Admit it: We all secretly root for the bad guys. Just look at the crime genre in books. Donald Westlake alone came up with two great bad guys in Parker and Dortmunder. You actually want these two criminals to pull off their schemes. So I present three novels in which the bad guy takes center stage. People will always be drawn to the criminal element, even if they are loathsome. The bad guys always come off as cool, while the good guys seems like milk and Dudley Do-Right.
THE BOOSTER by Eugene Izzi — The author is best known for the bizarre circumstances surrounding his death. I’ve always been on the lookout for his books to cover. Well, now that I’ve actually read this one from 1989, I’ll probably pass on others. The title refers to Bolo, a retired safecracker who runs a bar. He is contacted by a mob figure who wants him to do one last job: breaking into an apartment in the Sears Tower, by way of the outside.
That sounds like a great plot to hang a book on, but sadly, it takes close to 200 pages until the job is actually done, let alone planned. Izzi takes a long time to set up the story, being more concerned with the television habits of crooks or former Chicago Bears who make a small cameo. Yes, Walter Payton was one of the best players, but you really don’t need to insert him into a bar scene just to say, “Look at me! I love the Bears!” It would be like Stephen King writing about a player for the Boston Red Sox — oh, wait, he did.
The book just reeks of the time it was written, with references to MIAMI VICE and CRIME STORY that are sure to lose anyone under 30. The only things missing would be one of the crooks wearing a Members Only jacket, with a copy of THRILLER on his stereo. Another problem is that some of these folks are just plain unlikable. These are the type of crooks who would turn on each other faster than a speeding bullet, especially once the robbery goes down, which takes all of three paragraphs. It seems that Izzi figured the only way to end the book was make it “every man for himself.”
Maybe his other books are better, but I won’t be rushing into any of them, especially if they are populated with more of the biggest assholes in crime fiction.
THE CONNECTOR by Tony Williamson — This is a bit more like it: pure spies and giant heists. That should be a given, since Williamson got his start writing scripts for THE AVENGERS, THE PERSUADERS and JASON KING. If you’re a fan of any of those old great shows, you know what to expect from this 1976 novel, with the added bonus that there is no TV censor cutting out the fun bits.
Lee Corey is a bad guy … or so we are to believe. At the start of the book, he’s part of a giant diamond heist, in which he proves himself so well that he is about to make contact with a mastermind called The Connector. That is when a simple phone call reveals the truth that Lee is actually an agent working deep undercover to finally get close enough to that mastermind.
See, The Connector — who is also known by his given name, Ryker — is all about the grand plan. He’s the type of criminal who works out every angle to the point of precision, while he sits backs and hires a crew to do his dirty work. Lee can’t believe he has gotten this close, until he finds out one of his first jobs: breaking into a German prison to free a German radical. Lee doesn’t know what to do — he can’t blow the operation or else he will blow his cover — so he tries to tip off his bosses as best as he can, knowing full well he will still have to take part.
But what does The Connector need with a German radical? It becomes apparent once the real plan is explained — a plan so large and dangerous that The Connector himself will be taking part. Throw in your obligatory girl who is involved to help out her family and you have yourself a tight little spy thriller. No one is going to confuse this with the highbrow works of John le Carré … or even the lowbrow efforts of Nick Carter. Still, it has plenty of action with just enough suspense to keep readers glued to the end, which is fine by me, since it was pure escapism with just enough realism to make it believable.
THE DESTROYER #56: ENCOUNTER GROUP by Warren Murphy and Will Murray — As with this 1984 effort, the DESTROYER series has the most colorful collection of bad guys ever. Sure, they are extreme versions of archetypes, but that is why they’re so much fun to read. This time, the book could have been called REMO VS. E.T., with the added bonus of a feminist leader who makes Gloria Steinem look like a participant on GIRLS GONE WILD.
This woman, Amanda Shultz, is so extreme in her beliefs, it’s just hysterical. I won’t go into the details, but the first chapter alone made me do a few spit takes. Amanda gets swept up in the UFO conspiracy world, thanks to her encounter with an alien who calls himself “the world master” and wants her to get her hands on a nuclear warhead for him.
Enter Remo Williams and Chiun to the rescue. As most people know, UFOs don’t exist — sorry to break the news to you tinfoil-hat-wearing folks. The book follows the basic setup of those that have preceded it, with Chiun doing his best to antagonize Remo, this time with a Rubik’s Cube and a belief that the alien has a connection to Sinanju.
There’s also a Russian spy whose love for tacos drives him throughout the story, which has its requisite action, with humor to go along with the gore. Remo only has some minor work to do in this one, since Amanda turns into a trigger-happy harpy by the end. But still, it’s pretty funny to read Chiun deal with a nuclear missile that is launching while he is standing on the warhead itself.
Next time: Freebird! —Bruce Grossman
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THE DESTROYER SERIES:
• THE BEST OF THE DESTROYER by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir
• THE DESTROYER #5: DR. QUAKE by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #6: DEATH THERAPY by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #9: MURDER’S SHIELD by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #10: TERROR SQUAD by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #11: KILL OR CURE by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #13: ACID ROCK by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #14: JUDGMENT DAY by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #15: MURDER WARD by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #17: LAST WAR DANCE by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #18: FUNNY MONEY by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #19: HOLY TERROR by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #22: BRAIN DRAIN by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #23: CHILD’S PLAY by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #24: KING’S CURSE by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #26: IN ENEMY HANDS by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #30: MUGGER BLOOD by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #32: KILLER CHROMOSOMES by Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #38: BAY CITY BLAST by Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #39: MISSING LINK by Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #41: FIRING LINE by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir
• THE DESTROYER #45: SPOILS OF WAR by Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #46: NEXT OF KIN by Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #48: PROFIT MOTIVE by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #49: SKIN DEEP by Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #52: FOOL’S GOLD by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #55: MASTER’S CHALLENGE by Will Murray
• THE DESTROYER #67: LOOK INTO MY EYES by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #78: BLUE SMOKE AND MIRRORS by Will Murray
• THE DESTROYER #89: DARK HORSE by Will Murray
• THE DESTROYER #104: ANGRY WHITE MAILMEN by Will Murray
• THE DESTROYER #145: DRAGON BONES by Tim Somheil
• THE NEW DESTROYER: CHOKE HOLD by Warren Murphy and James Mullaney
• THE NEW DESTROYER: DEAD RECKONING by Warren Murphy and James Mullaney
• THE NEW DESTROYER: GUARDIAN ANGEL by Warren Murphy and James Mullaney
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF WARREN MURPHY:
• GRANDMASTER by Warren Murphy
• TRACE: GETTING UP WITH FLEAS by Warren Murphy
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- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Reading Rainbow
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Hail to the King
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Don’t give up on Izzi entirely. He diffidently was a product of his times and injected way too much character into his stories, (alla Stephen King)but he did pump out some decent novels. Check out Invasions if you run across it. It’s fast paced, well written, and reads like it wasn’t edited by a room full of monkeys (which is another major issue with his novels, it seemed like he never worked with an editor to help shape the novels or one that was willing to tell him what to cut and what to keep in.)
At some point I’ll try another Izzi book which means probably in three years or so.