was killed and the case never solved.

Sam Lessing will be there at the twenty-year reunion with her daughter Joss, who is looking at colleges. She is going so she can Zoom the reunion, as many people that she can film but mostly the Pruitts and Gallaghers. She wants to film a documentary of the two families. While there she and Joss find something that could knock the socks of one of the family members.

Sam is having problems of her own, her marriage is falling apart and she has feelings for Jamie Gallagher who has been living in Africa for the last 10 years. He is back for the reunion also but wants nothing to do with the feud. Sam and Jamie find themselves embroiled in the feud anyway.

What I liked, I enjoyed the writing and I am glad to see that The PineBox Vendetta is the first in a series because I would love to read more about the Pruits and Gallaghers. Digging deeper into the family dynamics. I think that the author portrayed each character appropriately to the story.

What I did not like, Rock Pruitt, I found him to be a very nasty man, I think that you will determine that also once you start reading this book. No spoilers here! Read this book you should, if you like a good mystery/whodunnit. Well written and mysteriously enough to keep the reader wanting more. I have read another one of Jeff Bond's books and thoroughly enjoyed it.

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In The Pinebox Vendetta, author Jeff Bond weaves a riveting political thriller that centers around the centuries long generational political feud between two powerful families, the Pruitts and the Gallaghers. Think Hatfields and McCoys, then add in the political element, and it all boils down to the cut-throat pursuit of power, with the Pruitt-Gallagher rivalry becoming widely known as the pinebox vendetta.

The twenty-year reunion for the Yale Class of 1996 reignites the Pruitt-Gallagher rivalry, setting them on a collision course that will rock the weekend festivities. Rock Pruitt and Jamie Gallagher were part of the Class of 1996, and thus the families' rivalry continued during their time at Yale. Fellow classmate and friend of Jamie's, WNYC Public Radio producer Samantha Lessing is attending the reunion with her fourteen-year-old daughter Joss. While showing Joss around Yale, she becomes interested in pursuing a documentary on the Pruitt-Gallagher pinebox vendetta, and the unsolved cold-case murder mystery that Rock Pruitt had been involved in during his freshman year. What Samantha doesn't realize is that the reunion weekend is the perfect setting for the Pruitt-Gallagher rivalry reopening the pandora box that is known as the pinebox vendetta, and everyone will get caught up in the feud as collateral damage.

The Pinebox Vendetta is a multi-layered and fast-paced political thriller that is masterfully interwoven with intrigue, secrets, deception, hidden agendas, political posturing, plots, threats, corruption, cover-ups, and a cold-case murder mystery, that easily engages the reader to follow along as the Yale Class of 1996 reunion weekend unfolds.

This is an exciting and dramatic story that will keep the reader guessing as Rock, Jamie, and Sam's individual plans for the reunion weekend ultimately reveals the dark side of politics, power, and manipulation, that will leave no one unscathed. The complexity of the characters' different personalities were intriguing, but I must admit that I thought they all weren't very likeable except for Joss, and I absolutely loathed Rock from beginning to end, he was a despicable excuse of a human being.

As a fan of political thrillers, I really enjoyed how the author transported the reader into the fascinating history of the Pruitt-Gallagher rivalry, and how their political feud continued from generation to generation. When you add in the intrigue, drama, and an unsolved murder mystery, you get a story with an explosive ending that will leave the reader dumbfounded.

The Pinebox Vendetta is the first book in The Pruitt-Gallagher Saga Series.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours.

https://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-pinebox-vendetta-by-jeff-bond-vbt.html

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“It all boils down to power. It’s no more or less than the pursuit of power.”

The Pinebox Vendetta by Jeff Bond as a political thriller that catches you off guard with its intensity and with an antagonist that is so easy to hate.

The Gallagher and the Pruitt families have been feuding for years, and the backstabbing is about to be taken to an entirely new level. At a Yale reunion for the class of 1996, Sam Lessing and her daughter, Joss, are ready for a weekend of fun and a bit of sleuthing on Sam’s part. What really happened freshman year when a classmate ended up dead? Was it an accident? Murder? Does anyone even care anymore? Sam is about to find out, but first, a few other surprises are in store during this reunion weekend. Jamie Gallagher, back from the ‘dead,’ and Rock Pruitt are two rivals headed for a collision like no other. As both families work diligently to smear and take down the other, the political drama heats up and sends the reader on high-speed chase for answers about the so-called Pinebox Vendetta between these families.

