Baby Shark [Paperback]

Robert Fate (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2006

In a roadside pool hall out west of Abilene, Kristin Van Dijk, 17, is forced by four thugs to watch the murder of three men, including her pool hustler father. She’s assaulted and beaten and left for dead as Henry Chin, a Chinese immigrant whose grown son was one of those murdered, saves her and secretly helps her recover. Because the local police show no interest in solving the pool hall crime, Henry hires a private investigator more set on justice than law to start a search for the nomadic killers. Then Henry hires two vets to teach Kristin how to protect herself. She develops into one tough package of trouble as she also perfects her pool. At eighteen, she looks for the thugs as she hustles pool in west Texas and earns the nickname Baby Shark. Revenge is difficult, but satisfying.

Wonderfully drawn characters? as stark and beautiful as the Texas landscape from which they sprang. -- Billy Hayes, Midnight Express

The writing is top notch, the story won’t let you stop reading, but who cares? Baby Shark is such a sexy cool character, I’m in love. -- Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Fate has written for network TV and feature films. As a Hollywood F/X technician, he’s won an Oscar for Technical Achievement. He’s a Marine Corps veteran who studied at the Sorbonne, roughnecked in the oilfields of Oklahoma, fashion-modeled in NYC, and been a chef at a chi-chi LA eatery. He lives in LA and this is his first novel."

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"You’re left-handed and I’m right-handed, so, you know which hand goes for my pistol," said. "Why would I think you have a pistol? "In Texas everybody’s got a pistol." "Even so, why would you go for it? "Why not? Who’s to say what’s going to happen? People kill people in pool halls for not very big reasons. Don’t you think? I was surprised at how indifferently he spoke of the deaths of my father and Henry’s son. I could feel a pressure begin at my temples. "Watch this," he said, and smooth as a jazz riff filled both his hands with guns. He gave me a breath or two to grasp my situation. My heart was beating so hard I was certain that he could tell. "Are you scared? "Yes." "Because a man with pistols is a dangerous man? "Yes." "Get over being scared, Little Sister. You’re going to be the one with pistols from now on." Albert Sun Man Ramirez was slender, almost delicate, with flawless light brown skin any woman would sell her soul for--gleaming ducktail haircut, narrow shoulders, very fast hands. Maybe twenty-two. High forehead, straight narrow nose, girl-pretty mouth. Who would have thought by looking at him that he was an efficient and remorseless killer? The Marine Corps gave him medals. "Marines like Albert. War okay for him, except lose leg" Henry said. Albert was angered by what happened to Henry and me, and the fierce loyalty that he felt toward his friends and the friends of his family was enough to bring him out to the homestead weekly for over six months. He was the second of my teachers. He also taught Henry. He taught us everything there was to know about pistols. "With pistols you have to see it before it starts," Albert told me in that excitable way he had of saying and doing everything. "Like chess, Little Sister. He does that, you do this. Look everywhere at everything. When you’re facing several men with weapons, always shoot first. Especially shoot first if they think you won’t. Shoot the ones who look fast, then the others, and count your shots. Drop empty pistols, grab loaded ones, and when you start, don’t stop until you’ve killed everything that moves. Don’t stop for anything. And always, always know where you’re going when it’s over, and go there. Be on your way out the door while the hot cartridges are still bouncing around." "I’m not going to go around killing people," I explained to Albert. ‘that’s what you say, Little Sister. That’s what you say."

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Capital Crime Press (September 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977627691
• ISBN-13: 978-0977627691
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #574,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Turn of Fate, February 17, 2008

By 

Ben F. Small (Tucson, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Baby Shark (Paperback)

Baby Shark, a teenage girl, doesn't have the normal teenage evenings. Baby's are spent in pool halls, where she watches her father shark for a living. But one night, Baby's father bucks the wrong gang. He's murdered, along with the son of the proprietor, and Baby Shark is raped, beaten and left for dead. Most young girls, if they recovered at all, would be traumatized by this for the rest of their lives, probably hover in the shadows, stay close to walls, and avoid the eyes of oncoming people.

Not our Baby Shark. She heals and vows revenge. Housed by the proprietor of the bar that was trashed and burned, the man who lost his son, he secures martial arts and guns experts to mentor his protege, while she seeks out the best pool training in the land. Meanwhile, a sleazy private eye friend of the bar owner has been tracking down the gang.

When she's ready, Baby Shark swoops out of the deep and delivers fatal bites tailored to each participant in the crime.

This is no normal book of revenge. This book seethes; it burns. The reader revels in the cold revenge Baby Shark dispenses. I couldn't put this book down.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Baby Shark Runs the Table, February 16, 2007

By 

Ross A. Hugovidal (Portland, ME USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baby Shark (Paperback)

The finest read I've enjoyed in many moons. A marvelously spare writing style, tremendous sense of character and a plot that is a compellingly original reworking of a script dating at least to Homer, Baby Shark has a screenplay feel,in the very best sense. The plot stays on message, the dialogue drives the plot, the characters LEAP off the page in technicolor, and the result is even more than the sensational parts. Any man or woman who remembers what it was like to push the bounds of convention in the 50s and 60s will treasure this book. Yet Fate's contemporary style appeals to Gen-Xers as well!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed by Barb Radmore, February 9, 2007

By 

Front Street Reviews www.frontstreetreviews.com - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baby Shark (Paperback)

Kristen Van Dijk's life is a bit unusual for a 17 year old girl in the 1950, going from pool hall to pool hall with her pool hustling father. But it all ends in a rural bar when a group of bikers show up to get revenge over a lost pool game. When it is all over Kristen's father and the bar owner are brutally murdered, the owner's father, Henry, is left for dead and Kristen herself is barely alive after a repetitive beatings and rape. But the police are in no hurry to solve the murder of a lowly pool hustler or the rape of a girl who, by even being in a pool hall, must have asked for it. The murder of the Chinese bar owner and the fact that they burned down the bar does not seem to matter much to the local lawmen either. The lost report on the whole happening is even more suspicious.

Henry brings Kristen home with him to recover in peace, hidden away on his back country ranch. There they decide that the killers of their family members must be brought to justice- if the law will not do it they will take care ofn it themselves. Kristen works to get her strength up both physically and mentally. She runs, learns to shoot a gun and, to become Baby Shark, play pool like a pro. With the help of PI Otis Millet they begin to track down the bikers who did the killings. But someone is definitely trying to protect the bikers, especially the one they call Blue Eyes, and it is up to Kristen, Otis and Henry to figure out who is interfering with their plans. And Kristen must discover if she can carry through on their plan for revenge.

This book should cause quite a discussion with its unusual heroine. Robert Fate has used first person voice to pull the reader into Kristen's world. This works to not only raise his audience's sympathy for a cold blooded killer, but causes them to stand up and cheer for her. The style of writing is cool and sparse to match the tone of the story. The characters are well defined without a lot of background to clutter up the pace. This makes it a full out run to the end, no stopping reading in between chapters.

This is an exciting debut for this author and we are glad he is not done here. We are now looking forward to spring of 2007 for Baby Sharks' Beaumont Blues and later for Baby Shark's Sooner Weekends. It will be interesting to see how Robert Fate continues Kristen's story after she has exacted her revenge. Maybe a chance for romance? But it is hard to imagine Baby Shark settling for a life in the mainstream.

(Wonder how long it will take movie producers to get ahold of these rights? Perfect combination of chick flick with blood gushing action- something for everyone. )