Title: A Consuming Rage
Author: Chris Chesney
Publisher: Westwood Books Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 978-1643140100
Pages: 307
Genre: Non-Fiction/Crime/Finance
Reviewed by: Anthony Avina
Hollywood Book Review
Something which has become not only popular but fascinating to witness in recent years is the increase in scrutiny at crimes and the innocent people accused of these crimes. From documentaries to novels, we read all the time about people who spend years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit, only for new evidence or a new trial to exonerate them and focus on the true criminals. In a unique twist, author Chris Chesney has invited readers into his life to see the circumstances that kept him in ancient prisons for months in his novel, A Consuming Rage.
The novel focuses on his time in various prisons in both France and Italy, after he was falsely imprisoned for an arrest warrant he had issued and subsequently dismissed in the UK from the Tribunale di Roma. Accused of defrauding Telecom Italia and other companies for over €67 million, the author presents the trials and hardships he endured during his imprisonment, from faulty translators and dismissive judges to the other prisoners he meets and the struggle to fight a crime you know you didn’t commit.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau once said, “Whoever blushes is already guilty; true innocence is ashamed of nothing.” The author shows this perfectly throughout his book, highlighting his own innocence while giving a unique perspective on the criminal justice system in European countries like Italy and France. You can feel the anger and frustration in his own words as you read this novel. At one point he says, “‘What! He’s going to keep me here without any real justification because some civil servant has gone home for the night? When you don’t even have any real idea why an EAW’s been issued in my name, only what I’ve told you? Despite my best efforts, I was definitely beginning to lose my cool.’”
This book is for anyone who is interested in books involving financial crimes, the criminal justice system in various parts of the world and stories of innocent people fighting for their freedom. For years I’ve personally been invested in these types of stories. From the West Memphis Three and their case to the case of Michael Crowe and the death of his sister Stephanie, the way corruption, mishandled evidence and assumptions based on circumstantial evidence influence cases such as the authors have always been something that drove in me as a reader a desire to find the truth. Getting to hear the author’s perspective on this was refreshing and made the book flow smoothly.
Overall this was a truly engaging read. The passion and anger can be felt through every word of this novel, which gave a descriptive and personal look into the legal system and financial crimes that the world rarely gets to see. The impact a simple association can have on a person for the rest of their life is scary to think about, as some authorities are all too eager to take down anyone they think helped a criminal in their schemes. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy of A Consuming Rage by Chris Chesney today!