Vengeance: Diary of a Murderer (A Contemporary Novella)

By Antony W.F. Chow

Jason Spielman is a 21 year old incoming law student obsessed with the idea of avenging his father's murder 15 years ago. The murderer is now out on parole. Will Jason finally get his wish?

Told in the style of a diary, VENGEANCE: DIARY OF A MURDERER follows a young man's obsession with his father's murderer and his eventual downfall.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Antony W.F. Chow
• Release date: May 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301528806

Antony W.F. Chow

Calling himself a "literary chameleon," Antony W.F. Chow is an experimental writer who enjoys the intellectual challenge of writing in a wide variety of genres. His latest book is a platonic, Christian romance novel titled "My Date With Eric (A Sweet Romance Novel)." He is a longtime resident in the hometown of the New York Mets MLB team. He is best known for his online article on spotting counterfeit Japanese anime figures. He is also known as the author of Broken Hearted: A 9/11 Story, available for PC, Mac, and Linux. An unauthorized webcomic version is available on Google Play.

Book preview

Foreward

Vengeance: Diary of a Murderer is a story that I have worked on in one permutation or another since the mid-2000s. I had the idea of a young man seeking to avenge his father's murder, but I hadn't been able to settle on the setup to this situation, until now. After all, father and son have a special relationship, and when this relationship is severed abruptly, people can and often will act irrationally. This story illustrates one possible outcome.

Vengeance is book four in A Contemporary Novella series, where each story explores the lives of ordinary New Yorkers facing extraordinary circumstances. Vengeance examines the life and pressures of an incoming law school student, who is obsessed with the notion of avenging his father's death. It is a psychodrama presented in the format of a personal journal. Other books in the series include NO GOOD DEED, The Winner, INSEPARABLE, and The Restaurant.

This is the third edition of Vengance. The prologue has been rewritten, and some minor changes have been made as well. The author recognizes the contribution of Ray Nicholson in offering insightful comments and suggestions to improve the prologue, and the story overall.

Prologue

In August of 1996, a mother is reading a newspaper to her child on a park bench at Thomas Paine Park, in lower Manhattan section of New York City. The mother, who goes by the name of Christina Malone Spielman, is in her mid-thirties and has curly blond hair with sharp blue eyes. Her six year old son, Jason, has similar features with a dark tanned skin, from playing outdoors and rolling on his skateboard often this summer.

The newspaper article from The New York City Daily is a painful one for the mother, because it is about the murder of her husband, Jack Spielman, an immigration attorney who was killed in his law office. The deceased was in his office with a seventeen year old female named Mindy Wong when the fifteen young old defendant, Lee Yan Zhang, allegedly burst into the office. The defendant claimed the woman was his girlfriend.

When Mr. Zhang saw the two walking together on the street after he made a Chinese take out delivery, he followed them to Spielman's office. He claimed he heard the girl scream out for help in the attorney's office, and broke in to rescue her. In the ensuing struggle, the woman was shot dead by an unregistered handgun, which had the attorney's fingerprints on it. The defendant admitted to stabbing Mr. Spielman multiple times in the neck and chest, claiming self defense. The attorney died at the scene. Lee Yan Zhang has pled guilty to second degree murder and is expected to receive a sentence of 15 to 25 years in prison.

I want you to always remember, Jason, Christina emphasizes, that your father loved you and I very much. No matter what people say, he was a good person and you should always be proud of being his son.

Yes, mommy, Jason said.

Okay, let's go to the bank before it closes, said the mother as she gets up from the park bench.

Little Jason hops on his yellow skateboard and follows his recently widowed mother out of the park. I will never forgive you for killing my father, he thinks angrily to himself about his father's murderer.

August 25, 2011

Dear Diary:

My name is Jason Spielman, a twenty one year old native New Yorker. I am also a first year law student in New York City. I admit that I've been having trouble keeping up with my school work. You see, I have been distracted and unable to concentrate on my work.

The reason for my distraction is the murder of my father, Jack Spielman, fifteen years ago