History Literature / SisterhoodSeries

* HeroesWantRedheads: Bert Navarro wants Kathryn Lucas, who has red hair. ''Weekend Warriors'' had Jack Emery hanging out with a redhead, who turned out to be his sister-in-law, and he did that just to make his blonde girlfriend, Nikki Quinn, jealous. Ted Robinson really likes redheads, if his relationship with Maggie Spritzer is anything to go by.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Harry Wong is revealed to be this as early as the book ''Hide and Seek''. He can dig trenches in the ground with those feet. He will wear sandals and will only put on shoes if he really has to.

* ShesGotLegs: Let's see. Lizzie Fox has them, Alexis Thorne has them, and Isabelle Flanders has them. There might be more, but those three are definitely noted for this trope.

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Most certainly played straight with Jack and Nikki, Myra and Charles, and Yoko and Harry. In the book ''Fast Track'', Rena Gold has had sex with Maxwell Zenowicz, and she frankly is disgusted and tired of it by that point.

* AuthorFilibuster: Well, this series has gone into this trope a number of times. The book ''Payback'' portrays a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) as scum of the earth who suck up your money like leeches, use that money to pamper themselves, and will simply stand back and not lift a finger to help you as you die of a life-threatening illness. The book ''Vendetta'' portrays China as a CrapsackWorld that cheerfully brings YellowPeril wherever it goes. The book ''The Jury'' has one character Nikki Quinn tell the other characters about the vicious cycle of abuse between spouses. The book ''Fast Track'' portrays the World Bank (particularly its president) as a money-sucker that will leave poor countries to rot and die. The book ''Under the Radar'' portrays a polygamist sect as a cult made up of the CorruptHick, rapists, and pedophiles hiding behind religion and treating women as a BabyFactory.

* DrinkingTheKoolAid: The entire Sisterhood and their allies have this sort of mentality. They believe that {{Revenge}}, inflicting the FateWorseThanDeath on their targets, and acting like all-around {{Jerk Sue}}s are great ideas. Fortunately, Maggie Spritzer came to realize that this trope was going on, and essentially left them by the final book ''Home Free''.

* GoodIsNotNice: The Sisterhood/Viglantes. Each member did start out as nice, but the minute they form this group is the minute they dive into this trope. Reason 6 is certainly a factor for this, although reason 2 may possibly apply as well. The first 7 books are all about them getting {{Revenge}} on the people who wronged them. The last 13 books are all about trying to get back to their normal, everyday lives. Unfortunately, this trope gets cranked UpToEleven so much that some of the villains actually become UnintentionallySympathetic.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Okay, let's see. The series starts off with Nikki Quinn, Kathryn Lucas, Isabelle Flanders, Alexis Thorne, Myra Rutledge, Barbara Rutledge (she was killed, but she became a ghost), Julia Webster, Yoko Akia, Charles Martin, and Jack Emery. Then Harry Wong, Mark Lane, Bert Navarro, Ted Robinson, Countess Anne "Annie" Ryland de Silva, and Maggie Spritzer come into the pictures. Then you have Judge Cornelia "Nellie" Easter, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Fox, Pearl Barnes, Cosmo Cricket, Elias Cummings, Paula Woodley, Karl Woodley, Joseph "Joe" Espinosa, Rena Gold, Martine Connor, Henry "Hank" Jellicoe, Little Fish, Stu Franklin, and Abner Tookus. So what we have here is...30 characters. Let's not get started on all the one-shot characters in the series.

* Gotcha (2013)

Not to be confused with ''Literature/TheSisterhoodOfTheTravelingPants'' which was being published around the same time.

* IgnoredEpiphany: Roland Sullivan from ''Lethal Justice'' is the personification of this trope. He started out as a relatively decent guy and family man. Then Arden Gillespie entered into the picture. He became addicted to her, and engaged in YourCheatingHeart. He helped Arden suck up all the money belonging to an elderly couple, causing this couple to be DrivenToSuicide. Then, to cover up their crime, they frame Sara Whittier (AKA Alexis Thorne), their own employee for it. Sara is found guilty and imprisoned for a year. It is only when they framed Sara that Roland had a HeelRealization. He made no attempt to make it right. He lost sleep over it, forced Arden to set up some pictures of Sara in their offices (as a reminder of how low they sunk), and tried to spend more time with his family. He and Arden practically blackmail each other. He actually wants to find Sara to apologize to her...and use BuyThemOff on her. He still uses his ill-gotten gain to live the high life. He still cheats on his wife with Arden. Sure, his internal monologues claim that he has no willpower, but it seems that he just uses that to excuse his behaviour. His wife finds out that he cheated on her, throws him out and makes moves to divorce him. He actually tried to claim that he did all this for his wife and brags that he'll bring in lots of money and they'll all live the high life, but she rejects this, and points out that she never wanted to live any high life. She makes it clear that she knows that he and Arden framed Sara and urges him to do the right thing. He just blows that off. Later, he says to Arden, "I just realized something. You don't have a conscience, do you?" Arden simply retorts that it is too late to worry about something like a conscience. Roland is clearly a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter if he only made this realization at this late date. He makes no attempt to do the right thing or break away from her. He gets involved in another money-stealing scheme with Arden. Sure, he tried to refuse, but he still went and got involved. By the end, he gives off the attitude of a man who wants to get caught and punished. The fact that he has multiple instances just makes him very unsympathetic.

* YourCheatingHeart: A number of villains have engaged in this trope. Senator Webster in ''Payback''. Rosemary Hershey in ''Sweet Revenge'', who is female, and her cheating is in no way presented in a sympathetic light. Roland Sullivan in ''Lethal Justice''. Mitch Riley in ''Hide And Seek''. Baron Bell in ''Deadly Deals''. A couple of them receive a divorce as one of the consequences. Interestingly, the trope gets deconstructed in ''Payback''. It's like this...Senator Webster cheated on his wife Julia Webster with multiple women. She had him write down a list of the women he had affairs with. One of them is married, and Julia points out that her husband would have performed mayhem on the Senator if he had known. The real clincher is that the Senator got infected with AIDS from one of the women, and he ended up giving it to Julia. He didn't know he was infected, but still.... Of course, she did reveal the truth to him that they both have AIDS, and he naturally could not believe that powerful he had been infected by such a thing. It goes to show that recklessly sleeping around is not bliss, and that it is in fact dangerous.

* BadassGrandpa: Either Deconstructed or Subverted in the book ''Home Free''. Harry Wong is training to become the number one martial artist in the world. To that end, he hires an old martial arts teacher who is at least 100 years old. Unfortunately, the old man does nothing except sit there and sleep...for 24 hours a day. Harry's friends, Jack and Bert pull some strings and have the old teacher/master carted out and bring in another old martial arts teacher who is at least 80 years and could wipe the floor with all three men. Shortly afterwards, the three men discover that the old teacher has up and died. In the end, Jack and Bert decide to be Harry's teachers.

* GrandmaWhatMassiveHotnessYouHave: Myra Rutledge and Countess Anne "Annie" Ryland de Silva. Both of them are in their 60s and heading on to 70s. Make no mistake, they are old enough to be your grandmother, and they are incredibly sexy. In fact, ''Weekend Warriors'' has Nikki Quinn and Barbara Rutledge commenting that Myra looks better at 60 plus years old than they do at 30 plus years old. Now that's hotness.

* TheChessmaster: Charles Martin, former agent of MI6 and Franchise/JamesBond {{Expy}}, is definitely this. He works for the Vigilantes and it could be argued that he uses this trope for good, but he is an AntiHero. He tries his hardest to come up with foolproof plans for the Vigilantes to use in order to succeed in their missions. However, there have been times when those plans go awry, and he ''really'' hates it when that happens. ''Under The Radar'' reveals that he has a large network of contacts and agents who are well-funded and good at their job, which helps to explain how his plans are effective. By ''Vanishing Act'', however, the Vigilantes make it clear to Charles that they call the shots and not him, and that he had best stop lording over them or he will get the boot.

** ''Weekend Warriors'': Doctor Clark Wagstaff, Doctor Sidney Lee, and Doctor Samuel La Fond are a [[BigBadDuumvirate Big Bad Triumvirate]] of dentists and rapists.
** ''Payback'': Senator Mitchell "Mitch" Webster is a Big Bad, and an HMO consisting of Elaine Monarch, Derek Monarch, and Ethan Monarch seem to be a [[BigBadDuumvirate Big Bad Triumvirate]]. They have seemingly no connection to each other, but apparently Mitch had sex with Elaine and got AIDS from her and gave it to Julia Webster. Hoo, boy.

