Bleeding Hearts (A Jack Harvey Novel) [Paperback]

Ian Rankin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 19, 2001 | Series: A Jack Harvey Novel

A shot rings out, and the woman dies instantly. But she was not alone on the steps of the London hotel. A number of other people could also have been the intended target of the invisible sniper. But the assassin, Michael Weston, knows he has carried out his assignment successfully. One mistake was enough. A long time ago, a young American girl had accidentally received the fatal bullet. After all those years, the father of the dead girl still had a private eye named Hoffer, on a permanent retainer, to track him down. Every time Weston completed a job, he knew Hoffer would not be far behind. But why had the police been on the scene so quickly? Weston has to find out, even if it means coming face to face with Hoffer ...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

First published in the U.K. in 1994 under the pseudonym Jack Harvey, this routine thriller from Edgar-winner Rankin tells the story of Michael Weston, a fastidious British assassin whose life gets complicated when Hoffer, an American PI, starts to close in on him. The novel opens with Weston's carefully choreographed hit on London TV journalist Eleanor Ricks, but Hoffer is chasing Weston for another assassination, in which the antihero mistakenly shot a young girl. The plot takes a convoluted journey to the United States, to a weapons dealer in Texas and on to a quasireligious cult near Seattle. The nonstop action, copious violence and arcane details about weaponry and forensics will please thriller junkies, but fans of Rankin's masterful John Rebus series (Fleshmarket Alley, etc.) may not find this pre-Rebus book to their taste. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Like Witch Hunt (2004) and Blood Hunt (2006), the latest Rankin is not an installment of his stellar Inspector Rebus series but a first U.S. edition of a stand-alone originally published in the U.K. under the name Jack Harvey (in this case, in 1994). The hero here is Michael Weston, a highly paid assassin whose specialty is the long-distance shot, always through the heart. He's dubbed the "Demolition Man" because he always sets off a diversionary explosion nearby. At the book's start, he makes a kill but barely escapes the police: he has been set up. But by whom? First he needs to find out who hired him. His journey takes him north to Yorkshire, then to the U.S. He's accompanied by love-interest Bel, daughter of his armorer, and dogged by Leo Hoffer, a publicity-hungry PI intent on bagging the "D-Man"--and there's a mysterious U.S. government agent, too. Though this is more standard thriller fare than the Rebus series, it's smart and inventive. Weston's a hemophiliac, for example, and he is no action hero--he is decidedly uncomfortable with death. And a nice twist at the end adds a surprising piece of political relevance. Bleeding Hearts loses a bit of its sparkle once the stalking is over and the fighting starts, but it's still plenty good. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Orion Paperbacks; New Edition edition (July 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075284332X
• ISBN-13: 978-0752843322
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,128,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fast-paced, intelligent, and heart-racing novel, November 21, 2006

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bleeding Hearts: A Novel (Hardcover)

Whether or not Ian Rankin's John Rebus police procedurals or his stand-alone works are seen as "literary" is totally irrelevant to the elements that make all of them exciting, entertaining, often funny, well plotted and a cut above the ordinary. His ironic twists accelerate the pace and keep readers breathlessly carried along by the action. BLEEDING HEARTS is the newest thriller to appear in the United States --- it was published in England in 1994 under the pseudonym Jack Harvey. In it, we follow the trajectories of the lives of two men: an assassin of international repute, and a former NYPD cop now turned private eye who has vowed to track down the infamous killer and execute him.

The story opens in a hotel bar in England where me meet the killer, Michael Weston, having a drink with a passing acquaintance. In his first-person narration he tells readers that his mark has only three more hours to live, while opining to his companion: "You know what it's like these days --- only the toughest are making it. No room for bleeding hearts though of course in my line of work bleeding hearts are the business."

Today his assignment is to shoot a woman who will be leaving a particular hotel, at a particular time, wearing a particular dress patterned in yellow and blue. He has no idea who she is and doesn't really care. Later, as the police show up at almost the precise second he pulls the trigger, he can't believe what has just transpired. How could they be here so quickly? he wonders. His ad-hoc plan to leave the scene is to call 999 and ask for an ambulance because, he tells them, he's "a severe hemophiliac" who has been involved in a terrible accident and his head is bleeding.

Weston in fact is a hemophiliac, albeit a mild one, and this twist adds verisimilitude to the character that is more cerebral than physical. As happens in life, his illness is a curse and a blessing --- this time it is his means of escape and soon he is free. He now can ponder what went wrong; this was supposed to be an easy hit. His conclusion: he had to have been set up --- but by whom, and why?

