Slow Motion Riot [Audio Cassette]

Blauner (Author), Peter (Author), Hillgartner (Editor), Malcolm (Narrator) (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2008

On an urban battleground dangerously divided along racial lines, probation officer Steve Baum struggles to maintain his idealism while a deranged young sociopath drags him into a morass of terror and corruption.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While vivid and gripping at times, this Edgar Award-winning novel about a Manhattan probation officer and his deadly charge suffers from its annoying first-person, present-tense narration.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Baum, a probation officer for New York City, is beginning to drink too much and burn out on the job. When Darryl King, a new client who is also a crackhead, drug dealer, and psychopathic killer, violates his parole, he and Baum get caught up in events which sweep them into a tidal wave of hatred, racial prejudice, and tragedy. Switching between sordid misadventures told by Baum and a third-person storyteller relating King's, New York magazine contributing editor for crime and politics Blauner shows the vile life of the drug user, the illusory world of easy money associated with crack, and the self-deception of all working within the criminal justice system. As a first effort, this is gripping and powerful stuff, definitely not for the faint of heart. Vivid characters, plausible events, and scenes rich in human pathos make it an outstanding first novel.
- Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights- University Heights P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, Inc.; Unabridged Library edition (August 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1433254336
• ISBN-13: 978-1433254338
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

More About the Author

When I was a kid, I quickly realized I didn't have much talent for throwing the baseball or playing a musical instrument or anything like that. What I had was a desire to write - which, of course, is not the same as having talent. That didn't stop me from focusing and honing in, practicing my writing the way other kids practiced free throws or 100-yard sprints.

Pretty early on, it occurred to me that I didn't want to run in the same race as everybody else anyway. A writer should have has her own slant on things. So I decided to go my own way. Even though I write what are classified as "crime novels," I don't have granite-jawed heroes or spunky heroines who always triumph over the bad guys. There are enough of those in the bookstores. I write about people with considerable flaws and consuming struggles, trying to make sense of their lives. I don't expect you to cuddle up to them or want to invite them to your Christmas dinner. But I think they have a lot of heart. Not in the sentimental sense. But in the raw, pulsing, heaving, still-beating-in-spite-of-everything sense.

I certainly don't mean to sound high-minded. After this many years in the game, I don't think a novel (particularly a "crime novel") can - or even should try to - cause great social change and upheaval. Most people just want a good story that can help pass the time on a plane. And that's my goal as well. But every once in a while, it can maybe also give you a slightly different way of looking at the world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great surpirse, September 19, 2001

By 

Rebecca "Reader not Reviewer" (Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Slow Motion Riot (Mass Market Paperback)

Now that I have read Peter Blauner, I will be buying anything of his that I can find. He is a wonderful writer, and this is the type of book you read and wonder why this man is not at least as big as, say, Jonathan Kellerman. The main character, Steven Baum, is a probation officer who is a good man living in a gritty world, supported by the idea he can make a difference. Blauner writes an extremely likeable and realistic character in Baum, who is a bit downtrodden overall but a fighter and a realist. His nemesis, Darryl King, is one of the scariest characters I have come across in a book. Blauner does a wonderfully subtle job of "evilizing" this character.

This man can write, plain and simple, and I am glad to have found such a talent.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How did I miss this the first time?, October 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Slow Motion Riot (Mass Market Paperback)

A young New York City probation officer wages a daily struggle between idealism and cynicism, while being confronted with the wild menagerie of urban criminal life, both high and low. Parts of this book terrified me while other sections had me laughing out loud. Always tense and suspenseful, somehow dreamy and utterly real at the same time. Or maybe so real that it seemed dream-like. Makes most other so-called crime fiction look like silly posturing.

Highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Enjoyed this Book, October 31, 2008

By 

Robert W. Hockings (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slow Motion Riot (Mass Market Paperback)

I kind of have a left field sense of humor, I found the Darryl parolee character to be most amuzing, his crack addiction and how he talks about "You dont know about me and my Mentality" it was just very funny to me. Seems a few arent to crazy about the book and had to put it down, for me it was the opposite. I laghed pretty hard at times.