** ''Home Free'': Owen Orzell and Jason Parker are apparently a BigBadDuumvirate. Interestingly, Owen reveals that he was part of a [[BigBadDuumvirate Big Bad Triumvirate]] consisting of UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} director Calvin Span and Henry "Hank" Jellicoe. Henry is now rotting in federal prison, and Calvin is now dead from a heart attack he got while shovelling his driveway.

'''Includes examples of:'''

* DeathSeeker: {{CIA}} director Calvin Span is revealed to be this in ''Home Free''. He died of a heart attack as a result of him shovelling his driveway. He knew better than to do that, considering that he had heart surgery a few years ago. His co-conspirator Owen Orzell thinks that Calvin had a death wish. Considering that Calvin was in bed with BigBad Henry "Hank" Jellicoe, had a gambling addiction that was going out-of-control, had to turn against Jellicoe to save his own hide when Jellicoe's bad guy status was revealed, had the deaths of CIA agents on his conscience because Jellicoe wanted {{Revenge}} for Calvin turning against him, and the president forced him to resign for failing to capture Jellicoe in one month, it's not much of a stretch for this guy to become a Death Seeker.

* MyGreatestFailure: Played with rather strangely with Henry "Hank" Jellicoe. ''Game Over'' indicates that there is one topic that he refuses to discuss, to the point that it is not even stated ''what'' the topic is. ''Deja Vu'' reveals that the topic is his wife Louise. She and her daughter left him and went under Witness Protection a ''long'' time ago, and he, with all his power, has ''never'' been able to find her. However, he had treated her like she didn't exist and was just a servant. He took phone calls on his illegal dealings, and he did it right in front of her. She kept a diary of his dealings that apparently ended up in the hands of the {{CIA}}, and he, with all his knowledge, has never been able to confirm the story. He wants to find her... and then kill her for having the nerve to go against him and leave him. Even villains can have a My Greatest Failure.

* RevengeByProxy: In ''Home Free'', Owen Orzell reveals to the Vigilantes that he had worked with {{CIA}} director Calvin Span and BigBad Henry "Hank" Jellicoe. Jellicoe has already been captured and is currently rotting away in a federal prison. Span is dead, because sometime after he was forced to resign from his job as CIA director by President Martine Connor, he was shoveling snow off his driveway and died of a heart attack. Orzell points out that Span knew better than to do that, because he had heart surgery a few years ago, and that he had clearly become a DeathSeeker. Orzell asks if they're going to punish him in Span's place, and the Vigilantes say yes. Now this example is treated sympathetically, because the president had essentially enlisted the Vigilantes to take down Orzell, and Orzell's hands are just as dirty as Span's and Jellicoe's.

* TakeThat: Hoo, boy. FM is clearly very fond of it, and is not subtle about it either. ''Weekend Warriors'' fires one at three rapists who happen to be dentists. ''Payback'' fires this at a Democrat senator ''and'' a Health Maintenance Organization (which is Republican, by the way). ''Vendetta'' have some unflattering things to say about China and its people. ''The Jury'' throws one at a DomesticAbuser, who happens to be the National Security Advisor to the President of the United States - and his good pal. ''Free Fall'' pokes at Hollywood. ''Hide and Seek'' shoots one at the FBI. ''Fast Track'' hurls this at newspapers like the ''Washington Post'', and the Department of Homeland Security. ''Final Justice'' essentially says that Las Vegas casino security teams are one step away from the Gestapo and the Mafia. ''Under the Radar'' says that polygamists in Utah are a bunch of pedophiles and cultists, as well as mocking the National Guard. ''Razor Sharp'' fires one at johns/pimps, and portrays congressmen, senators and the [[spoiler: Vice President]] himself as part of this group. ''Vanishing Act'' throws one at identity thieves. ''Home Free'' fires one at the {{CIA}}. The POTUS is never given a name, but it's a Republican man, and might be none other than George W. Bush. FM is a 79-year-old woman going on 80, and it seems that she is angry at the world, and probably sees a lot of topics as those bratty kids that won't stay off her lawn.

** ''Home Free'': Owen Orzell and Jason Parker are apparently a BigBadDuumvirate. Interestingly, Owen reveals that he was part of a [[BigBadDuumvirate Big Bad Triumvirate]] consisting of {{CIA}} director Calvin Span and Henry "Hank" Jellicoe. Henry is now rotting in federal prison, and Calvin is now dead from a heart attack he got while shovelling his driveway.

* BrokenAce: Henry "Hank" Jellicoe is firmly revealed to be Type 1 in the books ''Cross Roads'' and ''Deja Vu''. He is at least a HeManWomanHater and at most a StrawMisogynist. He tried using President Martine Connor to save his funding from the Pentagon from being cut off. He had several contracts murdered as part of his plan, and when the {{CIA}} had to cut ties with him, he went and murdered a number of CIA agents. ''Cross Roads'' makes it sound like he was a good man who went bad. ''Deja Vu'', however, reveals that he was always bad and that the disguise had finally worn thin. He tried splitting up the Vigilantes for a few years, so he could keep an eye on them and prevent them from interfering with his plans - namely his plan to make it sound like someone was going to assassinate the president (there isn't, because he made it up), and he would step in to save the day. He had a wife named Louise, who kept a diary of his illegal dealings with terrorist groups and other things (like creating bad situations and riding in to the rescue, probably to improve his image), and she was put under Witness Protection, and he was never able to find her. He considers that MyGreatestFailure, and that there were failures, but he ''corrected'' them. When a man writing a book about Jellicoe called Jellicoe a monster in the title, Henry blew a gasket, had his goons beat the guy up to the point of leaving him wheelchair-bound and then put him in a luxurious mansion and spent a few minutes with him, talking like they were best friends. He did this to ''prove'' that he wasn't a monster, and to set up a safe house in the future.

* InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja: Oh, yeah, the author has got that right. In the book ''The Jury'', Jack Emery calls some in to beat down men with presidential gold shields. The book ''Final Justice'' has Bert's friends call them in to launch an attack on him and the soon to be stepping down [[FBIAgent FBI director]], so that Bert will defend the director and get the position as FBI director.

* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: Absolutely loaded with this. In this series, men are unable to understand women at all, except for Jack Emery, and even he has failed in his attempts several times. The author firmly sided with women in this series, with an unhealthy dose of contempt for men thrown in. Naturally, you have {{Double Standard}}s, {{Henpecked Husband}}s, as well as a speech by one female character about how men are actually little boys at heart, and you just need to give them a few things to keep them happy. Indeed, women in this series are presented as understanding men completely.

* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: Absolutely loaded with this. In this series, men are unable to understand women at all, except for Jack Emery, and even he has failed in his attempts several times. The author firmly sided with women in this series, with an unhealthy dose of misandry thrown in. Naturally, you have {{Double Standard}}s, {{Henpecked Husband}}s, as well as a speech by one female character about how men are actually little boys at heart, and you just need to give them a few things to keep them happy. Indeed, women in this series are presented as understanding men completely.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Oh, man. Books like ''Weekend Warriors'' and ''Vendetta'' show that a number of the Vigilantes are very anti-Asian. Kathryn went into a rant at Yoko Akio about how she's using the fact that she's Asian and different as an excuse to be wishy-washy. Yoko is not wishy-washy. One of their targets is a man named John Chai, who they keep calling "Chinese boy". They don't call him anything worse than that, but the fact that the book he's in blatantly uses YellowPeril to justify putting him in the role of the villain implies that the Vigilantes are very anti-Asian, despite the fact that one of their members is Asian herself. Later on, the Vigilantes pretty much indicate that they are {{Straw Feminist}}s and misandristic, which male readers will ''not'' appreciate.

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* TheNapoleon: Many times, a short male character will pop up and the author or one of the characters will say that the guy probably has a Napoleon Complex. This sort of character is portrayed as a {{Jerkass}} at best by the author. At times this seems to go into the territory of UnfortunateImplications.

* DerailingLoveInterests: As the series goes on, Isabelle Flanders forms a relationship with Stu Franklin, and Annie de Silva forms one with Little Fish. By the book ''Cross Roads'', Stu and Fish end up suffering ''huge'' CharacterDerailment. Both men start treating their girlfriends like prisoners, neglecting them, turn out to be cold-blooded murderers, and also show a huge amount of HoYay for their boss Henry "Hank" Jellicoe. ''Deja Vu'' tries to justify it by saying that people only let you see the best of them most of the time. Annie did hook up with Fergus Duffy and Isabelle did hook up with Abner Tookus, but they didn't even meet these guys until ''Deja Vu'' and ''Home Free''.

