Dark Homecoming [Paperback]

Eric Lustbader (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1998

Ex-New York cop Lew Croaker dedicated 15 years to cleaning up the streets, until his job cost him his left hand. Now he's left the force for Florida, where a sinister netherworld of drugs, sex, and stolen body parts awaits him.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In the best-selling Lustbader's latest thriller, a detective anguishes over his agreement to commit murder in exchange for a compatible kidney for his ailing niece.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Leaving behind the comic-strip leaps and blows of his nimble Ninjas (Floating City, 1994, etc.), Lustbader constructs an entire actioner set in the Miami area. No more worldwide crime cartels masterminded by Asians? Well, let's not get carried away. Yes, there is just such a cartel, but it's masterminded by Heitor and Antonio Bonita, a pair of bloody identical twins born bad. They run a cartel that deals in arms, drugs, white slavery, you name it, and they run it behind a line of front men who take the heat should the law intrude. One of the twins' specialties is dealing in human body organs that they harvest illegally in the States and airship to Central and South America. Scalpel-wielding Heitor likes to remove the organs while the ``donor'' is still alive. On their trail, meanwhile, is the Department of Justice. Although longtime Lustbader cop and hero Lewis Croaker has retired to captain a Miami charter boat, he's still a stringer for the Agency and carries a badge. Burned out and unwilling to be drawn back into the action, Croaker is facing a family crisis: His drug-addicted 15-year-old niece Rachel, now on dialysis, will be dead in five days if she doesn't receive a replacement kidney. Croaker sets out to find a donor. As it happens, fabulously smooth criminal lawyer Marcellus Rojas Diego Majeur offers him both a vintage turquoise Mustang and a kidney for Rachel if Croaker will just assassinate the dazzlingly vicious Juan Garcia Barbacena (he cuts off women's breasts in his lighter moments), the Bonita twins' greatest rival in terror. Croaker suddenly finds himself in a bafflingly strange and dangerous world: Nobody is what he (or she) seems, and even the Justice team Croaker reluctantly hooks up with is seemingly run by a very bad guy indeed. . . . Lustbader's intense flow of invention is wonderful to watch: Wild, gory, assured over-the-top entertainment throughout. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Star (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671003305
• ISBN-13: 978-0671003302
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,794,469 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Van Lustbader is the author of more than twenty-five best-selling novels, including The Ninja, a New York Times bestseller for 24 weeks, in which he introduced Nicholas Linnear, one of modern fictions most beloved and enduring heroes. His New York Times bestselling novel, "The Testament," was published in September, 2006 and in paperback in August, 2007.
His novels have been translated into over twenty languages; his books are best-sellers worldwide and are so popular whole sections of bookstores from Bangkok to Dublin are devoted to them. The Ninja was sold to 20th Century-Fox. It is now in pre-production.
Mr. Lustbader is a graduate of Columbia College, with a degree in Sociology. Before turning to writing full time, he enjoyed highly successful careers in the New York City public school system, where he holds licenses in both elementary and early childhood education, and in the music business. He is a second-level Reiki master.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Dark Dissapointment, July 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Dark Homecoming (Hardcover)

I have been a loyal Lustabder fan for the past 5 years and have read 10 of his titles. I have loved reading his incredibly descriptive style as he paints a pictue of political intrigue, family and spiritual ties and intense eroticism. But this book was not nearly up to par with his past works. The entire plot was overly confusing and too full of coincidences. If the Bonita twins were so powerful, why do they even need Lew Croaker, detective extraordinaire, to do a hit job for them? Especially since they ended up carrying it out themselves after all? Lustabder always has multiple charcacters, but in this title, they were all a jumble. The twins in their little white death truck seemed silly, and the severed heads and incestual sado-masochism was at some points was a little sickening. I was anxiously awaiting for this novel after Lustbader's hiatus, but this was definitely not worth the wait.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ninja it's Not, January 20, 2003

By 

Michael Nordberg - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dark Homecoming (Hardcover)

If you loved Ninja then prepare to be disappointed. None of the fascinating detail that made Ninja such a page turner. Minor moments when describing the world of Heta I, a South American healing art that stores power in stones. Lew Croaker's biomechanical hand has more of a personality then Lew, and is much more fascinating.

Twisted plot involving South American magic, South Florida sleaziness, black market human organs, and secret government agenices.

Although I read this book to the end, I can't say I recommend it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Croacker gets by without Nicholas Linnear, December 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Dark Homecoming (Hardcover)

Despite of the lack of exotic settings and having a more ordinary hero,this novel is still a page-turner, thanks to the complexity of its charachters. Croaker ends up being a much more intersting person than Nicholas Linnear (who is something of a demi-god by now), however, DH lacks the thrilling changes of location in time and space characteristic of former novels. It's on the whole a fine novel, but I would suggest Mr, Lustbader to improve his Spanish spelling and grammar, there are lots of mistakes which undermine the credibility of the Spanish-speaking characters.