DEAD CITY is quite good, though he's probably best known as the author of BY
REASON OF INSANITY, an early serial-killer novel (which came out in the late
'70s) which has become a bit of a classic. I'd argue, though, that DEAD
CITY is probably the better of the two novels...though REASON is a close
second.
Ron C.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com [mailto:rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of davezeltserman
> Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 7:55 AM
> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RARA-AVIS: Dead City by Shane Stevens
>
> This was recommended to me a while back, and it's one of the cruelest,
> most violent crime novels I've read. When I mean by most violent is
> the for crime novels that are meant to have a sense of realism as
> opposed to books written to be over-the-top or are more cartoonish.
> This was written by Shane Stevens in '73, and from trying to do web
> searches on him he seems to be kind of a mystery man.
>
> Dead City follows three players in the Jersey City mob, Joe Zucco, one
> of the crime bosses, Harry Strega, just out of Vietam Nam and trying
> to work his way up in the mob, Charlie Flowers, a depressed sort whose
> career as a hit man has stalled out and is now doing strongarm stuff.
> The book pulls no punches as it follows their exploits, deceits,
> double-crosses, and the dirtiest aspects of the mob business. Reading
> this, you can't help but feel that Stevens must've had friends in the
> mob. This is a book that should be considered a classic, and sadly,
> it's hard to imagine any NY publisher taking this book if it came in
> today. I don't think I could recommend this book strongly enough.
>
> --Dave
> www.davezeltserman.com
>
>
>
>
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