Re: RARA-AVIS: Themes of Revenge in Joe Gores's Work

From: Nathan Cain ( IndieCrime@gmail.com)
Date: 11 Jan 2008


I just checked Dead Man out of the library yesterday. Gores' stuff was on the shelf right next to Ed Gorman. I'm looking forward to reading it. I've been trying to track down a copy of Interface, but haven't had any luck yet. It looks like I'm going to have to order it used off Amazon. Does anyone know why the first edition mass market paperback is so expensive? It's being sold used on Amazon for $35 bucks. The first edition hardcovers I've seen online range from $10-$15.

On Jan 9, 2008 12:54 PM, JIM DOHERTY < jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> 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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