Just Revenge is a book by Alan Dershowitz.
In 1942, Max Menuchen was living with his extended family in Vilnius, Lithuania. Near the end of the seder, a Nazi collaborator called Marcellus Prandus - kidnapped the family, brought them tho the woods nearby and killed them - except for Max, who survived by luck, and his sister Sarah Chava, who he would later rape and subsequently she would be forced to work as a prostitute. Max, despite being shot in the head, he survived - being unconscious until after Prandus left, and succeeded in escaping to a nearby village where he found someone to help him.
In 1999, Max - now living in Cambridge, Massachusetts - discovers that Prandus lives nearby, in Salem, and will soon die of cancer while surrounded by his loving sons and grandchildren. Along with his student, Danielle Grant, he gets his revenge on Prandus: kidnapping him, locking him in an isolated cabin in the woods, where he is forced to watch videos showing Max killing off his descendants (it didn't really happen, but Prandus was isolated from the world and thought it did). This drives him to suicide. Of course, these actions being illegal, mean that Max will be put on trial - his lawyer being his close friend, Abe Ringel.
This novel contains examples of:
- Asshole Victim: Prandus had murdered entire families, raped Max's sister (and possibly others).
- Child by Rape: Sarah Chava was raped by Prandus; her child, also named Max Menuchen, shows up at the end of the book.
- Dead Guy Junior: Sarah Chava named her son Max, after her brother who she thought was dead.
- Driven to Suicide: Technically, Max didn't kill Prandus. He let Prandus believe that Max had killed off his descendants, as a punishment for Prandus's own actions towards the Menuchen family, causing Prandus to choose suicide.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Prandus loves his sons and grandchildren. In fact, he's Driven to Suicide by being convinced that they died and it was his fault.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Prandus actually believes that Max is capable of killing Prandus's innocent descendants.
- Irony: Katrina Liatus saved Max because she believed it was her Christian duty to do so. Yet she felt the need to lie to the local priest, but felt safe telling the truth to the local constable who was friends with some of Prandus's men.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Max tries to kill Prandus's 8-year-old grandson in what would appear to be a traffic accident. He later shows Prandus a video which shows him doing it.
- Outliving One's Offspring:
- Prandus killed entire families from youngest to oldest, as additional torture for the older members of the family. Max pretended to do the same to Prandus.
- Max himself had a baby son who was murdered by Prandus.
- Rape as Backstory: Danielle's grandfather raped her when he found out she was dating a black.
- Retired Monster: Parandus had murdered many Jews as part of the Holocaust, but hasn't hurt anyone in over 50 years.
- Self-Defense Ruse: A local drunk person discovered that Katrina Liatus was hiding a Jew and threatened to tell the authorities if she didn't let him rape her. She let him in as if to accept his demand, killed him, and claimed that he had threatened to kill her.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Max tries to kill Prandus's 8-year-old grandson. He can't do it.