Jeff Bond delivers quite the tale of how a family feud can take on a long-lasting, hate-filled life of its own that is nothing short of vindictive, nasty, and maybe even deadly. Rock Pruitt is like no other antagonist I have encountered in all my years of reading. He is despicable, disgusting, smug, and dangerous. Jamie Gallagher is not the saint we want him to be, but he is certainly a few levels above Rock. Both of these characters make this story one you do not want to miss. Sam Lessing has a few personal issues of her own to work out, and all of these little plots crash together at the end, and the fallout and aftermath is both unsatisfying and appropriate. I would have dearly loved more backstory on the overall feud, but that definitely does not mean the story is anything less than entertaining and engrossing.

I have already mentioned the reprehensible and oh so abhorrent Rock Pruitt, but all the characters have varied personalities, giving the story that spark of drama and overall mystery in terms of wondering how everything will play out and who will do what to whom. Jeff Bond is a master storyteller, delivering yet another solid winner.

I received a free copy of this book from Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours in exchange for my honest review.

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Twenty-year college reunions are a big deal. Who made it to the top of Disraeli’s “greasy pole”? How many made-in-college romances are still intact? How are the superstars—president of the class, the one everyone wanted to date, the brainiacs, and the sports legends—faring? If your alma mater is Yale, and you’re a legacy (i.e., with Pruitt or Gallagher as your last name), you’ll be compared to your forebearers.

The Gallaghers and Pruitts have dominated the American political landscape dating back to Revolutionary times. The Yale University class of 1996 had one of each, and as the twenty-year reunion approaches, the families are on a collision course.

Welcome to Jeff Bond’s The Pinebox Vendetta, where Yale’s Class of 1996 returns to New Haven. The pace is rat-a-tat-tat: a ransom on a pirate ship; a woman sleepwalking through the detritus of an unsatisfactory marriage, hoping for a career-changing reunion; and an enraged-bull of a man, returning to the place where everything went pear-shaped.

Part I: Jamie Gallagher, 10 years post-Yale, is in Africa, orchestrating a $10-million ransom. A beret-wearing general holds the keys to the procedure. Everyone is on edge.

The day was already scorching, the sky’s blue brilliance broken only by the boiling disk of the sun. The general’s yacht rocked softly in the west, appearing quite large now, its bow sleek and spear-like.



“They’re within gun range,” Jamie observed.



“Oh yes. We are in their scopes.”

Bond shows how deep Jamie goes to be successful—a money exchange is not enough. He sets up a perilous double-cross because he’s a Gallagher and high-wire maneuvering is in his DNA.

Jamie had placed himself between dangerous people, but dangerous people performed the same calculations benign ones did. The pirates would keep up their end so long as the benefits remained clear: not only cash, but stronger ties with the general and the establishment of a new back-channel to the powerful Gallaghers.

Jamie prepared for his encounter with the general for almost a year and a half. While the pirates count the money, Jamie offers him a bottle of Akpeteshie, the national spirit of Ghana. Jamie’s sister Charlotte owns the “local distillery that produced Akpeteshie,” and “she had allowed Jamie to follow this lone bottle through the factory.”

At the final step, just before corking, he’d poured out 150 millimeters of liquor and replaced it with an equal amount of king cobra venom.



For fifteen months, Jamie had been inoculating himself with increasingly larger doses of venom.

What could go wrong when the general opts for tumblers of Akpeteshie rather than shot glasses?

Ten years later: Samantha “Sam” Lessing has high expectations for her Yale reunion. Her professional life is OK, but her personal life is not. She and her husband, Abe, have conversations that smack of George and Martha Woolf.

He nodded to a pair of shiny heels in Sam’s duffel.



“Somebody’s dressing to impress.”



“I haven’t seen these people in twenty years,” she said. “I’m erring on the side of adequate.”



Her husband snorted, seeming to take the comment personally. Twelve years older than Sam, he’d been an already-aging rocker when she had met him in her late twenties.

Sam is realistic. She’s a working mother, navigating NYC life without the safety valve of a family trust fund—the 20 years since Yale is almost an uncrossable gap.

Once you’ve changed diapers or dealt with a rotten boss, you can’t go back to debating abstract versus figurative art. Not with a straight face.



Still, she wondered if some core magic might remain. New ventures hatching over hors d’oeuvres.

Alongside Sam’s shiny heels is “a portable audio recorder she’ll use for a public radio-style documentary on the Pruitt-Gallagher rivalry—widely known as the pinebox vendetta.” Sam sees her documentary as a get out of jail free card; OK, nothing’s free, but it has the potential to reset her career. Her biggest difficulty in interviewing her classmates are the varying interpretations: are they modern-day Hatfield-McCoys? How did the rivalry start?

