Customer Reviews

Dead Man: A Novel of Suspense

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I got hooked years ago on Gores's DKA novels, about a firm of San Francisco skip-tracers and repo men. He's pretty much quit writing those -- possibly because almost anyone these days with access to the Internet can do skip-trace. This one is about Eddie Dain, a tall, skinny Cal Tech grad and computer genius (by 1993 standards) who, for some unexplained reason, goes into private investigation instead of heading for Silicon Valley. He treats it all as a game, him and his hacker skills against the rest of the world -- until his reluctance to drop a case results in his adored wife and small son being shotgunned to death, with Dain in the hospital for a year. Not surprisingly, he's a different man when he comes out. He wants revenge. And he's no longer skinny. But despite himself, even vengeance becomes a game in which he presents a face to the world that isn't really him. And as he goes on, he begins to question the point of it all. And he begins to realize, with the help of a new semi-love interest, that his wife wouldn't have wanted to be converted into an icon. The plot has some problems early on -- it's kind of hard to believe in Dain's motivations -- but the pace picks up nicely. I had problems, though, when the action moved to New Orleans and then to the back country of the Atchafalaya (which is less than thirty miles from me). He describes highway routes that don't exist -- couldn't geographically exist -- and he lays on the Cajun-ness waaaaaaaay too thick. Even in 1993, it hadn't been like that for some time, not among the younger generation. Not outside of a Justin Wilson routine. So while it's a pretty good story, the author really should have stuck to San Francisco.

Joe Gores has become my new favourite author, even though he has been writing books since the late sixties. The words "Criminally Underrated" could have been invented for him!

In Dead Man, Eddie Dain is a private investigator good at finding people who don't want to be found.

When he tracks down someone for a gangster but continues to look into the case after he has been warned off, himself and his young family end up on the wrong end of shotguns wielded by two masked men.

Five years later and Dain (who has dropped his first name) is a man reborn. He has built up his broken body, has become emotionally distanced from the rest of the world and is intent on tracking down those responsible for ruining his life. To do this he must go back to his job as a PI working for the kind of shady underground sorts who might just connect him to the gunmen and those who set up the hit.

The climax of the novel takes place in the wilds of Louisiana where the sights of nature going about its deadly business mirrors Dain's own predicament....trapped deep in a swamp it's a matter of kill or be killed.

Gores has written a very involving book with a great central character, can Dain who has lost everything have his revenge and eventually connect with the world again?

The action when it hits is fast and brutal and the book moves along at a great pace to its memorable climax.

Gores comes out with his usual style of mystery, facts, and suspense. Then swerves off into a tangent of overdone psychiatric evaluation of man and tragedy. The tale weaves onward in predictability, and what inner sights of the mind is offered, the reader must connect the meaning using references to literature and insight garnered elsewhere.

The character Dain is drawn well, from the beginning creation of his tortured existence finally melding into a person at peace within himself. The supporting character of Vangie appears from nowhere, has character developement outside of the pages, and leaves the reader with more questions than answers.

Overall, this last is the dagger through the heart seperating this book from the past excellences of Gore. Whereas his other novels twist, turn, weave, and hang side stories dangerously by themselves, having them drawn together into a final tapestry of understanding and clarity at the end, Dead Man leaves one hanging asking "Hey..wait a minute ! What about ____ ? "

Gores has done better.