SHOW ME A HERO

by Patrick Alexander ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1980

Political melodrama--heavy on betrayal and hardware--in a future Britain ruled by Marxist military tyranny. The hero of the new resistance movement (OPSCOM) is Tom Ashman: he's on the Ten Most Wanted list, he's known as ""the Falcon,"" and he has a scheme for funding Operation Volcano, the uprising of the armed forces, by robbing gold bullion from a state bank on the top floor of a skyscraper. Ashman, a cross between Che Guevara and Robin Hood, is also a carpenter by trade--like Jesus--and the robbery takes place on Passion Sunday; and, despite the fact that OPSCOM has been infiltrated by Colonel Cunningham's government intelligence unit, the heist goes off blazingly well, providing the novel's best moments. But the getaway is foiled and Ashman is captured (through betrayal) by Cunningham, though the gold gets safely into resistance hands. So, while Ashman is being tortured for details over the coming coup d'État--with time-outs between torturings for Cunningham/Ashman dialogues about political power--the terrorists mount their operation. Then Ashman's mistress Beth is captured and, after a farewell love scene, he murders her in his cell, mistakenly believing she betrayed him. . . . The pathetic tragedy's coda is an Orwellian merger of power between the subversives and the tyrants--the state carries on as before. But Alexander (Death of a Thin-Skinned Animal, 1977) brings only a heavy hand to that familiar theme; and, notwithstanding the intermittent pretentiousness, this works best when it's content to be lively, fairly routine action-adventure.

Pub Date: May 1, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1980

Categories: FICTION