Some claimed it traced back to an ancient double-cross involving the Declaration of Independence. Others said a dagger bearing the Pruitt crest had killed an important Gallagher heir.

When Rock Pruitt arrives, he buys a sledgehammer at an Orange Street hardware store. The course of Rock’s life was forever dimmed when his college roommate died in dubious circumstances. Rock never tires of upsetting the apple cart. For his reunion grand gesture, he decides to destroy a stained glass window given to Yale by the Gallagher family centuries earlier. Rock is high from the minute he steps out of his Maserati, floating on rivers of booze and lines of cocaine; his obsession colors all his experiences and encounters. He has it in for “liberals” and “their book altar.”

The sledgehammer was waiting in the center of the room. He hoisted it. In his alcohol-light hands, the thing felt wild and dangerous and like a tool of justice.

The doors of the Sterling Library—Yale’s Collegiate, Gothic-styled cathedral to learning—are about to close. Rock takes the elevator to floor 23, throbbing with anticipation. Rock is desperate to destroy Sterling’s magnificent stained glass windows. But he brought a knife to a gunfight—access to the windows via the balcony is blocked, and the sledgehammer is useless.

What is this feud? Could a pinebox be just a pinebox? Here are clues: “English speakers borrowed vendetta, spelling and all, from Italian, in which it means ‘revenge.’ It ultimately traces to the Latin verb vindicare, which means ‘to lay claim to’ or ‘to avenge.’” Sounds about right: overarching themes of avenging wrongs, competition, revenge, and political rivalry are the mainstays of the Pruitt-Gallagher saga. The Pinebox Vendetta is a chilling, provocative debut to a new series.

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If Bond's goal was to get me to dislike just about every character in this book, he succeeded admirably. Way too much drinking. Way too much illicit sex (though not described). Sniffing coke. Dirty tricks to smear opposing candidates. Rock Pruitt is certainly a character I love to hate. He is absolutely disgusting. If this is what politics has come to in America, I am glad I am not part of it.

And then there is the whole Yale reunion weekend atmosphere. What a decadent group of people. Long held grudges erupting in current antics. What a sad lot. I'm glad my college experience was at a more rigorous and conservative academic setting.

I didn't even like Sam. While I think I was supposed to have some sympathy for her, she just felt flat and seemed very unlikable. I really have no interest in finding out what happens to her in the future.

This is one of those novels portraying a world I wish didn't exist. I wish potential presidential candidates were fine upstanding citizens concerned about the welfare of their constituents, not power grabbing vengeful egotists. This novel may be closer to reality than I might think, however. And for that, it is worth reading.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book through Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours. My comments are an independent and honest review.

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This book was pretty good

There are good characters, Jeff Bond being able to give them good depth and development. It was also fun to switch between the two sides. The plot was also thrilling, though it is slow in the first half. After that, though, everything is just amazing!

My first book from Jeff Bond, and it was definitely promising. I would recommend for people who love family feuds, along with political mysteries.

4/5

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I was invited to read an ARC of this American political drama by the author, who had liked my review of one of his other books, Blackquest 40, but with the warning that it was a very different genre. It’s the beginning of a series about two wealthy dynasties who have battled for political power for hundreds of years, focussing on a black sheep from each family who happened to be at Yale University together.

Sam Lessing, a struggling documentary New York filmmaker in a failing marriage, travels to her twenty year college reunion with her teenage daughter, hoping to reconnect with old friends and interview people about the legendary Pinebox Vendetta, a centuries’ old feud between the Conservative Pruitts and the Liberal Gallaghers. Rock Pruitt is a loathsome misogynist bully (remind you of anyone?) whose political career was derailed by the death of his roommate Derek in his first year. Jamie Gallagher, an ideologically driven dreamer went to Africa to save the world, but died trying to assassinate an evil dictator. Both were in her graduation class, and she’s always regretted not continuing the brief romance that had ignited between her and Jamie at the end of their studies, and wondered why Rock was never prosecuted for Derek’s death.
Over the course of the reunion weekend, old secrets will be aired, enmities revived and public figures ruined as the vendetta fires up again.

I’m interested in and enjoy reading about politics, although don’t understand the American system. This was an entertaining introduction to some wonderfully loathsome characters, but it’s important to realise this isn’t a complete story, just the beginning of a saga, otherwise you could be disappointed by the ending as much is left unresolved and justice is not served. It’s not a long book and so much is left unexplained - including exactly what the titular Pinebox is - hopefully this will be revealed in future books.