Nikki Quinn has just lost her friend, Barbara, in the car accident. Police is hopeless - driver had a diplomatic immunity. But while Nikki has her lawyer boyfriend to keep her from [[HeroicBSOD BSOD]], Barbara's mother, Myra, has nobody and nothing.

This changes when they witness a mother who stabbed her son's murderer - when police couldn't stop him - on television. Inspired by this event, Myra and Nikki start the eponymous Sisterhood, the organization of women who were failed by America's justice system. In a period of month their group grows to an AmazonBrigade who will punish the guilty and bring them the justice... themselves.

* AllAmazonsWantHercules: The series goes in the opposite direction with this trope, in the sense that These Amazons Do Not Want Hercules, but rather These Amazons Want Puppies Or {{Hen Pecked Husband}}s!
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: In the book Final Justice, two characters are introduced, and their names are Little Fish and Stu Franklin. Both of them are genuine bad boys. Countess Anne de Silva forms a relationship with Little Fish, and Isabelle Flanders forms a relationship with Stu Franklin. By the book Cross Roads, however, it becomes painfully clear that both relationships are falling apart, because Little Fish and Stu Franklin are becoming increasingly cold, distant, and disinterested in their girlfriends. The Vigilantes discover that the two men are with Henry "Hank" Jellicoe. They also find out that the two men are cold-blooded murderers who have killed a number of people. The Vigilantes are more than happy to have them punished!

* AmoralAttorney: Played with. On one side is Nikki Quinn, a defense attorney. On the other side is Jack Emery, a prosecuting attorney. Nikki defends a woman who shot the man who raped and murdered her daughter, and she shot the guy after the guy was found not guilty! Jack prosecutes the woman, which is ironic, because he prosecuted that murdering rapist and failed to convict the guy. Nikki is portrayed as the sympathetic one, and Jack is portrayed as the total {{Jerkass}} in that situation. You would find it hard to believe that Nikki and Jack are girlfriend and boyfriend! To Jack's credit, he did reveal in his thoughts that he is not heartless, and that he doesn't know what he would have done if he had a daughter who was raped and murdered. Funny enough, Nikki becomes a vigilante, Jack becomes an ally of the Vigilantes, and so does a defense attorney named Lizzie Fox. In the book ''The Jury'', a defense attorney named Allison Banks, against all advice, defends the Barringtons, a group of slimeballs who let a herd of horses starve to death and only used them for profit. Nikki's firm suffered a major blow in its reputation, and Nikki fired and punched out Banks in short order. Then it turns out that Banks was essentially in bed with the Barringtons, the judge presiding over their case, receiving kickbacks from them, ''and'' was not really Allison Banks. It turned out that Allison died years ago, and that an impostor had assumed her identity. Unbelievable!
* AndIMustScream: ''Collateral Damage'' reveals the fate of Karl Woodley. He is still stuck to a wheelchair. He has lost his ability to talk and can only make noises. His wife Paula Woodley makes him eat baby food, while she eats a ''great'' Southern meal right in front of him. She is more than happy to taunt him, and he cannot do ''anything'' about it. When he is not in the kitchen eating his meal, he is kept in a small room as a prisoner, with nothing but a TV that has nothing but the weather channel on it. He is perfectly aware of everything going on around him. What had he done to deserve this, you might ask? He was an abusive wife-beater who burned his wife, broke every bone in her body, kicked her while she was down, and probably other heinous deeds were done! His wife wants her own form of {{Revenge}} and justice against him!

* AuthorAvatar: Myra Rutledge and, later, Countess Anne "Annie" Ryland de Silva are almost certainly avatars of the author herself, due to them being at least middle-aged, owning dogs on Myra's part, both of them having a lot of money (Annie has more money than Bill Gates, which is ridiculous, considering that Microsoft makes 90 billion dollars a year), and both of them seeing ghosts. One book in the series features a one-shot character named Marble Rose, who explains that her name comes from an imaginary friend she had, which is based off of the author herself and how she got ''her'' name!
* AuthorFilibuster: Well, this series has gone into this trope a number of times. The book ''Payback'' portrays a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) as scum of the earth who suck up your money like leeches, use that money to pamper themselves, and will simply stand back and not lift a finger to help you as you die of a life-threatening illness. The book ''Vendetta'' portrays China as a CrapsackWorld that cheerfully brings YellowPeril wherever it goes! The book ''The Jury'' has one character Nikki Quinn tell the other characters about the vicious cycle of abuse between spouses. The book ''Fast Track'' portrays the World Bank (particularly its president) as a money-sucker that will leave poor countries to rot and die. The book ''Under the Radar'' portrays a polygamist sect as a cult made up of the CorruptHick, rapists, and pedophiles hiding behind religion and treating women as a BabyFactory.
* BadassGrandpa: Either Deconstructed or Subverted in the book ''Home Free''. Harry Wong is training to become the number one martial artist in the world. To that end, he hires an old martial arts teacher who is at least 100 years old. Unfortunately, the old man does nothing except sit there and sleep...for 24 hours a day. Harry's friends, Jack and Bert pull some strings and have the old teacher/master carted out and bring in another old martial arts teacher who is at least 80 years and could wipe the floor with all three men. Shortly afterwards, the three men discover that the old teacher has up and died! In the end, Jack and Bert decide to be Harry's teachers.
* BadBoss: Rosemary Hershey is ''Sweet Revenge'' is very much this. She is in charge of a company that makes architectural plans and blueprints. Her employees probably didn't like her, but they tolerated her. However, she suffers a VillainousBreakdown that spans the book. During her breakdown, she is practically screaming at her employees to come up with some great architectural blueprints ''now''! When she gets some blueprints from them, she starts yelling at them that a 12-year-old could have drawn up these plans. This is interesting, because Rosemary doesn't really have much expertise in drawing up plans. In fact, she had to rely on plagiarizing the plans belonging to her former boss Isabelle Flanders to get to the position she is at now. She becomes so enraged at what she perceives as incompetence on the part of her employees that she fires them. ''All of them''. Yes, that is how bad her breakdown is.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Played straight as an arrow! Check [[http://fernmichaels.com/series-characters-sisterhood-series/ this]] out for proof. The bad guys are mostly ugly as sin to start with or beautiful in a fake way but become ugly by the end. Of course, Lizzie Fox's marriage with Cosmo Cricket cheerfully goes into UglyGuyHotWife territory.

* BestServedCold: This trope drives the first 7 books of the series, with some of the characters wanting revenge for wrongs that go back at least 20 years ago! Unfortunately, you might find it difficult to sympathize with the main characters after awhile.
* BettyAndVeronica: Deconstructed in the book ''Sweet Revenge''! The book has Bobby Harcourt (Archie), Isabelle Flanders (Betty), and Rosemary Hershey (Veronica). Bobby and Isabelle were going to be married. However, Rosemary hated Isabelle's guts and had her framed for drunk driving that resulted in the deaths of three people. Isabelle ends up being ruined and loses everything. Bobby, in a MomentOfWeakness (and lust) ends up having sex with Rosemary and marries her instead. By the book ''Sweet Revenge'', however, things change. Bobby ends up realizing that Rosemary is a {{Jerkass}} with an ItsAllAboutMe attitude and decides to divorce her. Isabelle ends up back in a position of prominence and works hard to ruin Rosemary. Rosemary goes AxCrazy, ends up losing everything, gets ruined, and is last seen placed in a mental institution, possibly to never become lucid again. Isabelle and Bobby did have a short dialogue, but it is painfully clear that it is too late for both of them to have the sort of relationship they once had. So Bobby, thanks to his foolishness, ends up with nothing in a sense, and is forced to realize that he wasted years of his life with the wrong woman.
* BigBad: Well, there are certainly a number of Big Bad characters in the series!
** ''Weekend Warriors'': Doctor Clark Wagstaff, Doctor Sidney Lee, and Doctor Samuel La Fond are a [[BigBadDuumvirate Big Bad Triumvirate]] of dentists and rapists!
** ''Payback'': Senator Mitchell "Mitch" Webster is a Big Bad, and an HMO consisting of Elaine Monarch, Derek Monarch, and Ethan Monarch seem to be a [[BigBadDuumvirate Big Bad Triumvirate]]. They have seemingly no connection to each other, but apparently Mitch had sex with Elaine and got AIDS from her and gave it to Julia Webster! Hoo, boy!

