The Best Revenge.

...was the title of the book I was reading last night.

It was about a female FBI agent, Kelda who was obsessed with her vengeance to Thomas Clone, an innocent guy who she, and everyone thought murdered his ex-girlfriend, Ivy Campbell and whom she believed killed her artist friend, Joan Winslet, in Hawaii. He was on death row when Kelda helped him getting released from jail by fabricating an evidence that proved his innocence.

However, Kelda's ultimate motive was not to save the guy, but to make him taste the fear of death that he inflicted on Joan before he killed her. She planned the revenge with Ira, her lover who, as later revealed to be her dead friend's brother. The plan was to give him Fear Lesson, which is to torture Tom Clone to death. The narrative character used in the story was her psychiatrist Dr. Alan Gregory, who wound up consulting the supposed murderer, who in fact was referred to by the FBI agent herself. Through the process of consulting both of them he started to see what was behind the surface.

It was a gripping novel because there was a fair amount of comedy element in the story, such as - the total absurdity of the FBI agent's point of retaliation, the crazy obsession, her rationalisation of her actions.

Kelda's mission of revenge seem to stem from her early experience of her sister being molested by a boy in their neighbourhood. When she witnessed  them in their cubby house and what was happening, she pushed the boy off the tree to save her sister, that left the boy brain-damaged and paralysed. But she was too late to prevent her sister from being molested.

When she was still fresh out of FBI academy, she saved the life of a kidnapped little girl called Rosa Alija and the same thing happened. By the time she saved Rosa, she was already molested by the kidnapper who died instantly from Kelda's gunshot. She was furious that the guy died without suffering. And years later, she failed to save the life of her friend.

Her idea of revenge was to make Tom suffer the same fear he supposedly inflicted upon his 'victims'.
Nobody really believed he didn't kill anyone. He spent 13 years in jail for the murder he didn't commit and got further tortured for another murder he wasn't responsible for. Yet his idea of best revenge was to move on and have as normal a life as he could possibly lead. He had had enough misfortune in his life already, a bipolar mother, who in her good mood, was the most fun person to be with yet deserted him when her bad mood kicked in and the ex-girlfriend who he supposedly killed had panic syndrome who pushed him out of the house when she had one of those episodes.

Tom Clone unfortunately had the tendency to be drawn towards women who were eccentric and fun, but crazy, including his infatuation with his tormentor, Kelda Jones. It was that tendency that always led him to one tragedy after another.
In the end, he survived and hopefully he'll be eventually rewarded with the life he always wanted. Just a normal life.

The full of ironies and sarcasm in the novel was what made the book extremely intriguing. It was something refreshing and unpredictable - a very good read indeed.