Menaced Assassin [Mass Market Paperback]

Joe Gores (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1995

It began with the murder of the adulterous wife of a mild-mannered professor. Then a corrupt cop was gunned down in a phone booth. After that, the killer who called himself Raptor moved through a list of players, playboys, and mobsters from Palm Springs to Minnesota. And the final truth about his death trip will not be revealed until the last victim is claimed.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mystery veteran Gores (Dead Man; 32 Cadillacs) claims psycho-thriller territory with this risk-taking, rewarding crime novel. After linking her boss and lover to organized crime, film-company exec Molly Dalton is killed in what looks like a mob execution. Her husband, Will, a paleoanthropologist, loses himself in his work, studying violence and sexuality in apes. As more professional-style murders occur, San Francisco cop Dante Stagnoro, in charge of SFPD's organized crime unit, suspects that Will, perhaps being privy to Molly's information, may be another mob target, even though someone calling himself "Raptor" is claiming the kills in disingenuous, macabre phone messages. Drawing on a variety of conventions and styles, from the procedural to the gothic, Gores wedges a passionate lecture on evolution into a taut investigation and waxes ornate in the Raptor's chilling and vivid reveries. A professional killer from New Jersey is the likely suspect for a few of the hits, but the real criminal mind is extremely well hidden, right to the end, when few of the hoods are still standing. In his latest, Gores demonstrates masterful narrative sleight-of-hand.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

The day before she dies, brilliant, randy Atlas Entertainment corporate counsel Molly Dalton phones her paleoanthropologist husband, Will--estranged from her since he returned early from an African trip to find her deeply immersed in the delights of Atlas president Kosta Gounaris--to ask for a meeting about a computer file she's found that ties Atlas's assets to the Mob. Stuck in traffic on the Bay Bridge, Will arrives too late for their dinner date and misses his chance to get executed along with her. Fifteen months later, as grieving Will marks his return from Africa to Berkeley by giving a lecture on violence and evolution, Lt. Dante Stagnoro, head of San Francisco's organized crime task force, reviews the series of killings that proceeded from Molly to a crooked cop, a druglord, a mob lawyer, and so on. The killer, identifying himself as Raptor, repeatedly phones Stagnoro to taunt him and at one point leaves a message pinned to his chest as he sleeps; the lieutenant is determined not to let Will become Raptor's final victim. The interplay between killer and cop has been done much better before, and the mystery fizzles like a damp firecracker, but the interleaving of the story with excerpts from Will's lecture and Raptor's confession shows just how magnificently ambitious this failure is. Assassination as evolution? Only the callowest of first- timers--or an old pro as canny as Gores (Dead Man, 1993, etc.)- -would ever have the brass to root an otherwise unmemorable tale in such a dazzling conceit. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 367 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press (December 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446403903
• ISBN-13: 978-0446403900
• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 0.8 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,438,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Difficult task done reasonably well, February 3, 1999

By 

James C. Fraser-Paige (San Leandro, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Menaced Assassin (Mass Market Paperback)

I should state outfront that I am a Joe Gores fan, and that I served as a technical advisor on this book and was given a small, almost unnoticed walk-on. The book takes on two really tough tasks: It is written in two voices, a first for Gores; and it takes on a philosophical theme and tries to interweave it with a mystery story.As much as I like Gores' work, I don't think he quite succeeded, here, although even the partial failure is a very good read, and one does care who-dun-it. He writes good characters and his setting in San Francisco is evocative. Those not familiar with his work might do better to begin with 32 Cadillacs or one of the DKA series, then read Wolf Time before taking on Menaced Assasin.

4.0 out of 5 stars Stilted & Difficult Reading, June 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Menaced Assassin (Mass Market Paperback)

Menaced Assissin is an interesting book of murder & revenge. However, it is filled with a disertation of evolutionary theories throughout which could have been condensed. I sometimes got the feeling that the writer's main focus was to demonstrate his knowledge, and push his idea of evolution on the reader by embedding it in this novel. The reading was also stilted and difficult to read at times. However, it was an interesting story with graphic descriptions of the killings, which kept me interested in knowing who the killer was.