** ''The Jury'': The Barringtons were being set up as this... but they got away! So the story throws in an unrelated Big Bad in the form of {{Domestic Abuse}}r and National Security Advisor Karl Woodley.
** ''Sweet Revenge'': Rosemary Hershey. Bobby Harcourt seemed to be a big guy at first, but it turns out that he's just a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter who finally wised up!

** ''Home Free'': Owen Orzell and Jason Parker are apparently a BigBadDuumvirate. Interestingly, Owen reveals that he was part of a [[BigBadDuumvirate Big Bad Triumvirate]] consisting of {{CIA}} director Calvin Span and Henry "Hank" Jellicoe. Henry is now rotting in federal prison, and Calvin is now dead from a heart attack he got while shovelling his driveway!

** BlackAndGrayMorality: As the series goes on, the morality of the stories turns into this. The good guys are called the Vigilantes because they break the law in capturing a bad guy and inflicting a cruel and unusual punishment on hir. The good guys don't kill anybody, but since their punishments tend to be of the FateWorseThanDeath variety, that fact may not be very comforting. Also, the good guys have acted like big-time {{Jerkass}}es a number of times. That's okay, because the bad guys have virtually no redeeming qualities to speak of!
* BreakThemByTalking: In ''Under the Radar'', the Prophet Harold Evanrod tries to tell his followers of the pedophile polygamist sect Heaven On Earth, "You see, this is the Devil at work! I told you the people on the outside would try to drive us away from our homes and our religion because they don't understand it. They will be forever damned, and there will be no salvation for any of them. I want you all to be strong because we will prevail." However, the Vigilantes give an effective ShutUpHannibal response to that.

* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Played with rather oddly in the book ''Sweet Revenge''. Reporter Ted Robinson, who is not quite a hero at that point, asks Rosemary Hershey a question about two people. Rosemary says in a genuinely puzzled tone "Who?" Her soon-to-be ex-husband, Bobby Harcourt, pokes his head into the room and states that those are the two people she killed, along with their young daughter. She killed three people and she is the only one who apparently did not even bother to remember them. However, she ends up remembering the name of the young daughter - Diana. She actually blocked that out and presumably other details of her killing them. Once she remembers, however, she is unable to stop thinking about it!
* CantLiveWithThemCantLiveWithoutThem: This seems to happen between the Vigilantes and their boyfriends. In one book, Jack Emery makes a comment about women and how you can't live with them and you can't live without them. A short time later, Nikki Quinn makes a comment about men and how you can't live with them and you can't live without them. At least the feeling is mutual!
* ChekhovsGun: Early on in the series, there is an teddy bear called Willie, who belonged to Barbara Rutledge. Barbara's ghost mentions Willie more than once, then eventually it is forgotten. However, at the end of ''Home Free'', Barbara's ghost tells her mother that she is going to give Willie to Jack Emery and Nikki Quinn's child! Gold shields, which give anyone (usually hand-picked {{FBI agent}}s) who possesses them carte blanche and s/he can answer only to the president, are brought up a lot early on. Later on, they are not even mentioned. However, the book ''Home Free'' has president Martine Connor set up an organization that will be composed of the Vigilantes, and there are 14 gold shields, one given out to each member of the organization! ''Hide and Seek'' has Mitch Riley, assistant director in the FBI and a J. Edgar Hoover wannabe, keeping loads of files on supposedly everyone. Between his wife and the Vigilantes, his files get snatched from him and put somewhere where they'll never see the light of day. However, ''Deja Vu'' has the Vigilantes needing to look through those files on Henry "Hank" Jellicoe. It turns out that Mitch not only has files on Henry, but there are at least 6 boxes worth of files on Jellicoe!

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: This has happened to some characters. Private Detective (former FBI agent) Mark Lane seems to pretty much vanish off the face of the Earth by the book ''Final Justice''. It might be due to the fact that he acts as a source of information for Jack Emery, who by then is getting information before Lane does, and Jack doesn't really need him anymore!
* CIAEvilFBIGood: Played as straight as an arrow! The Vigilantes have to fight Henry "Hank" Jellicoe, a CIA agent gone rogue. At one point between a conversation between a former FBI director and a former CIA director, the ex-CIA director says that he has no redeeming qualities at all, while the ex-FBI director can say that he's been kind to children and puppies. The CIA is definitely much worse than the FBI in this series!
* ColdBloodedTorture: The Vigilantes have inflicted this on some villains, like John Chai from ''Vendetta'' and Karl Woodley from ''The Jury''. It's okay, because those villains had it coming to them!

* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Okay, Nikki Quinn's parents are dead. Kathryn Lucas's parents are dead. Isabelle Flanders's parents are dead (maybe). Yoko Akia's mother is dead and her father is evil. Abner Tookus's parents are dead (maybe). There's certainly a lot of orphan characters to go around!

* DeathByOriginStory: The first book ''Weekend Warriors'' introduces us to Myra Rutledge, Nikki Quinn, and Barbara Rutledge. All three of them are very happy...until Barbara gets killed by a drunk hit-and-run driver who exploits DiplomaticImpunity! Myra sinks into a funk for over a year until she witnesses a vigilante killing a rapist and killer on live news. Then she gets the inspiration to set up a group of vigilantes to get justice for women who were wronged by {{Karma Houdini}}s. On an interesting side note, Barbara has appeared as a ghost to Myra, Nikki, and Charles Martin from time to time to make conversation or offer advice.

* DerailingLoveInterests: As the series goes on, Isabelle Flanders forms a relationship with Stu Franklin, and Annie de Silva forms one with Little Fish. By the book ''Cross Roads'', Stu and Fish end up suffering ''huge'' CharacterDerailment! Both men start treating their girlfriends like prisoners, neglecting them, turn out to be cold-blooded murderers, and also show a huge amount of HoYay for their boss Henry "Hank" Jellicoe. ''Deja Vu'' tries to justify it by saying that people only let you see the best of them most of the time. Annie did hook up with Fergus Duffy and Isabelle did hook up with Abner Tookus, but they didn't even meet these guys until ''Deja Vu'' and ''Home Free''!

* DisproportionateRetribution: Okay, some of the punishments the Vigilantes subject the villains to can be considered this. A notable instance is the book ''Vendetta'' in which the Vigilantes skin John Chai alive! Well, the story says caning, but caning and skinning someone alive are ''not'' the same thing. His crime was drunkenly committing a hit-and-run on Myra Rutledge's daughter Barbara Rutledge, killing her and her unborn child, and then getting away with it because he's the son of the ambassador of China and used DiplomaticImpunity without a qualm. The reason the punishment in ''Vendetta'' can be considered this trope is because the crime occurred in ''Weekend Warriors'', which is a few books back, and by then the reader will probably have forgotten the full impact of the crime.
* DissonantSerenity: In ''Collateral Damage'', Paula Woodley talks to Lizzie Fox about her husband Karl Woodley. She asks Lizzie if she's being too sadistic, and she says this in the tone of someone discussing the weather. She had been abused by her DomesticAbuser husband for years. No decent person could fault her for wanting to make him pay for that!

* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: ''The Jury'' has the Vigilantes finding out that Paula Woodley has had every bone in her body broken by husband Karl Woodley, who is the National Security Advisor, TheNapoleon, and had the President himself as his best man at their wedding! So the Vigilantes go to his home and break every bone in ''his'' body! ''Collateral Damage'' reveals that Paula has been non-physically abusive (for the most part) to Karl, making him eat baby food and watch her eat a fine Southern meal, confining him to a few rooms, and taunting him when they do interact. By this point, he is wheelchair-bound, and he has lost his ability to talk. Female characters take Paula's side, while male characters seem to be uncomfortable with the whole situation (possibly because they are wondering if their spouses or loved ones will do this to them next!). In short, the series does its best to justify Paula's treatment of her husband. However, this trope is ''not'' justified for Maggie Spritzer's treatment of Ted Robinson and Abner Tookus. Fortunately, Maggie finally wakes up to the realization that she's been unfair to both of them and attempts to make amends in ''Deja Vu''. ''Home Free'' has her hooking up with Augustus "Gus" Sullivan, and she realizes that she can't ''take advantage of him'' the way she did to Ted and Abner.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Three big ones end up happening in the first 7 books. The first one is the fate of Julia Webster, who has AIDS and is dying from it. After the book ''Payback'', she is sent to Switzerland to undergo experimental treatment. She seems to get better, but by the book ''The Jury'', she has a stroke (it is debatable if a stroke is related to AIDS), seems to recover from it, but then passes away without letting any of the Vigilantes visit her! The second one is the fate of Nikki's partner Jenny, who was hit by a drunk trucker and killed off, along with her unborn child in ''The Jury''! The third one is the fate of the Barringtons, a family of criminals who treated horses as profit-making machines and let a number of them starve to death. They appeared in ''The Jury'', but they ran off and vanished before the Vigilantes could go after them. Then, in the book ''Free Fall'', when Nikki asks for an update on the Barringtons, Charles reveals that they are dead. They were located somewhere in Europe, driving a car at a high speed, crashed it, and went up in one mighty fireball of an explosion. Fortunately, the Barringtons were bad guys, so there is little reason to shed tears over them!
* {{Dystopia}}[=/=]CrapsackWorld: The world seems similar enough to the world in RealLife, with people going about their lives. However, there are indications that the world in this series is actually a [=Dystopia=]. The courts are unable to deliver justice, because the balance of power leans too heavily towards the defense attorneys, and the prosecutors are lucky if the defendant does not get OffOnATechnicality, let alone win a single case. Also, the prosecutors need proof before they charge someone, but strangely, there never seems to be proof to find. On the plus side, if a character gets in legal trouble, s/he can call up a defense attorney and be assured that s/he is perfectly safe. The President of the United States has three men with gold shields at his disposal. These three men have ''carte blanche'', can break laws with impunity, answer only to POTUS, and if they come for you, well, you better pray that they don't kill you! In Las Vegas, the casinos have more security than Homeland Security can ever hope to get! Also, the casinos are monitored by men who will have you beaten up or thrown in jail if you prove to be a threat to the casinos. When you put these details together, you get a picture of a country that is more fascist than democratic. Yikes!
* EasilyForgiven: Hoo, boy! This trope certainly pops up. For example, Charles sends presidential men with gold shields to scare Jack Emery, but the men ''misconstrue'' the orders and give Jack a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown in the book ''Payback''. Jack Emery knows that Charles is responsible for this, but after the book ''Free Fall'', in which Jack becomes an honourary member of the Vigilantes and is revealed as this to the entire group, it seems that Jack has pretty much forgotten about the whole affair. Also, Jack and Ted Robinson start out as friends, become enemies by the book ''Free Fall'', but once Ted more or less becomes a member by the book ''Collateral Damage'', it's all cool now. Although Jack did say that they are trying to take it one step at a time.

* EnemyCivilWar: Despite what some stories would have you believe, the bad guys are not happy working together. Indeed, a number of books in the series show that the bad guys are on the verge of this when the Vigilantes start gunning for them. When the Vigilantes capture them, this tends to break out with one of them spilling all the details, and then the bad guys start criticizing each other and their methods. ''Deadly Deals'' had this occur between Baron Bell and Adel Newsom, which Bell started by leaving her stranded. She then broke into his office, and tried to break into his safes, but she only succeeded at breaking into one and stealing the money in it. She tried to cut and run. It didn't matter, because Bell and Newsom got caught anyway!

* FauxAffablyEvil: Henry "Hank" Jellicoe, despite having elements of AffablyEvil, might actually be this. ''Cross Roads'' reveals that he is at least a HeManWomanHater and at most a StrawMisogynist. He treated his wife Louise like she was just a servant and didn't care if she overheard his conversations on the illegal dealings he made. She managed to escape him, and he has never been able to find her. He very much wants to kill her for having the nerve to leave him years and years ago!
* {{Fiction 500}}: Myra Rutledge is the owner of a Fortune 500 candy company (almost like a reference to this trope!), and is at least a billionaire. Her friend Countess Anne "Annie" de Silva owns more money than Bill Gates, as Myra likes to point out.
* FieryRedhead: Just ask Kathryn Lucas and Maggie Spritzer. They have red hair and the attitude to match!
* FreudianExcuse: Averted for the most part across the series. Practically none of the bad guys have a single excuse for their behaviour. With that said, Senator Webster from the book ''Payback'' and John Chai from ''Vendetta'' may be exceptions. The Senator had good parents, but he distanced himself from them and disowned them because he was ashamed of them and the fact that they were so low-class! John Chai is the son of a diplomat and an ambassador, and he may have gotten feelings of entitlement and being untouchable from being born in all that power, wealth and position.

* GoodIsNotNice: The Sisterhood/Viglantes. Each member did start out as nice, but the minute they form this group is the minute they dive into this trope. Reason 6 is certainly a factor for this, although reason 2 may possibly apply as well. The first 7 books are all about them getting {{Revenge}} on the people who wronged them. The last 13 books are all about trying to get back to their normal, everyday lives. Unfortunately, this trope gets cranked UpToEleven so much that some of the villains actually become UnintentionallySympathetic!

* GrandmaWhatMassiveHotnessYouHave: Myra Rutledge and Countess Anne "Annie" Ryland de Silva. Both of them are in their 60s and heading on to 70s. Make no mistake, they are old enough to be your grandmother, and they are incredibly sexy! In fact, ''Weekend Warriors'' has Nikki Quinn and Barbara Rutledge commenting that Myra looks better at 60 plus years old than they do at 30 plus years old. Now that's hotness!
* {{Greed}}: Let's see...the Monarch HMO from ''Payback''. The Barristers from ''The Jury''. Rosemary Hershey in ''Sweet Revenge''. Arden Gillespie and Roland Sullivan in ''Lethal Justice''. Maxwell Zenowicz in ''Fast Track''. Baron Bell in ''Deadly Deals''. Owen Orzell and Jason Parker in ''Home Free''. In at least 7 books out of 20, you have Greed as the motive for their terrible actions!

* HenpeckedHusband: Played as straight as an arrow! ''Collateral Damage'' reveals that Karl Woodley has turned into this for his wife Paula Woodley. It's justified, because he was abusive and broke every bone in her body, and the Vigilantes broke every bone in his body in turn. Paula Woodley wants him to pay for all those wasted years! Unfortunately, this trope is not quite as justified with the relationships between the Vigilantes and their men.

* HeroicBSOD: Oh, boy! Nikki Quinn suffered this in the book ''The Jury''. Maggie Spritzer suffered this in the book ''Hokus Pokus''. Harry Wong suffered this in the book ''Vanishing Act''. Jack Emery helped them out of this in all three instances.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Bobby Harcourt in ''Sweet Revenge'' was apparently this with regards to Rosemary Hershey, according to Isabelle Flanders's recounting of past events. Fortunately for Bobby, the lust he felt for her wore off by then, he had come to see Rosemary for what she really was, and decided to divorce her. Roland Sullivan is ''Lethal Justice'' is very much this. He felt such lust for Arden Gillespie that he cheated on his wife, and essentially became Arden's puppet. Even when the consequences finally start hitting him, he refuses to leave Arden. He even figured out at a very late date that Arden had no conscience, and she confirmed it when he asked her. He still did not leave her. This just shows that Roland is a real piece of work!
* {{Hypocrite}}: Well, now! Prosecutor Jack Emery tries to have the Vigilantes arrested...at least until the book ''The Jury''. There he was, practically spewing about how lawbreakers should be punished, and yet he never seems to notice that ''he'' broke a thousand laws himself in trying to arrest the Vigilantes. Indeed, several authority figures pretty much turn into this in helping the Vigilantes, and said authority figures eventually resign from their posts. {{Double Standard}}s rear their ugly heads more than once, by showing that men mistreating women is a terrible thing and that women mistreating men is a great thing. The books ''Deja Vu'' and ''Home Free'' show the consequences of this.
* IgnoredEpiphany: Roland Sullivan from ''Lethal Justice'' is the personification of this trope! He started out as a relatively decent guy and family man. Then Arden Gillespie entered into the picture. He became addicted to her, and engaged in YourCheatingHeart. He helped Arden suck up all the money belonging to an elderly couple, causing this couple to be DrivenToSuicide. Then, to cover up their crime, they frame Sara Whittier (AKA Alexis Thorne), their own employee for it! Sara is found guilty and imprisoned for a year. It is only when they framed Sara that Roland had a HeelRealization. He made no attempt to make it right. He lost sleep over it, forced Arden to set up some pictures of Sara in their offices (as a reminder of how low they sunk), and tried to spend more time with his family. He and Arden practically blackmail each other. He actually wants to find Sara to apologize to her...and use BuyThemOff on her. He still uses his ill-gotten gain to live the high life. He still cheats on his wife with Arden. Sure, his internal monologues claim that he has no willpower, but it seems that he just uses that to excuse his behaviour. His wife finds out that he cheated on her, throws him out and makes moves to divorce him. He actually tried to claim that he did all this for his wife and brags that he'll bring in lots of money and they'll all live the high life, but she rejects this, and points out that she never wanted to live any high life. She makes it clear that she knows that he and Arden framed Sara and urges him to do the right thing. He just blows that off. Later, he says to Arden, "I just realized something. You don't have a conscience, do you?" Arden simply retorts that it is too late to worry about something like a conscience. Roland is clearly a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter if he only made this realization at this late date. He makes no attempt to do the right thing or break away from her. He gets involved in another money-stealing scheme with Arden. Sure, he tried to refuse, but he still went and got involved. By the end, he gives off the attitude of a man who wants to get caught and punished. The fact that he has multiple instances just makes him very unsympathetic.

