Deadman [Mass Market Paperback]

Jon Jackson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 1995

Identifying a gunshot victim as a missing hitter named Joe Service, last seen in Motown with a large amount of Mafia money, Detroit detective Fang Mulheisen travels to the site of a Montana hot spring in search of the would-be killer. Reprint. NYT. AB.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his last appearance, in Hit on the House , Detroit cop Fang Mulheisen chased the killer of a mob hoodlum. He lost the chase and the trail went cold. Oh well. Jackson, who delights in sending his readers down these supposed cul-de-sacs, employs circuitous characterization and irony as a counterbalance to conventional crime fiction notions of right and wrong. Here, as corpses accumulating in Butte, Mont., suggest the involvement of Motor City mobsters, Fang takes a busman's holiday and finds himself in a strange land where the natives smile on the streets, crystal whitewater rapids beckon and women strip at the sight of a hot spring. A Detroit mob enforcer named Joe is found nearly dead on the side of a Montana road. His girlfriend Helen, the daughter of a dead mobster and Fang's best suspect in the unsolved hit featured in the last book, has vanished with lots of cash. Hit killer Heather, hired by the mob to finish off Joe, is sidetracked by her love for the pretty nurse who's taking care of Joe, preaching the gospel of Jesus and fondling her patient's privates during sponge baths. This being the West, there must be a showdown--this time involving mobsters, cops and locals. Jackson's characters are a generous, joyous gift: Fang as fish out of water, Helen as moll on the run and Heather as a homophobe's nightmare. Jackson lost 10 writing years between his debut The Blind Pig , and Grootka , his truly masterful followup. He's back on track now with this, his second winner in as many years.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Last year's Hit on the House marked the return of Jackson's Detroit detective Fang ("Mul") Mulheisen after an absence of 10 years. This is a continuation of that extraordinary comeback novel. Helen Sedlacek, who killed the head of the Detroit Mob to avenge her father's murder and then escaped to parts unknown with freelance thug Joe Service, seems to have surfaced in Montana. The clue that sends Mul to Montana is the shooting of someone named Joe Humann, who may or may not be Service. Humann isn't talking--he's alive but in a coma--and his female companion, probably Helen Sedlacek, has disappeared. Humann's hospital bills are being paid anonymously via cashier's check, which fits in with the fact that Service and Helen stole megacash from the Mob. The dense, multilayered plot will keep readers guessing, and the well-rounded characterizations serve to create sympathy for some of the seemingly least sympathetic characters imaginable--except for Mul, of course, who is an unmitigated delight on every level. One scene in particular is destined to become a hard-boiled classic: forced to take a nude sauna with an old pal's wife and teenage daughter, the charmingly naive Mul sits in utter discomfort, caught between good intentions and roving eyes. Superb genre fiction. Wes Lukowsky --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Dell (February 2, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440220475
• ISBN-13: 978-0440220473
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,909,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well written and fun read, August 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Deadman (Mass Market Paperback)

This entry in the Fang Mulheisen series came as a surprise. It was closer to something by Elmore Leonard or even Carl Hiaassen. Great, engaging characters, funny dialogue and an excellent plot.

4.0 out of 5 stars Strange and offbeat, part of a series, October 14, 2004

By 

David W. Nicholas (Van Nuys, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deadman (Hardcover)

This is one of the Fang Mulhausen novels, written by Jon A. Jackson. Jackson's an unusual writer (how many authors pose in the back flyleaf with an automatic weapon?) and his style takes some getting used to. There's also another issue, in that this book is definitely part of a series, and if you haven't read any of the previous books, you'll be somewhat confused by what's going on and miss part of the backstory.

That being said, this installment involves Mulhausen ("Mul" to his friends) in the search for a former mob enforcer named Joe Service, and his girlfriend, a Mafia princess type. Joe has turned up shot in the head in Montana, but since Mul hasn't got enough evidence that he has actually committed a crime (a typical situation with Service) he instead is interested in who shot him, and why. The plot goes from there.

Jackson's writing style, as I said, is somewhat strange. Each chapter is written from the point of view of a particular character. At the start of the book, that character changes from chapter to chapter, and often circumstances and events are related at least partially from several different perspectives. The effect is rather like the TV series of a year or so ago called Boomtown. Towards the end of the book, things calm down a bit and the narrative focuses on a particular person, but it's still a bit jarring. In my experience, this sort of narrative style works better when the writer's doing a 500 page suspense novel than a mystery novel that's just over half that.

The writing is smooth, though, and the plot hums along. I enjoyed this book, and would recommend it with the understanding that you'd do better if you read all of the books in the series prior to this before you got to it.