Weston must escape to safety and makes his way to an isolated farm where Max and his daughter Belle live. They deal in arms of every sort and sell to anyone with enough cash to pay for them. Weston needs their support and access to their cache. He rests a bit and plans an assault on a so-far phantom enemy.

Weston has always worked through a middleman, the gunrunner Max. He never wanted to get "personally involved" with his victims or paymasters. Death is only the result of the job he has to do; it is a fact of life but not necessarily one he cares to analyze. He is very smart, very careful, very dedicated and very lethal. He looks like an average man of a certain age who is personable but reveals nothing about himself to anyone.

Meanwhile, in Vine Street police station, Chief Inspector Bob Broome comes to the conclusion that Weston, dubbed the "Demolition Man," is the shooter. But the police have no clear evidence to point to the real target. "The people on the [hotel] steps, that's another thing. We've got a journalist [dead], a secretary of state, and some senior guy from an East European embassy."

After a powwow with his detectives, Broome makes a call to the United States --- to Leo Hoffer, who ran his own detective agency. These days, Hoffer's only personal client is Robert Walkins, the father of a young woman who the Demolition Man killed in a freak accident, which so far was Weston's only miss. Walkins and Hoffer have been obsessed with finding the D-Man and killing him.

Ian Rankin is one of those writers whose prose grabs the reader with the first line. From there it's a heady journey through a fast-paced, intelligent plotline, awash with characters who jump off the page and a climax that turns everything the reader was thinking upside down. BLEEDING HEARTS is not only a thriller about a sniper and the man who tracks him. It is also a story that is timely and raises issues of good and evil to a higher plane. Rankin wants the reader inside the heads of his anti-hero and his nemesis. Their thoughts, their rationalizations, their uncertainties, their fears and their destinies are central to understanding what motivates these people who do what they do. Readers are asked to "stand back" and judge for themselves how evil or good these men are. The supporting characters play no less a part in fleshing out the architecture of the book, and they inhabit the space, each with their own personalities and agendas, be they good or bad.

BLEEDING HEARTS is a challenge to read. It is gritty and tough, but that's Rankin's trademark. All of his books explore the dark side of people's lives and the underbellies of space they inhabit --- but he balances that by shining a light into the hidden nooks and the shadowed crannies that ultimately override the bad guys. The body of work he has amassed speaks to his readability and storytelling prowess. And while loyal fans look forward to the next John Rebus installment, BLEEDING HEARTS is one of his best stand-alone novels and is certainly a keeper.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gun for Hire, September 22, 2004

By 

Beverley Strong (Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bleeding Hearts (A Jack Harvey Novel) (Paperback)

This is what used to be called a "rattling good yarn".It's a tale of a hired assassin, a crack-shot sniper, who travels the world, killing people for payment...a cold-blooded murderer who also happens to be a haemophiliac. Strangely enough, you find yourself empathising with this man as the story proceeds, which it does at a cracking pace. Michael Weston is hired by an unknown client to shoot a TV news journalist. He successsfully carries out his assignment but things start to go awry and he realises that he is being pursued by an old adversary, Leo Hohher, a former NY cop, now a private investigator. Michael visits Max Harrison, an old friend living deep in the country, to buy guns and ammunition and meets his daughter Bel- gorgeous and a crack shot. While Michael and Bel are off on an errand, unknown criminals enter the house and behead Max, leaving the body to be found by Bel and Michael. The chase takes them to the US where they connect with a weird and suspect religious cult whose leader has unidentifiable sources of income. Even though the hero of Bleeding Hearts is a thoroughly amoral character, one can't help but hope that he comes good in the end and survives the shoot-outs.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A hunter with a heart., October 21, 2007

By 

Daniel A. Scott "Just honest!" (Philippi, WV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bleeding Hearts: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Every once in a while it's good to read a book about a sniper that seems to have touch of humanity. This is a sniper without a clear conscience and it added a refreshing element to the story. It was also new that this sniper was good at shooting, but he wasn't a walking superweapon without a rifle either, and was aware of it. Usually, these guys are portrayed as extreme killing machines with or without weapons, and at times there is nothing wrong with reading about characters like that. The fact that this guy wasn't, just provided a new perspective with this action plot. It was well written, the end wasn't predictable, and it provided enough testosterone driven combat that the book was never boring.