* ILied: Believe it or not, the heroes (anti-heroes may be a better term) use this a number of times on the villains! The Vigilantes used this on the bad guys in ''Final Justice''. Jack Emery, and Harry Wong at least pull this on a pedophile polygamist sheriff and his two deputies in ''Under the Radar''. Jack made an offer that the first one who told them what they needed to know would be set free. Deputy Clyde took the offer and told them everything he knew. When he was done, he said that he told them everything he knew and now they have to keep their word. Jack does not release him, and states that he will be set free, but Jack didn't say where! Clearly, the intention is to put them in prison where they belong! Deputy Clyde was unhappy, and he mouthed off some racist remarks at Harry Wong, resulting in him being knocked out.
* IdiotBall: In the book ''Lethal Justice'', Charles Martin uses powerful connections to force reporters Maggie Spritzer and Ted Robinson to relocate to New York and stay there, where they can be constantly watched. That's fine. What's not fine is how the next book ''Free Fall'' has Maggie and Ted move back to Washington, D.C., without Charles and the men with presidential gold shields being aware of this development at all! Maybe Charles and those men were not as smart as they believed they were!
* InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja: Oh, yeah, the author has got that right! In the book ''The Jury'', Jack Emery calls some in to beat down men with presidential gold shields. The book ''Final Justice'' has Bert's friends call them in to launch an attack on him and the soon to be stepping down [[FBIAgent FBI director]], so that Bert will defend the director and get the position as FBI director!
* ISeeDeadPeople: Barbara Rutledge comes back as a ghost after her unfortunate death in ''Weekend Warriors''. Her sister Nikki Quinn, her mother Myra Rutledge, and her father Charles Martin can see her and talk to her. Later, Countess Anne "Annie" Ryland de Silva finds herself able to see and talk to her dead family members. Interestingly enough, the author herself claims that there's a ghost in her house!
* ItsAllAboutMe: A number of villains have shades of this. In particular, Rosemary Hershey from the book ''Sweet Revenge'' is ''all'' about this trope! She doesn't want to share with anyone, she hires ugly people just to make herself look beautiful, and when things go wrong (and they do) she blames Isabelle Flanders and everyone except herself. She caused the deaths of three people to ruin Isabelle and take everything Isabelle held dear, including her fiance Bobby Harcourt. She displayed no remorse for those deaths. However, it turns out later that she blocked out a number of details related to the deaths, and once she remembers them, they stay in her mind, causing her to lose sleep and wreck up her precious ego and sanity. When Bobby makes moves to divorce her (another blow to her), at one point she calls him demanding to know why he didn't turn on her security system on his way out of ''her'' house. Bobby points out "Why is it always about you and what you want?"

* {{Kiai}}: Asian characters tend to yell "eyowww!" as they fight or cheer in this series, as can be seen in ''The Jury'' and ''Hokus Pokus''.

* LatexPerfection: The Vigilantes use this a lot. In fact, Alexis Thorne carries a red bag that contains the necessary tools to create latex disguises. One book explains that Alexis had Hollywood aspirations, and while she couldn't get a job as an actor, she proved to be very good at dressing up actors. Those latex disguises have certainly proven to be very helpful!

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Okay, let's see. The series starts off with Nikki Quinn, Kathryn Lucas, Isabelle Flanders, Alexis Thorne, Myra Rutledge, Barbara Rutledge (she was killed, but she became a ghost), Julia Webster, Yoko Akia, Charles Martin, and Jack Emery. Then Harry Wong, Mark Lane, Bert Navarro, Ted Robinson, Countess Anne "Annie" Ryland de Silva, and Maggie Spritzer come into the pictures. Then you have Judge Cornelia "Nellie" Easter, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Fox, Pearl Barnes, Cosmo Cricket, Elias Cummings, Paula Woodley, Karl Woodley, Joseph "Joe" Espinosa, Rena Gold, Martine Connor, Henry "Hank" Jellicoe, Little Fish, Stu Franklin, and Abner Tookus. So what we have here is...30 characters! Let's not get started on all the one-shot characters in the series!
* LoveInterestTraitor: Starting with ''Final Justice'', Little Fish is set up to be a love interest for Countess Anne "Annie" Ryland de Silva and Stu Franklin is set up as a love interest for Isabelle Flanders. However, by ''Cross Roads'', both relationships are falling apart. The final blow comes when Little Fish and Stu Franklin are revealed to be CoDragons for BigBad Henry "Hank" Jellicoe - as well as cold-blooded murderers. Ouch!
* LoveTriangle: By the book ''Deja Vu'', one has clearly developed between Maggie Spritzer, Ted Robinson, and Abner Tookus. Maggie loves them both, but in different ways. She was engaged to be married to Ted. However, she calls off the engagement to Ted and says that the two should just be friends. She tells Abner how she feels about him, but he does not forgive her mistreatment of him, and their relationship comes to an end. The book ''Home Free'' has her hooking up with Augustus "Gus" Sullivan, and apparently Abner finally forgives Maggie. Whew!

* {{Manchild}}: The Vigilantes seem to act like womenchildren a number of times. At least Myra Rutledge and Countess Anne "Annie" de Silva have the excuse of being rich 60-something-year-old ladies who may have never developed maturity...or they lost it as they got older! Cosmo Cricket, introduced in ''Final Justice'', could be considered this. However, he has wisdom and is quite responsible in his job as a lawyer!
* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: Absolutely loaded with this! In this series, men are unable to understand women at all, except for Jack Emery, and even he has failed in his attempts several times. The author firmly sided with women in this series, with an unhealthy dose of misandry thrown in. Naturally, you have {{Double Standard}}s, {{Henpecked Husband}}s, as well as a speech by one female character about how men are actually little boys at heart, and you just need to give them a few things to keep them happy! Indeed, women in this series are presented as understanding men completely!
* MartialPacifist: Yoko Akia is very much this. She is usually calm and peaceful. However, she beat Harry Wong, the second greatest martial artist in the world and ArrogantKungFuGuy, in a sparring match before going out on a date with him. Indeed, no one in the series has been able to beat her in a fight! In other words, do ''not'' get on her bad side if you know what's good for you!

* MusclesAreMeaningless: Yoko Akia. She is 4 feet 8 inches (1.46304 metres) tall, she weighs 90 pounds (40.82 kilograms), and just about everything about her is tiny. She can flatten just about anybody bigger, more muscular and weightier than her in a fight and her fellow Sisters and Vigilantes call her "the 90-pound stick of dynamite"! In the book ''Lethal Justice'', Yoko (who supposedly has a brown belt) spars against Harry Wong, who is likely a Creator/BruceLee {{Expy}}, has a black belt, is bigger than her, has more muscle than her, and could supposedly flatten her without difficulty. Instead, the little "porcelain doll" (as Harry described her) ended up pinning him to the ground. Harry afterwards admits to Jack Emery that that was the first time he was ever pinned to the ground!
* MyGreatestFailure: Played with rather strangely with Henry "Hank" Jellicoe. ''Game Over'' indicates that there is one topic that he refuses to discuss, to the point that it is not even stated ''what'' the topic is. ''Deja Vu'' reveals that the topic is his wife Louise. She and her daughter left him and went under Witness Protection a ''long'' time ago, and he, with all his power, has ''never'' been able to find her. However, he had treated her like she didn't exist and was just a servant. He took phone calls on his illegal dealings, and he did it right in front of her! She kept a diary of his dealings that apparently ended up in the hands of the {{CIA}}, and he, with all his knowledge, has never been able to confirm the story. He wants to find her... and then kill her for having the nerve to go against him and leave him! Even villains can have a My Greatest Failure.

* NeverMyFault: A number of villains essentially go around with this attitude. Senator Webster in ''Payback'' stands out with refusing to accept the blame for having multiple affairs, and then feebly trying to blame his wife Julia Webster for giving him AIDS. She had to shove the evidence in his face and spell out that recklessly having sex with women caused him to get AIDS, and he passed it on to her, plain and simple! Owen Orzell AKA Jody Jumper in ''Home Free'' actually averts or defies the trope by coming out and admitting that he is responsible for what he has done and nobody else.

