This starts off with a missed hit and a phone call that says, “you missed, it’s my turn.”
Right off from the cover art and this opening chapter I thought this was going to be a back and forth, killer versus killer story. Many mentions of “human being the ultimate game” type comments. One of the main characters is even a big game hunter. That premise didn’t really appeal to me. I could just imagine how tedious it would get like that boring movie Killing Season with Robert DeNiro and John Travolta (where he plays a Serbian. Ha!)
I kept reading though and was pleasantly surprised. What we have here is a Russian Doll mystery with killer vigilante flavor. Each answer leads to another question. It’s simplistically laid out for you also. The main character even makes a freaking list in the book of what the riddles are that need solved.
There are four friends set to play poker that evening but one doesn’t make it as he’s been methodically beaten with a blackjack that separated each and every one of the muscles in his body, leaving him alive and in incredible pain. The remaining three meet at the hospital just in time to get some cryptic dying words before his heart putters out.
The three swear vengeance upon the maniac who would do something like this to their friend.
One, as previously stated, is a big game hunter and a salesman, the other is a philosophy teacher at the local college and the main character is in marketing.
You’d think it would be the big game hunter who is screaming for blood but it’s actually the philosophy teacher. Such an odd choice that I found refreshing. I mean, why not? A philosophy teacher is a human being also with the same emotions running through their body. You would figure a big game hunter would be the one gung-ho for hunting down the killers, but I guess it is possible that they actually just like the “sport” of killing big, beautiful innocent animals and don’t get off on the actual murder. I doubt it, but it is possible.
The star of the book is the marketing guy. He solves riddles in his best backdoor Sherlock Holmes way. He pushes the story forward and is the point man in the shooting department. He lacks a certain emotion, and all of his actions seem to come from a place of logic. I mean, he’s not Mr. Spock or anything, he definitely gets angry, but he has a coldness about him. Sure, why does a marketing guy have all these assets of a professional killer? Once again…why not?! You don’t think there are people out there leading mundane lives with that aptitude dormant inside them?
I definitely don’t want to give anything away here but obviously their dead friends’ life had some secrets of a nefarious nature.
Are they actually the hunters or are they being hunted? It builds on paranoia and the mystery is not only who are these people who orchestrated the death of their friend but are these same people aware of the three and their intentions of revenge.
This thing has mystery after mystery as the three avenge their fallen buddy. His world unravels as they hunt down the persons responsible. You never see any of it coming. At least I didn’t. It’s actually quite brilliant which is surprising considering how basic the actual prose was. It’s also not straight forward. It will leave you on a big reveal and then drop you in what you think is the next move but its actually a few steps ahead and then while the story is continuing on it fills in the gaps of the steps. It’s brilliant in that way. Almost pseudo-linear but not as out of sync as say like Pulp Fiction. Every page of this I was enthralled to know what was coming next. A page turner, as they say.
After I finished this I set it down and thought, this might have been the best mystery book I’ve ever read. A couple weeks later as I write this I don’t know if I’d go exactly that far but it was without a doubt the most exciting mystery book I’ve ever read and though I have seen a couple reviews online the contrary to this, I found it completely satisfying, end and all.
Avon Books 1972
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