Customer Reviews

Fifth Angel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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

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

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

This book was one of the worst thrillers I have ever read and I've read too many to mention. The beginning was somewhat compelling but as it went on it became almost laughable. To believe that anything that happened in the last 100 pages could actually occur in real life is so comical, it's not even funny. Each scene became more unbelievable. It was a Page Turner though.
I couldn't wait to turn those last pages so it would end my suffering.

Thank GOD that I checked this out at the local library, rather than bought it...
The characters are cardboard cutouts, the suspense was nonexistent, there is NO moral dilemma, the main character seems to exist in a relationship vacuum (no parents, no siblings, no significant relationships other than the unseen ex-wife and new - albeit generic - girlfriend?). The "hook" - that he decides to kill molesters - is interesting, but the plot execution (sorry) is patently absurd. These predatory people are cunning survivors, not just the hulking stereotypical monsters portrayed here. The relative ease with which he - a lawyer apparently untrained in firearms - dispatches these scum is painfully comical.
In short, reading this book was a waste of time.

A mans life has fallen apart. His wife has left him, his daughter is in a mental hospital- unable to speak or function anywhere close to a normal level. Life is passing him by, and he is still confronted with daily reminders of the tragedy that took everything from him. He feels responsible. The legal system doesnt work, so he decides to take matters into his own hands.

Tim Green has crafted a novel that will make the reader ask some serious questions. What would you do if your child were abducted, molested and then left catatonic in a mental hospital? What would you do if you knew that the man responsible was getting out of prison early? What would you do if you has the means and the knowledge to stop some of the twisted preadators that stalk the streets looking for children to torture and destroy?

Jack Ruskin, the main charachter in this new novel, has decided upon a course of action in order to atone for his failings (he feels) as a father and his inability to prevent the abduction and molestation if his own daughter. He is a high priced attorney who deals with criminals everyday. He knows the mistakes that they make when a crime is committed. He knows how the police conduct an investigation, what they look for, how they find it and who is called in.

Is it murder? Is he an avenging angel of death come to deal out destruction to those that would prey upon the innocent? Is he a saint? or a sinner? Sane, or is he just as unstable and guilty as those that he punishes? Thats for the readed to decide.

Either way, this book will make to look into the helplessness of a father and the galvanizing power of guilt. Vengance is a funny concept, really. At what point does murder become justified? How far will one father go to get his girl back and escape the spectres that continue to haunt his life?

The Fifth Angel is a well written, quick-paced book with plenty of action and suspense. Although the charachters in the book seem a bit two-dimensional, it is still worth reading and pondering. What would you do? We get a sense of how the world can continue to fly by and yet, for those dealing with greif, seem to come to a complete standstill. Unable to focus on anything other than revenge, how far will Jack go in order to see that justice is dealt? He becomes a man obsessed, determined to destroy the man who shattered his little girl.

Tim Green has written an engaging piece of fiction that will pull that the heartstrings of that that read it. As the pages fly by, we get a sense of Jacks determination, desperation and cycle of self destruction as it teeters on the brink. Read this book, think about the scenarios that it presents and then ask youself the same question... What would you do?

Sure, the premise is outlandish.... an F.B.I. agent basically tolerating a mass murderer, but hey, that's what makes it fiction!! It moves fast and furiously, making you want to read the last few pages long before you get half-way through the book. I found it a great escape, particularly as a fellow attorney, although an admitted life-long Dallas Cowboy fan!

I just finished Tim Green's The Fifth Angel, and it's a very good read that tears at you. A man's daughter is kidnapped, held captive, and is physically and sexually abused. She is found, but is committed to a mental institution. After his life is nearly destroyed, he determines that no child molester should be allowed to walk free. Using his job that has him on the road quite a bit, he starts executing known molesters. He doesn't find the peace he seeks, but he's driven to keep doling out his form of justice.

Meanwhile, a female FBI agent and a pompous police detective are paired up to hunt down the killer. They have a bead on him, but no one is pushing hard to bring him in because of the targeted victims. She believes her pursuit of the killer to be right until her own children are abducted and she has to confront the kidnapper with the help of the vigilante.

This is one of those novels where the "good" guy is the criminal and the "bad" guy is the victim, and you have to decide whether retribution or justice is deserved. You feel for the vigilante, as you'd probably experience the same frustration if it was your child. Conversely, if everyone decides to take justice in their own hands, anarchy would reign supreme. While the story line is well done, it will cause you to question your feelings.

There is a strong moral dilemma in this book by former footballer/now lawyer Tim Green. This being the first book I've read by the prolific author, I found his style assuring, focused and engaging. He slows the pace down sometimes at crucial points and he occasionally stretches the boundaries of belief, but this is a moral tale: what would you do?
Jack Ruskin is certainly righteous in his desire to rid the world of predators that have been allowed to roam on the streets due to the unavoidable fractures in our legal system.
Is he wrong? Well, I found myself rooting for him, and hoping he'd get away with it, so I guess he may not be right, but is he wrong? You judge.

Jack Ruskin is a man beset with grief. Believing he was/is responsible for the rape and torture of his 15 year old daughter, he becomes an avenging angel, wreaking havoc, anonymous havoc of course, on those pedophiles he finds registered on the Net. Basically he declares war on them, seeking them out on business trips he takes for his law firm, and then executes them.

He finds support from those who circumstantially witness part of his efforts (returning a young girl to the ER he unexpectedly discovered; a police officer who feeds him to the Pittsburgh sex offender registration book; a pedophile's unsympathetic neighbor) we assume because they support his brand of vigilante justice.

The big question is whether he is a hero like the Charles Bronson character of the 70's "Death Wish," or just another psychopath without the horrific sexual baggage.

I believe the novel could have been exponentially better had Tim Green given the reader a real moral decision to make, as is often presented in the novels of Alan Furst or earlier, by Pierre Boulle. Killing criminals loses it's appeal, in the broad sense of plot, along with the tenth grade and Steven Segal movies.

The first 1/2 of the book is well written although the descent into pulp comic book plot and sophmoric dialogue is rapid and all encompassing.