Arguably, Gores, like most mystery writers who produce a
long-running and popular series, is best-known for his series
work. But Gores has also written a lot of non-series work.
And one theme that recurs in his stand-alones is the hero
wreaking vengeance.
Gores's 1969 debut novel, A TIME OF PREDATORS, was not an
entry in his DKA series, though the series had already been
established in short stories appearing in EQMM, but such a
stand-alone.
Years before Brian Garfield's DEATH WISH, it tells the story
of a man driven to violence when three thugs attack and
gang-rape his wife, driving her to suicide.
Curt Halstead isn't a manhunter. He's a college
professor (his university is unnamed, but it's obviously
Stanford). But, once upon a time, he was highly trained
combat soldier, and he decides to revive those skills and go
after the punks he regards as his wife's murderers.
In addition to anticipating the better-known DEATH WISH,
Gores first book hit the scene at roughly the same time Don
Pendleton's WAR AGAINST THE MAFIA, the first "Executioner"
book, which also was built around the notion of a soldier
using military tactics to fight criminals.
Decades later, Gores revisited the theme of a man avenging
the death of his family with DEAD MAN. This time, rather than
being a college professor, the hero, Eddie Dain, isn't a
college professor. Ostensibly he's a professional detective.
But his specialty is computer investigations, not mixing it
up toe-to-toe with bad guys on the street. When he starts
investigating the wrong people, he becomes a target, when his
wife and child are killed in an attempt on his life, he goes
into hiding, and, like Halsted, trains himself to become a
killing machine.
JIM DOHERTY
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