The Vigilantes (Badge Of Honor) Paperback – June 28, 2011

This portrayal of Philidelphia is a little grimmer than most of the Badge of Honor series, but it brings home the lesson that the police are fighting a constant battle in large cities, where the police are not always viewed as the good guys. Life in the City of Brotherly Love is shown as dangerous, with drug addicts and dealers, rapists, murderers and dirty politicians. In other words, a typical large city today. This book kept me on the edge of my seat, and it left me wanting even more at the end. As always with Griffin, it is another great book. That is the only kind that the Griffin/Butterworth team writes, even though most of us have our favorites. My personal favorites are the military books, but I am sure that someone who has been in law enforcement prefers the Philidelphia police stories, or wishes that this team would write about their cities.The book provided some excellent insights into the unique problems that Philadelphia faces today, including some antiquated legal and political procedures. This is an excellent police procedural book, describing some of the more modern technical systems that allow police to catch criminals even when the courts and jails can't contain them all.

I was a little nervous about this book because I have read a lot of negative comments about Mr. Griffin's writing partnership with his son. I like the older books and was worried I was not going to like the new ones. I was pleasantly surprised how good this book is. The characterizations are sharp, the plot and pacing are what I expect from Griffin. That being said, this book would have benefited greatly by better editing. The first 20 pages or so are horrible and I almost did not continue. The main problem was sentence structure and odd grammatical choices. Once I got a litter further into the book things improved greatly and kept getting better and better. I think that as time goes on the son's writing will improve.Now, in response to what another reviewer said, I don't think that it is fair to attribute the "good" parts of the book with the father and the "bad" parts with the son. We have no way of knowing who wrote what. However, according to interviews, the son has been helping his father for over ten years with the main difference now being that the books that carry the son's name are supposedly plotted by both of them with the son handling all the writing duties. Either after the book is completed or during the process itself Mr. Griffin reads everything and recommends any necessary changes. According to an interview I read last year, Mr. Griffin claims that he has not had his son change anything. So, make of that what you will.In conclusion, is this book identical to those solely written by W.E.B. Griffin? No. Similar? Yes. Is there the potential for the son to be as good as his father? Definitely. I can't wait till the next book comes out.

W.E.B. Griffin's son Willy4 seems to have taken over writing for his aging father and is doing one heck of a good job. I can still feel Sr.s fingers in the pie, but it is evident that Willy4 has stepped into daddy's shoes and they fit fine. So the franchise will not die with WEB hopefully. For any of you who haven't read any of Butterfield's books before, you are in for a treat. Be warned once you've read one you'll have to read them all. Boy can these folks spin a tail.This is the tenth book in the Badge Of Honor Series. It pits our hero Matt Payne against a new type of villain The Vigilante.The Philadelphia Police Department, where Matt is a Homicide Detective,is the setting for all of this series of books. You'll stay up all night reading these. There is no putting them down after you start one your hooked. Absolutely the very best fiction around.

I have read all of the Badge of Honor series books. From the beginning of the series until the last two books, the stories were well developed, and the characters seemed very real. The stories were very well-thought out, and richly woven. Unfortunately, this one isn't like those.The character development seemed as if it was "borrowed" from the earlier books, and even though all of the previous characters were referenced again, not all of them were present. The story was disjointed, with an abrupt and contrived ending. Having Matt standing on the bridge at the end talking to his girlfriend was ridiculous. Where was the wrap-up of the whole story? There was none.I also found the different story lines to have only a slight connection, specifically Badde and the urban renewal stuff.It just didn't match the previous efforts. I love the premise of the series, and have enjoyed all but the last two. Hopefully, the son can get the Dad to give him some more direction on the next effort.

As always the author keeps you sitting on the edge of your seat with a spell binding story. Badge of honor series is an awesome series. Got to find the next book in this series.

This is one of the few Butterworth ones that I did enjoy. The scenario was probably a little outlandish compared to previous books in this series. The story kept with the theme of the previous books pretty well. I probably will read the next ones until I hit a really bad one.

This is the latest in Griffins on-going tale of young Matt, the homicide detective/gunfighter of the Philadelphia Police Department. Enough time is spent explaining the relationships between characters to make you want to read the earlier book. However one flaw is that Griffin & Son don't maintain consistency in the re-telling...some of the details slip through the cracks and you are left wondering if he'd forgotten what he wrote earlier. But, all-in-all, a delightful bit of escapist reading. The man does have a great sense of humor.