* NoSocialSkills: Harry Wong most certainly has this problem. He is rather rude, impatient, and violent. One time, he went to his pal Jack Emery's house in the middle of the night, knocked on Jack's door, kicked it in when Jack didn't answer it fast enough, causing an alarm to blare for the whole neighborhood to hear, and then Harry simply punched out the alarm system to make it stop! Harry got an appropriate talking to for that!
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: A major plotline that develops is how Martine Connor becomes the first female President of the United States, and she is trying to secure pardons to the Vigilantes. It proves to be more difficult than it appears. Here's why: ''Deadly Deals'' reveals her chief of staff, Aaron Lowry, who is TheNapoleon, had been obstructing the presidential pardons, supposedly because it would be political suicide for the president to even try it. She ends up firing him as well as charging him in ''Game Over'', because he turns out to be in bed with Baron Bell, a lawyer and VillainWithGoodPublicity who had been selling babies! ''Game Over'' also has the president obstructed by her advisors, who are more interested in their own agendas than in being loyal to her. At the urging of Henry "Hank" Jellicoe, head of Global Securities, she ends up throwing out many more people, and he supposedly pulls strings to replace them with people 100% loyal to her. She also has the pardons signed, and she paves the way to make it easy for the Vigilantes to sneak in and snatch the pardons! It's hard to be president!
* OffstageVillainy: The author mishandles this trope a number of times. This results in stories where the villains are just not as terrible as they're claimed to be, causing their punishments to come off as DisproportionateRetribution, and causing the protagonists inflicting said punishments to look like the actual villains of the series instead!
* {{Omniglot}}: Some instances of this trope have popped up. The Vigilantes all speak English for starters. Kathryn Lucas reveals in the first book ''Weekend Warriors'' that she knows German (to what extent is not revealed), and she is quite fluent in Spanish. Yoko Akia is quite fluent in Chinese as the book ''Vendetta'' shows, ''Free Fall'' indicates that she can speak Japanese, but she states in ''Hide and Seek'' that she can't speak German, because it's so gutteral and too hard on her tongue. After the book ''Free Fall'', the Vigilantes are required to learn Spanish and German. Despite this, Isabelle Flanders is unable to speak Spanish very well in ''Cross Roads''. The book ''Fast Track'' has the Vigilantes finding out that Rena Gold speaks three languages, but they just scoff and one of them says, "Yeah! Fluent in Brooklynese, Southern belle, and kitchey-coo!" Harry Wong apparently knows a lot of languages, but it is never stated what they are or how many he knows, and it seems that he just uses them for cursing and showing that he is beyond furious.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Overuse of this trope is a major cause in losing all sympathy for the Sisterhood. ''Vendetta'' has the Sisterhood capture the Chinese ambassador's son who drunkenly killed Barbara Rutledge and her unborn child in a hit and run, and was not punished due to DiplomaticImpunity. They punish him for this, by ''skinning him alive'', and then shrugging it off afterward! He was a creep and not a nice guy, but he simply did not deserve ''that'' level of punishment! The author actually tries to justify all this by saying that the law is unable to punish criminals, and seriously expect you to cheer on the Vigilantes when they inflict terrible punishments on their targets! It's too bad you find yourself feeling sorry for their targets instead of the protagonists themselves!

* PintsizedPowerhouse: Yoko Akia. She is 4 feet 8 inches (1.46304 metres) tall, she weighs 90 pounds (40.82 kilograms), and just about everything about her is tiny. She can flatten just about anybody in a fight and her fellow Sisters and Vigilantes call her "the 90-pound stick of dynamite"!
* PoliceAreUseless: Played very straight! The cops know who killed Barbara Rutledge in a hit-and-run in ''Weekend Warriors'', but can't do anything about it because the driver uses DiplomaticImpunity. Indeed, the Vigilantes operate under this assumption, and considering how the police are often incompetent or in the bad guy's pockets, that assumption may not be too far off!
* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Oh, man. Books like ''Weekend Warriors'' and ''Vendetta'' show that a number of the Vigilantes are very anti-Asian. Kathryn went into a rant at Yoko Akio about how she's using the fact that she's Asian and different as an excuse to be wishy-washy. Yoko is not wishy-washy. One of their targets is a man named John Chai, who they keep calling "Chinese boy". They don't call him anything worse than that, but the fact that the book he's in blatantly uses YellowPeril to justify putting him in the role of the villain implies that the Vigilantes are very anti-Asian, despite the fact that one of their members is Asian herself! Later on, the Vigilantes pretty much indicate that they are {{Straw Feminist}}s and misandristic, which male readers will ''not'' appreciate!

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Oh, yeah! This series cheerfully marches into this territory, particularly by the book ''Free Fall''. If you don't support the Vigilantes, then you're a {{Jerkass}}. The Vigilantes broke laws to a million pieces, in their quest for {{Revenge}} against every KarmaHoudini who wronged them. They also did things like give three rapists the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_and_Lorena_Bobbitt John Wayne Bobbit]] treatment, broke every bone in a wife-beater's body, and skinned alive a diplomat's son who used DiplomaticImpunity. Now, Jack Emery did talk his girlfriend Nikki Quinn about the Vigilante's methods from time to time.
* PsychoForHire: By the book ''Fast Track'', the Vigilantes have become this. It's debatable whether or not the author intended them to be put into this trope, but they fulfill most, if not all, the requirements of this trope!

* RuleOfEmpathy: The author proves to have difficulty using this trope. The Vigilantes are a group of women who should have your sympathy, with their {{Dark And Troubled Past}}s. Unfortunately, they prove to be politically incorrect, abusive to victims, sexist, acting more like {{Straw Feminist}}s than real feminists, dishing out a FateWorseThanDeath than a CoolAndUnusualPunishment, and acting more like spoiled little girls who have never really grown up than actual women. They basically get away with all of this because the author wants them to! It's no wonder other characters, including some of the villains, prove to be way more likable in comparison!
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: The Vigilantes definitely use this trope to accomplish their missions and with style! In fact, it seems that Washington, D.C. pretty much requires everyone to make use of this trope. A number of the bad guys use this, and John Chai from ''Vendetta'' happens to be very explicit, considering how he was promising the Vigilantes that his father would make them pay (The Vigilantes were ''not'' intimidated by this, for the record).

* SpotlightStealingSquad: As the series goes on, more attention becomes devoted to Jack Emery, Harry Wong, Bert Navarro, Ted Robinson, and Joe Espinosa (not to mention a few other characters). Some reviewers noticed this and complained that this series is about the Sisterhood, not the Brotherhood!

* StupidGood: Averted for the most part. Subverted, however, in ''Lethal Justice''. Alexis Thorne a.k.a. Sara Whittier goes to see Arden Gillespie and Roland Sullivan after they have been caught embezzling and are soon to be arrested. She offers them some wine and tells them that she forgives them for framing her for their crimes and ruining her life. However, after Roland and Arden drink the wine, when asked why she's not drinking, Alexis reveals that she doctored the wine with tranquilizers and states that she's not stupid! Yep, she was just pretending to be Stupid Good just to get them to let their guards down! She follows it up by having a tattoo artist put "BASTARD" on Roland's forehead, "BITCH" on Arden's forehead, and tattoo Arden's body with snakes.
* TakeThat: Hoo, boy! FM is clearly very fond of it, and is not subtle about it either! ''Weekend Warriors'' fires one at three rapists who happen to be dentists. ''Payback'' fires this at a Democrat senator ''and'' a Health Maintenance Organization (which is Republican, by the way). ''Vendetta'' have some unflattering things to say about China and its people. ''The Jury'' throws one at a DomesticAbuser, who happens to be the National Security Advisor to the President of the United States - and his good pal! ''Free Fall'' pokes at Hollywood. ''Hide and Seek'' shoots one at the FBI. ''Fast Track'' hurls this at newspapers like the ''Washington Post'', and the Department of Homeland Security. ''Final Justice'' essentially says that Las Vegas casino security teams are one step away from the Gestapo and the Mafia. ''Under the Radar'' says that polygamists in Utah are a bunch of pedophiles and cultists, as well as mocking the National Guard. ''Razor Sharp'' fires one at johns/pimps, and portrays congressmen, senators and the [[spoiler: Vice President]] himself as part of this group. ''Vanishing Act'' throws one at identity thieves. ''Home Free'' fires one at the {{CIA}}. The POTUS is never given a name, but it's a Republican man, and might be none other than George W. Bush! FM is a 79-year-old woman going on 80, and it seems that she is angry at the world, and probably sees a lot of topics as those bratty kids that won't stay off her lawn!

