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Tom Savage Scavenger
Signet 2000 0451200284 / 9780451200280 Paperback Very Good
0451200284 0451200284 From Publishers Weekly Savage enters the realm of the serial killer with this blood-soaked tale, whose creepy killer goes by the name the Family Man. He's acquired this epithet because he wipes out entire familiesApets includedAthen poses the bodies in scenes of domestic contentment, such as sitting around the fireplace or in front of the Christmas tree. Now, more than a decade after the last of these unsolved murders, mystery writer Mark Stevenson has just published a bestselling novel based on the horrific crimes. Taped to the door of his Greenwich Village apartment, Stevenson discovers a computer diskette that contains a message from a person calling himself Scavenger, who hints that he knows the truth behind the Family Man case. Scavenger says he will tell all, as long as Stevenson is willing to play a game of scavenger hunt. The writer agrees, following a series of clues that lead him to each of the crime scenesANew Orleans, Los Angeles, rural Illinois and two in New York. Along the way, he runs across more dead bodies and escapes the deadly clutches of someone who's following his every move. Why would Stevenson agree to play such a macabre and dangerous game? Unbeknownst to almost everyone, he's the lone survivor of one of the families that was slaughtered, and he wants revenge. He finally gets the chance in the inevitable showdown in an abandoned farmhouse outside New York City. Savage (Valentine; Inheritance) keeps his story briskly paced, yet several scenes strain believability and much of the dialogue and descriptions are overly dramatic. The homestretch of the novel is laden with guessable revelations and a disappointingly thin explanation for what's behind the Family Man's monstrous behavior. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Library Journal This intricate thriller begins with another. Mark Stevenson's new novel is a thinly disguised recounting of the exploits of "The Family Man," an elusive serial killer who killed entire families (including housekeepers and pets) across the countryAand then stopped suddenly without being apprehended. The novel attracts the attention of the mysterious "Scavenger," who challenges Mark to a scavenger hunt. If Mark follows the clues and successfully finds all of the prizes, he will eventually be led to the Family Man's identity. How could any writer resist? What follows is an irresistible and deadly contest with a truly surprising and twisted ending. Savage's fourth thriller (after The Inheritance) is a real winner; you'll be tempted to cheat and read the ending half way through. Fans of James Patterson will be delighted. Recommended.ARebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, IN Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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1.69 USD
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Tom Savage The Inheritance
Signet 1999 0451198484 / 9780451198488 Paperback Very Good
0451198484 0451198484 From Publishers Weekly Savage has garnered plenty of praise for plotting and taut prose of previous thrillers, including Valentine (1996). He takes a different, less successful turn in this unabashedly old-fashioned gothic mystery?weighted with cliches, contrivance and coincidence?about a young woman who learns that she's the heiress to a fabulous, haunted fortune. Fullsome lines like "That snowy twentieth of December, the day of the next death" (offered as a sentence) may attempt to parody the gothic novel but in effect interrupt the flow of the complicated narrative. A dying old woman, Alicia Randall Wainwright, instructs a lawyer to track down the baby girl who was born in prison and given up for adoption after her actress mother shot and killed her husband, Alicia's nephew, James Randall. That's how Holly Smith of Indio, Calif., learns that she is really Holly Randall, owner of a vast estate in Connecticut and assorted extras adding up to a $600 million fortune. There are, to be sure, a few small drawbacks: an uncle and aunt who want Holly dead badly enough to hire a Mafia hit man; an eccentric, chess-playing relative who hides in the attic; a young woman who roams the estate at night, burying and digging up a doll. Holly is perky and beautiful, so she seems equal to the task of being a Randall?especially as she has a few sly tricks up her own sleeve. Savage exhibits skillful craftsmanship here but doesn't seem to have his heart in it. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Kirkus Reviews It purports to be a gothic novel, but any self-respecting gothic ought to generate a chill or two. This one doesn't. When we first meet incredibly beautiful Holly Smitha figure firmly rooted in romance fictionshe's just discovered that she's not Holly Smith at all. She's Holly Randall. For reasons too complex to detail here, she was given away as a newborn to this nice California couple who raised her to be a proper middle-class girl with modest middle-class aspirations. Now, suddenly, she finds herself an heir to a great estate. Among a whole passel of worldly goods that she stands to inherit is the Randall manse, which, from a distance, looks ``perfectly innocent.'' But ``appearances are deceiving,'' we're told. Consider Catherine and John Randallon the surface splendid, at the core obligatorily rotten. These are the Randalls whom Holly is usurping. It will surprise no one that they hate her. They decide in an eyeblink that a hit man is their sole sensible recourse, then set about hiring one. Actually, the general population of Randall House loves to hate, and loves to act mysteriously. Who, for instance, is that cowled person prowling the premises at night? Who is the strange young woman obsessively burying a totemic baby? Around these and other enigmatic figures the plot twists, tirelessly. But where there's no spark of life, there's nothing to raise a goosebump. Pedestrian prose, stilted dialogue, wooden and/or overfamiliar characters. In his third time out (Valentine, 1994; Precipice, 1995, etc.), Savage takes a step back. -- Copyright ?
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Tom Savage Valentine: A Novel
Little Brown & Co (T) 0316771643 / 9780316771641 Hardcover Good
0316771643 0316771643 Former library book with the usual markings and stickers, otherwise clean inside and out
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