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The Fifth Angel [Hardcover]

Tim Green (Author)
3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)


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Book Description

Green, Tim March 2003
From all appearances, Jack Ruskin is a mild-mannered and well-respected lawyer practicing in New York. But he is also living every parent's nightmare: His teenage daughter has recently been the victim of a brutal and horrific attack by a sexual predator. As Jack tends to her, his constant sorrow and pain gradually grows into hot-blooded rage. It turns out that her attacker has a long history of sexual crimes and - as is the case with many repeat sex offenders - was allowed back on the streets to wreak more harm once he did his time in jail. As Ruskin's rage builds, he is convinced that it is finally time to take matters into his own angry hands - but how far will he go to make certain that justice is done?

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like Green's previous thriller, The Fourth Perimeter, this book opens with an engaging premise that becomes less credible as the novel unfolds. Jack Ruskin, a senior partner in a prominent New York law firm, is beside himself with rage; his 15-year-old daughter is semicatatonic after being raped by a repeat sex offender, and the criminal has gotten off with a minimal sentence. Jack decides to take the law into his own hands. He hunts down and kills a randomly selected sex offender in upstate New York. Driven by bloodlust, Jack then embarks on a series of similar vigilante executions as he travels around the country on business for the firm. He falls in love with Beth, an empathetic young counselor at his daughter's hospital, but there's a close call when Beth nearly catches him surfing the Web for likely victims. He offs another criminal while the he and Beth are on an idyllic getaway in the Adirondacks. As the bodies pile up, FBI agent Amanda Lee is assigned to track down Jack. Amanda has her own interest in the case-her partner was recently killed by a child abuser resisting arrest. The briskly paced thriller culminates in a revealing showdown when Amanda traps Jack on Long Island. The action is engaging, but between the lurid goings-on and the lurid prose ("His little girl was a shell with scars on her body and holes punched in her veins to feed her drugs"), the story verges on bad pulp. Fans of Green's earlier novels will be satisfied with this one, but some may wish he had brought a bit more craft and restraint to his compelling premise.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This is an avenging angel: when an ex-con with a history of sexual offenses attacks his daughter, temperate lawyer Jack Ruskin gets mad enough to take the law into his own hands.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Warner Books; First Edition edition (March 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0446530859
  • ISBN-13: 978-0446530859
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,806,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tim is the NY TIMES BESTSELLING author of fourteen highly successful suspense novels, including soon-to-be-released FALSE CONVICTIONS and national bestseller ABOVE THE LAW, as well the non-fiction New York Times Bestseller, THE DARK SIDE OF THE GAME which was featured on CBS's 60 Minutes. His last five novels have all been national bestsellers hitting the charts between #22 and #30 on the NY Times Bestseller list. While his first five novels used professional football as their backdrop, his most recent works have drawn more on his experiences as a lawyer exploring the themes of ambition and revenge.

Tim is also the author of a memoir entitled A MAN AND HIS MOTHER: AN ADOPTED SON'S SEARCH which was featured in PEOPLE magazine, Entertainment Tonight, and ABC's Prime Time.
His writing career began at Syracuse University where he was a Rossman Scholar for Humanities, a Syracuse Scholar, an NCAA Top Six Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa, and co-valedictorian of his class. While studying English Literature, Tim became acquainted with the renowned minimalist Raymond Carver, and had the opportunity to study under the award-winning writer and professor Tobias Wolff.

During his studies, Tim also played football for the Syracuse Orangemen with a career that included a consensus All-American honors as well as his recent induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. In 1986, he was selected in the first round of the NFL draft by the Atlanta Falcons where he was a star defensive end for eight years. During his NFL career, Green began his thirteen year career as a commentator for National Public Radio, wrote columns for USA Today, and received his law degree with honors at Syracuse University. Because of his accomplishments both Sports Illustrated and the Los Angeles Times have called Tim Green the "Renaissance Man" of sports. After his playing career, Tim spent eleven years as an NFL analyst for FOX Sports and recently hosted FOX's nationally syndicated news magazine, A Current Affair. His other broadcast experiences have included ABC Good Morning America's legal commentator, Court TV's Pros and Cons, host of FOX Sports Net's Emmy nominated show NFL TOTAL ACCESS, and Comedy Central's Battlebots. Recently, Tim hosted the ABC Prime Time reality show, FIND MY FAMILY.
In 2007, Tim wrote FOOTBALL GENIUS, his first novel for young readers, and an instant NY Times Bestseller. The success and enjoyment of working with his own kids on the project resulted in FOOTBALL HERO, which was released in 2008. In both novels, Tim models the main characters after his own children, submerging them into a suspenseful world that blends adolescent life and sports with the visceral realm of the NFL. FOOTBALL HERO was selected as a Junior Library Guild choice and a GMA summer page turner for young adults. Most recently he released BASEBALL GREAT, another NY Times Bestseller, as well as FOOTBALL CHAMP. Tim's newest young reader novel, RIVALS, will be released in stores in March 2010.
Tim lives with his wife, Illyssa, and their five children in upstate New York. More information about Tim can be found at his Web site www.timgreenbooks.com.


 

Customer Reviews

32 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (14)
3 star:
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2 star:
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1 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.4 out of 5 stars (32 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars strong thriller, February 9, 2003
This review is from: The Fifth Angel (Hardcover)
Though the proof is overwhelming that repeat sex offender Eugene Tupp raped the fifteen year old teen, the New York Judge rules key evidence was illegally obtained by the police and not admissible. Apparently, the search warrant was for Tupp's house and not his garage. Former prosecutor and highly regarded attorney Jack Ruskin is irate that while his daughter lies semi-comatose this animal will receive a slight slap of the wrist instead of locking him away forever.