I liked the sly humour and caricatures - neither side is spared although the author’s sympathies are clearly to the left, and the cynical way the Gallaghers would put forward an amiable male moron for the Democratic nomination while his clever successful businesswoman cousin pulls the strings felt sadly realistic, while the powerful Pruitts cover up all wrongdoing by the monstrous Rock and still consider letting him run for state office also emblematic of all that’s wrong with the country’s system.

There are no likeable characters here, even the nice well meaning ones like Sam and Joss are thick as mince - this wasn’t a problem for me in this case.
The antagonists were wickedly entertaining - I would’ve strangled Abe with his power cable, he’s such a pathetically petulant loser. There is a sort of love story and sort of murder mystery but they aren’t central to the plot, although I didn’t see the denouement coming at all.

Recommended to those who enjoy an accessible saga and don’t mind waiting to find out what happens next. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc and to Jeff Bond for bringing it to my attention.
The Pinebox Vendetta is published on April 15th.

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This book started off a bit slow for me but then picked up. Confusing at times with all the characters to keep track of. That being said, the characters are crisply drawn, they come to life, and I was often surprised to find myself cheering back and forth between sides.

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I read about 20% of this story and stopped. The characters were much too stereotypical. Good guys, bad guys is basic but this one was just too much. I never did discover what the plot was. And the elitism of Yale was more than I was interested in.

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This is the third book I have read by this author and each one has its unique character which proves Jeff Bond can easily switch between various genres without losing the quality of the story.
You feel like you get to know each character. Like, dislike or hate them as you continue to read the pages. A good part of the story has to do with political families who will not stop at anything in order to become elected. Maybe not to the same degree of power play but it makes you think of some of the political families the US has known over the last 80 years. I think the pressure family members are under is probably very real in some of these cases
It also deals with love, betrayal and friendships. I highly recommend this book..

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Rife with political antagonism, The Pinebox Vendetta is a domestic political mystery set against the backdrop of an undying family feud. Humming with political tension, the descendants of the Pruitts and Gallaghers leverage deception, murder, and evidence tampering to meet their own needs.

Slow burn mysteries are the most analytical of the mystery genre. The Pinebox Vendetta is just that - a cerebral mystery designed to delve into the human psyche as it comprehends what was once hoped to be an urban legend. Yet, as it turns out, the rivalry was “a pulsing, contemporary force, devouring its combatants.”
Complete with several parallel narratives and a hearty dose of family drama, Jeff’s new book was impossible to put down.


Highly recommended for fans of political mysteries where decade-old family feuds are at the center of plot.

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My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Deceit, cover-ups, exposures, families doing anything for the love of power, politics and control. Jeff Bond’s THE PINEBOX VENDETTA reads like a political nightmare come to life as two families re-ignite an old feud and the voters of America are the pawns caught in the middle, who is the biggest puppet master?

After a slow start, the pace picks up, the intrigue becomes interesting and the players are ones one would love to hate. I found that the characters were never likable, they were manipulative, and left no stone unturned to throw dirt on their opponents.

That said, this tale does pick up and become a fascinating tale of the dark side of power, love, life and even death. Get through the first half, the second part is worth it, someone may even accept responsibility for their actions...or will they???

I was invited to receive a complimentary ARC edition as part of a blog tour review. This is my honest and voluntary review.

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Third book I’ve read by this author, and I have enjoyed each one, though they are totally different. The strength in this book, to me, was the character development. Each character was ‘real’ and had depth of personality. Memories, friendships, romances, politics, betrayals, and alliances are all mixed into an entertaining story that is only the beginning (I hope).

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For me this book was boring and not really a thriller. When reading the preview of this book. It said it was a thriller but really not. I couldn't finish this book fast enough

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Jeff Bond is the rare author who can write various genres and do each of them justice. His first book, The Winner Maker, was a traditional thriller, while his second, Blackquest 40, was a techno-terrorism thriller. In his latest, The Pinebox Vendetta, Bond combines family feuds, political intrigue, a romance, and a cold-case murder mystery into the span of one college reunion weekend.

I greatly enjoyed this book and am pleased to know it is the beginning of a new series. The characters are likeable (or unlikeable, but purposefully so) and the plot moves along without a single ounce of padding. I can see this as the perfect weekend read - but perhaps I am biased since that's exactly how I consumed it.

I highly recommend this (and all of Jeff's) books for anyone who enjoys a multi-genre spanning tale of upscale mischief and mayhem. Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an ARC to read and review.

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