Deadgame: A John Marquez Crime Novel [Paperback]

Kirk Russell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2005

Third in the series of crime novels featuring what Booklist called "far and away the most inventive new detective hero," California Fish and Game warden John Marquez's latest investigation begins with Marquez on the phone to a confidential informant as she's mysteriously abducted. Marquez and his understaffed team—which is slated for shutdown by top brass—search frantically for the informant in their remaining weeks, while also pursuing sturgeon poachers (who may have something to do with the kidnapping) and tangling with both the Russian mob and the FBI along the way. And you thought your job was tough.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Who knew that a Fish and Game undercover team could uncover so much menace? Or that an ecothriller could be wildly fun and solidly convincing without sliding into preachifying? Russell has been proving that an unlikely detective, John Marquez, a California Fish and Game warden, makes a marvelous focal point for plots that pit good, in the form of embattled environmentalists, against evil, in the form of wildlife profiteers. Each Game novel so far (Dead Game 's predecessors are Shell Games, 2003, and Night Game, 2004) is told from the point of view of Marquez, who is wounded enough and sardonic enough to make us want to watch how he'll cope with whatever life--or poachers--throw at him. This time, Marquez's team (reduced to three agents and threatened with extinction because of budget cutbacks) tries to muster enough buys and busts to get the goods on a sturgeon-poaching team that may be part of a Eurasian crime ring. Russell revs up the action by having Marquez, on the phone with a Russian informant, listen to the sounds of the woman being kidnapped. This series gives readers fascinating background into wildlife, compelling undercover procedure, well-drawn characters, and the kind of description--whether of action or scenery--that leaves one gasping. Russell is at the top of his game. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

The latest challenge for California Fish & Game Warden John Marquez is a group of poachers who kill sturgeon for caviar and aren't too solicitous about higher species either.

Fish & Game's Special Operations Unit is on the ropes. Tax-averse California citizens have cut their budget repeatedly, slashing the number of agents from ten to five to three, even though the bad guys are just as active and inventive as ever. Marquez (Night Game, 2004, etc.) and his wardens hope to turn sturgeon poacher Abe Raburn against former KGB agent Nikolai Ludovna, who came to the U.S. to move real estate and black-market caviar. But Raburn is so terrified of Ludovna that he's not much help. Russian-born field guide Anna Burdovsky has agreed to do some snooping on Marquez's behalf. When she disappears from a rendezvous with Don August, whose specialty-food stores may be selling illegal caviar, signs point to foul play. Marquez's boss is getting put out to pasture, and his home life doesn't look so great either: He and his wife Katherine are too obsessed with their jobs to make much of a home for Katherine's daughter Maria, who's visiting East Coast colleges without the slightest intention of attending any of them. Although the tale and its people may all seem familiar, Russell brings some formidable skills to bear: an exquisite eye for a hundred shades of gray among the poachers, traffickers, buyers and informants along the food chain, and a passion for every corner of the wilderness they're bent on exploiting into oblivion. And not just them, but the populace at large. As Marquez reflects: "The debate wasn't so much about how to live in balance with nature, but whether it was worth the effort."

Russell tackles both action sequences and intractable moral problems with prose as sharp and efficient as a filleting knife. Kirkus Reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (September 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811850781
• ISBN-13: 978-0811850780
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,417,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kirk Russell is the author of five crime fiction novels. Shell Games (2003), Night Game (2004), Deadgame (2005), and Redback(2011), feature John Marquez, head of a California Fish and Game undercover team and a character Booklist described as, "far and away the most inventive new detective hero." His fifth novel, A Killing in China Basin, launches a new series with San Francisco homicide inspector, Ben Raveneau. Russell has two children, Kate and Olivia. He lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Judy Rodgers, chef and co-owner of San Francisco's Zuni Café. For more visit kirkrussellbooks.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Russell's on his game here, December 2, 2005

By 

John C. Racanelli (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Deadgame: A John Marquez Crime Novel (Paperback)

This one's a keeper--clearly Kirk Russell's best novel yet. Among many evolutions that take place in this third story of what I hope will someday be a dozen John Marquez mysteries, we finally get the full measure of the hero himself. Yes, Marquez is a tough guy with a tender streak, a hopeful cynic--he's all these contradictions and complexities. But there's more. In this story, Marquez reveals a lot more about his fears and sense of unrealized potential, uncertainty about his capacity as a husband and father, worries about his own future, so intertwined with the Fish & Game's Special Ops Unit. In short, he reveals himself to be a lot like us.

Disclosure: as a long-time San Francisco Bay environmental advocate, I confess to a certain and unabashed bias for Russell's yarns, and Deadgame especially. He's gotten it right about the plight of the Delta sturgeon (and frankly, the whole Delta). His descriptions of the dichotomous beauty and fragility of the Delta are evocative, well-researched and compelling. Reading this book, I kept flashing back to an earlier SF Bay champion who told us of "another world there among the Bay's brackish reaches"...Jack London himself.

Bravo! Memo to Kirk Russell: send us more, and soon.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fine fish and wildlife police procedural, October 9, 2005

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deadgame: A John Marquez Crime Novel (Paperback)

California Fish & Game Special Operations Unit Warden John Marquez is concerned with the poaching of sturgeon in the Sacramento/San Joaquin River delta. Someone was killing the sturgeon to "extract" the eggs to make caviar and is unconcerned about collateral damage to other fish. However, Marquez does not have the manpower to stop the poachers as his unit has shrunk down to three while the criminals have gotten smarter, bigger, and more energetic, and the FBI steps in and out looking for sound byte poser cases only.

Still he tries using informants to help him catch the crooks such as former sturgeon poacher Abe Raburn who Marquez pressures into testifying against former KGB agent Nikolai Ludovna, who came to the states allegedly as a realtor, but is the caviar poaching kingpin. Abe proves uninformative perhaps out of fear of retaliation. Russian-born field guide Anna Burdovsky agrees to help, but she vanishes without a trace following a meeting with specialty food storeowner Don August, who Marquez believes sells illegal caviar. With potential problems at home, Marquez concentrates on expediting Anna from danger though he fears he is too late.

The key to this fine fish and wildlife police procedural is the different personalities that make up the sturgeon poaching crowd as readers will understand the economic motivations of poachers, sellers, storeowners, users, law enforcement officials, and informants. The story line is somewhat typical of the undermanned and under-equipped cops struggling to defeat superior forces while knowing a victory today just means a new criminal takes over the territory. DEAD GAME is a fabulous tale that entertains the audience while also educating readers with how complex the environmental-economic issues are.

Harriet Klausner

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best of the series, October 14, 2005

By 

A. L. Commercial (San Francisco CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deadgame: A John Marquez Crime Novel (Paperback)

If you have enjoyed reading the other Marquez novels you will certainly not want to miss this read. Author Russell has brought the tension level to a new level in this story. No wasted moments spent reading this book, in fact it was hard to put it down at all. If you arent familiar with the Marquez books any will stand alone but this is my personal favorite with it's sharp delivery and fast paced action.