DEAD CITY

by Shane Stevens ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 20, 1973

One of the uglier practitioners of organized crime (Go Down Dead) has written another one of those Godfather procedurals tracing various activities which take place under the ever-watchful-eye-and-venal-hand of the Syndicate all the way from the massage to the funeral parlor. Specifically this is concerned with the South Jersey territory (Newark, Bayonne, Jersey City, et al.) and Joe Zucco who engages in loansharking, cigarette bootlegging and extortion (i.e., moving in and taking over a business); Charley Flowers, his hired muscle; and Harry Strega, a Viet vet. The sex is lubricious enough but Stevens is really more interested in out-and-out brutality (cf. Ginger, the knife artist, as he slices up and debones a man -- or the inset where the head of a victim is delivered to Zucco at the dinner table where his brains are eaten tartare). Stevens manages to keep his story moving but it's hard to think of it as anything more than a gutspill -- sans heart, sans conscience, and sans everything except a certain shameful readability factor.

Pub Date: Sept. 20, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1973

Categories: FICTION