Elf Sternberg

No. That's the problem. The protagonist is a professional torturer for the interplanetary state known as The Judiciary. Of the three novels I read, he acheives only minor victories in the name of humane justice while he continues to conduct "interrogations" (written in a way that is pure carnography) and spirals down into self-destructive alcoholism. I gave up. I don't know if he ever became redeemed or not. I stopped caring.