JIM DOHERTY:
> STAKEOUT ON PAGE STREET AND OTHER STORIES.
It
> includes an intro by Gores in which he explains
who
> the real-life models were for the various
characters,
> which real-life cases he based his plots on, and
where
> each story fits in the longer saga.
>
> More recently, Gores's latest novel, CONS, SCAMS,
&
> GRIFTS, also adds to the series.
Jim, In 32 CADILLACS Gores also tells of the real life
antecedents to the book and thanks his associates when he was
a detective. I thought there may have been a recent addition
to the series but didn't bother to check. .
>
>
> Gores's first novel, A TIME OF PREDATORS, set in
the
> suburban Peninsula region south of SF, tells of
a
> Stanford professor who retrains himself in
the
> long-dormant skills he used as a military commando
to
> go after a gang of juvenile thugs who raped his
wife.
> It won a well-deserved Edgar for Best First
Novel.
. If you think about it, that revenge motif is central to all
the Gores' non-DKA novels except maybe for COME MORNING which
I have but have yet to read. I didn't want to get into the
plot it too much more for fear of spoiling some of his books
for those who have yet to read them.
>
> Someone else mentioned MENACED ASSASSIN as a
book
> about an SFPD lieutenant on the trail of a
serial
> killer. Actually, the villain is a professional
hit
> man, not a serial killer. Despite some long
sections
> about reconciling the theory of evolution with
the
> Genesis creation story (sections I found
damned
> interesting by the way), the book fully qualifies
as
> HB by my standards. One of my favorite SFPD
cop
> novels.
I was the one to mention this. Again, I didn't want to give
more information than you could get from the cover blurb
which says in part:
"After that, the killer who called himself Raptor moved
through a list of players, playboys and mobsters... With each
hit came a phone call to San Francisco organized crime
investigato Dante Stagnoro, and a disguised tauntung voice
daring Stagnoro to stop him."
You and I have read the book and know that is not totally
accurate, but it certainly makes it sound like a serial
killer. .
BTW, most of the theories propounded in the book were first
popularized by Desmond Morris in AFRICAN GENESIS and THE
NAKED If you like that part of MENACED ASSASIN you should
read those. Morris was a playwright without formal scientific
training and the theory of man's progenitors being killer
apes has recently come under a lot of attack.
I really enjoyed the book. I think Gores did a masterful job
of weaving in the theory with the the plot, but people should
be aware that there's more to the book than a simple mystery
or thriller. Mark
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 21 Oct 2001 EDT