Customer Reviews

Rat pack (A Continuum book)

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Shane Stevens is one of the most powerful and captivating suspense writers of the Twentieth Century. Unfortunately, he is also virtually unknown. RAT PACK, the title in question here, is an extremely hard-to-find early novel of his. The story concerns the trials and travails of a group of teenage black men during one night in New York City. It is frightening as to what these men do for entertainment in lieu of being able to participate in the city's early-morning nightlife. Robbery, rape, and brutal assault are not unusual for them. It is also interesting to see how the group comes together and falls apart again and again through the course of the evening. What Stevens does best is capture the feeling and emotions of his characters. The reader really feels like they're sharing the ride with them instead of viewing them from afar. Another hard-to-find book of Stevens is his first novel, GO DOWN DEAD. If you can find either of these novels, they are well worth the price. For books that are in print, both DEAD CITY and BY REASON OF INSANITY provide the reader with a good taste of what Stevens is capable of doing with words on a page.

Rat Pack takes place over a single night of escalating violence as four, troubled youths embark on a hunt through New York City, prowling for the big score that will free them from their rat-infested tenements and desperate lives of crushing poverty. Once billed as "The American Clockwork Orange", it is a brutal and hard book, but far more humane than Burgess' novel. It's both shocking and gut-wrenchingly moving. Stevens doesn't waste a single word; clocking it at just under 200 pages, Rat Pack is as slim and sharp as a shiv.

Stevens is a writer who deserves to be re-discovered.