Jack needs vengeance and he finds it by killing an Upstate sex offender. Tasting blood and not feeling fully satiated, Jack is obsesses with wanting to exterminate the vermin. He uses the net to find his prey, but soon the FBI realizes that a serial killer is murdering sex offenders. Special Agent Amanda Lee begins searching for a culprit, who she sympathizes with as she has a child and her partner was recently killed by a child abuser.

Though the premise has been used before (Bronson), THE FIFTH ANGEL starts off as if the reader will receive an action packed yet philosophical look at defining justice. However, once Jack turns into a typical serial killer, the story line intensifies the action at the expense of moving the audience into the gray definitions of justice. Tim Green provides a strong thriller that many fans will say could have been brilliant.

Harriet Klausner

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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars WHAT IS MORALLY RIGHT OR WRONG?, February 6, 2003
This review is from: The Fifth Angel (Hardcover)
With New York Times bestseller "The Dark Side Of The Game" and a six pack of thrillers to his credit, author cum pro footballer Tim Green has shown that he well knows his way around crafting an exciting tale.

According to Green it's his hope that readers will temporarily suspend their belief that all killing is wrong as they read "The Fifth Angel." "What if murder was the right thing to do?" he asks. "Or at least, what if it wasn't wrong?"

A widely admired, successful New York attorney, Jack Ruskin, is shaken to the core when his 15-year-old daughter is the victim of a brutal sexual assault perpetrated by a sick psychopath. Ruskin is further devastated when, due to a minor legal maneuver, her assailant receives minimum punishment. His daughter will never fully recover from the assault, and her attacker is a repeat sexual offender.

Although Ruskin respects the law and has fought to uphold it this vicious crime so enrages him that he becomes an avenger. He systematically pursues and kills sex offenders while he is supposedly away for company business. There is a love interest for him - Beth, who works for his daughter's hospital. Yet this does not deter him from his self-assigned killing spree.

The FBI enters the picture when the number of deaths increases and a pattern emerges. Amanda Lee is dispatched to find Ruskin.

Author Green, a practicing attorney himself, brings an insider's knowledge of the justice system to this tale of right and wrong.

- Gail Cooke

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars This is far and away Tim Green's best work, March 22, 2003
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Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Fifth Angel (Hardcover)
Revenge, according to the Chinese proverb, is a lunch best eaten cold. It can take many forms. A well-known attorney in San Francisco, after the particularly acrimonious dissolution of his law partnership, trained his dog to leave a daily deposit each morning on the steps of his former partner's office. The other end of the spectrum is documented in Max Alan Collins's THE ROAD TO PERDITION. Tim Green's latest novel, THE FIFTH ANGEL, definitely runs toward the Perdition end of the spectrum.

The title refers to the fifth angel of the apocalypse, the angel who will bring the vial of pain and death to the throne of Satan and who will pour the contents on Satan's tongue. Jack Ruskin is the fifth angel and his self-appointed mission is to bring an end to child molesters who have gotten less than their just deserts. Ruskin, a respected partner of a prestigious law firm, is a somewhat unlikely candidate for the position. He is, however, uniquely if unfortunately qualified: his daughter is slowly recovering from an abduction and abuse by a molester, whose sentence amounts to a relative wrist slap. Ruskin snaps and begins to plan his revenge. He is a former prosecutor and, as a result of his background, knows exactly what forensics is capable --- and incapable --- of doing in detecting and proving guilt or innocence.

Ruskin embarks on a program to do the job that the courts could not do and rid the world of criminals like the one who so irrevocably damaged his daughter. He carefully researches each of his victims and brutally dispatches them, seemingly leaving no clues. Part of the brilliance of Ruskin's plan is that he has absolutely no connection to his victim; he simply identifies them through public records and enacts his plan in different parts of the country. When an obnoxious but brilliant detective figures out what Ruskin is doing and begins to close in on him, Ruskin's mission of vengeance appears to be over. But not everyone wants him to be caught. And the reader won't either.

Green paints Ruskin as a wholly sympathetic character and it is hard to disapprove of Ruskin's mission or methods. And when the family of an FBI agent, assigned to find Ruskin, is targeted as well by a molester, the rightness of Ruskin's mission is all but vindicated.

Green is a member of the James Patterson literary school, combining exciting plotting with rapid pacing to keep the reader involved and turning the pages rapidly. THE FIFTH ANGEL is far and away Green's best work. And, though you'll be sorry to see the book end, its conclusion is surprisingly satisfying. If you've never read Green before, THE FIFTH ANGEL is the one to start with.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Despite the horror of his crime, there was a chance that Eugene Tupp might go free. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
fifth angel
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Tom Conner, New York, Jack Ruskin, Eugene Tupp, Long Island, Land Cruiser, Mark Kane, Mike Collins, Amanda Lee, Gilbert Drake, Seventh Lake, Charles Wheeler, Hans Strauss, Hubble Sanderson, Lawrence Brice, Racquet Lake, Dante Pollard, Longcut Road, Suffolk County, Uncle Charlie, Arthur Campion, Beth Phillips, Blue Mountain, Roland Lincoln, Town Cars
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