* TokenMinority: Yoko Akia is the Token Asian, and Alexis Thorne is the Token Black of the Sisterhood or the Vigilantes. The other women are white. The two characters' nationalities definitely play a role in the series. Oddly, Alexis reveals in her thoughts that she knows that she was framed for crimes she did not commit because she was a poor black woman, but in the book starring her called ''Lethal Justice'', that was not brought up at all!

* TooHappyToLive: The very first book, ''Weekend Warriors'', starts off with Myra Rutledge and her daughters Nikki Quinn and Barbara Rutledge, all three of them happy as they can be. Then Barbara gets struck and killed (along with her unborn child) by a drunk hit-and-run driver exploiting DiplomaticImpunity. Cue the HeroicBSOD and the formation of the Vigilantes!
* TookALevelInJerkass: Oh, man! Many of the characters start out as relatively nice, and then become more and more like {{Jerkass}}es as the series goes on. Charles Martin notes in the book ''Vanishing Act'' that the Vigilantes are treating him with little respect, when they used to defer to his judgement before. Charles is hardly a saint himself in terms of behaviour. However, their attitudes come back to bite them hard in the book ''Deja Vu'', and they seem to have dropped the Jerkassitude (ha, ha!) by the book ''Home Free''.

* UngratefulBastard: The protagonists, of all people, are these! ''Payback'' has Mark Lane save Julia's life, and instead of being grateful, Charles Martin sends three men with presidential gold shields to intimidate Mark, and the three men perform a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on Mark's friend Jack Emery. In that book ''Deja Vu'', almost all the men working with the Vigilantes up and leave, and Charles has to explain to the ladies that their men risk their lives, careers and reputations on a daily basis for them, and they have never shown any sort of gratitude for their men! Unfortunately, the ladies do not take that to heart, because the men successfully find the ladies' target, point out his location, and the women respond to this by performing a No Holds Barred Beatdown on their target in front of their men, without even allowing the men to have a piece of him! Ungrateful Bitches!
* UnholyMatrimony: A number of stories has this going on between the bad guys, like in ''Lethal Justice'', ''Vanishing Act'', and ''Deadly Deals''. However, the "love" between such couples is apparently not genuine, and they will inevitably turn on each other once the Vigilantes and {{Karma}} start closing in on them!

* VigilanteMan: This series is about Vigilante Women! They obey a ThouShaltNotKill code, give villains a FateWorseThanDeath, and they are usually careful to NeverHurtAnInnocent. The book ''Free Fall'' had them being arrested by the police, but that's okay, because the judge, prosecuting attorney, and defense attorney are secretly on their side, as well as being considered heroes by a lot of people! Later on, you have a group of Vigilante Men made up of Jack Emery, Harry Wong, Bert Navarro, Ted Robinson, and Joe Espinosa!
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Okay, let's see. The three rapists in ''Weekend Warriors'', who have apparently raped "lots and lots and lots" of women, and almost no one suspects a thing! Senator Webster in ''Payback'', who sure knows how to use the Public Relations machine. Hollywood actor Michael Lyons in ''Free Fall'', who is adored by the public, but is a sexual deviant in private. Lawyer Baron Bell in ''Deadly Deals'', who seems to be such a lovable guy around kids, but actually sells babies! Good thing the Vigilantes have ways to take down such villains!

* WhatTheHellHero: The book ''Payback'' had Jack giving Nikki this after suffering a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown from three men with gold shields sent by Charles. Shortly afterwards, Nikki gives one to Charles. In ''Sweet Revenge'', Jack gives this to Nikki over the Vigilantes trying to get revenge on Rosemary Hershey by driving her literally insane!

* WifeBasherBasher: In a rare female example, the Vigilantes become this on Karl Woodley, a National Security Advisor who broke every bone in his wife, Paula Woodley's, body, in the book ''The Jury''. They get into his home and break every bone in ''his'' body! Despite having apparently reached her breaking point, Paula takes him back. Fortunately, he is permanently crippled, wheelchair-bound, and can't lay a hand on her. A later book reveals that she is taking great pleasure in tormenting him, implying that she only took him back so that she can make him suffer as much as she had!
* WithFriendsLikeThese: Okay, Jack Emery and Harry Wong have a relationship where they supposedly love each other like brothers, but you might have a hard time believing that! Ted Robinson and Maggie Spritzer are both reporters, which is a dog-eat-dog career, and despite them living together, having sex and all that fine stuff, they have resorted to stealing stuff from each other. Later, Maggie becomes Editor-in-Chief of the ''Washington Post'' and Ted's boss, and she loves to ''boss' him around! Honestly, it's hard to believe those two are on good terms!
* WomanScorned: Justified big time with Julia Webster in the book ''Payback''. Her husband Senator Webster slept around, got infected with AIDS, and then infected her with it! He didn't know he was infected, but the damage was done. Julia made sure he paid for that!

* YellowPeril: Oh yes, this series, particularly the book ''Vendetta'', happily went into this trope! That book even had the ladies take evil John Chai and disguise him as Fu Manchu! In other books of the series, Harry Wong gets little respect from a number of Americans, simply because he is Asian.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: The series definitely has fun with this! The book ''Sweet Revenge'' has Isabelle Flanders stating the trope after she talks her old fiance Bobby Harcourt, and it's made clear that it's too late for them to restart the relationship they once had. At the end of the book ''Free Fall'', the Vigilantes become fugitives and a major plot point involves them waiting to be pardoned by the President. They do get pardoned by the book ''Game Over'', but they still go through a few more hurdles. By the last book ''Home Free'', the Vigilantes finally get some homes, and their lives are certainly different from what they had before.
* YouKilledMyFather: Yoko Akio in ''Free Fall'' had a mother. Her mother was taken into the USA by Hollywood actor Michael "Mick" Lyons, and was used as a slave, prostitute, and other terrible things. Fortunately, Yoko had been taken away from this before she got subjected to the same fate. When she finally confronts Lyons, she pretty much tells him "You killed my mother!" He acknowledges that she died, but claims that he didn't kill her. Yoko points out that Lyons had put her mother on the "sex circuit", and that he most certainly killed her.
* YourCheatingHeart: A number of villains have engaged in this trope. Senator Webster in ''Payback''. Rosemary Hershey in ''Sweet Revenge'', who is female, and her cheating is in no way presented in a sympathetic light. Roland Sullivan in ''Lethal Justice''. Mitch Riley in ''Hide And Seek''. Baron Bell in ''Deadly Deals''. A couple of them receive a divorce as one of the consequences. Interestingly, the trope gets deconstructed in ''Payback''. It's like this...Senator Webster cheated on his wife Julia Webster with multiple women. She had him write down a list of the women he had affairs with. One of them is married, and Julia points out that her husband would have performed mayhem on the Senator if he had known. The real clincher is that the Senator got infected with AIDS from one of the women, and he ended up giving it to Julia! He didn't know he was infected, but still.... Of course, she did reveal the truth to him that they both have AIDS, and he naturally could not believe that powerful he had been infected by such a thing. It goes to show that recklessly sleeping around is not bliss, and that it is in fact dangerous!

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* AllAmazonsWantHercules: The series goes in the opposite direction with this trope, in the sense that These Amazons Do Not Want Hercules, but rather These Amazons Want Puppies Or {{Hen Pecked Husband}}s! That, of course, contains UnfortunateImplications!

* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: Absolutely loaded with this! In this series, men are unable to understand women at all, except for Jack Emery, and even he has failed in his attempts several times. The author firmly sided with women in this series, with an unhealthy dose of misandry thrown in. Naturally, you have {{Double Standard}}s, {{Henpecked Husband}}s, UnfortunateImplications, as well as a cringe-inducing speech by one female character about how men are actually little boys at heart, and you just need to give them a few things to keep them happy! Indeed, women in this series are presented as understanding men completely, except evidence in the series points to the fact that the author and, by extension, the female characters don't understand ''anything'' about men!

* SpotlightStealingSquad: As the series goes on, more attention becomes devoted to Jack Emery, Harry Wong, Bert Navarro, Ted Robinson, and Joe Espinosa (not to mention a few other characters). Some reviewers noticed this and complained that this series is about the Sisterhood, not the Brotherhood! This may have been the product of DesignatedProtagonistSyndrome.