AN EYE FOR AN EYE

by Mark Schorr ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 10, 1989

Schorr, author of the strained Red Diamond series and a 1986 spy story, The Borzoi Control (by ""Scott Ellis""), turns to a more straightforward genre here: an abruptly retired police officer looking for private revenge for the eponymous injury. The plot could be a screenplay for Clint Eastwood--or Road Runner. A Los Angeles SWAT team making a routine drug bust runs into a booby trap that leaves two officers dead and a third, Bob Odin, minus an eye and a job. Feeling painfully at odds with his ""hero cop"" role, Odin passes the time romancing an old adversary, feisty nurse Jan Golden, while his hatred simmers and his amateurish investigations take him closer to Gary Mokley, the dealer he'd been after when the lights went out. An anonymous call--courtesy of gangland boss Nicky Provenzano and corrupt Assistant Chief Fred Fleming--takes Odin to Mokley, but instead of killing him, he turns him in, realizing when the police arrive moments later that he's been set up, and becoming convinced, when Mokley's killed in the prison infirmary, that Mokley didn't set the bomb after all. A more reflective hero might begin wondering at this point just how he could ever get revenge and what he was trying to do in getting it; but Odin, who's made of sterner though simpler stuff, merely adjusts his sights to a new target, as author Schorr provides the obligatory backdrop: a friendly martial-arts expert barring Odin from his tojo until he's worked out his emotions; Odin's ""invulnerable"" black partner trusting the wrong people and getting his head blown off; Jan Golden warning Odin that he's going to lose the vision in his good eye if he doesn't lay off; and Golden getting kidnapped by Provenzano's goons to set up the bloody final showdown. Cartoon characters act out an action-packed revenge fantasy that won't tax anybody's intelligence.

Pub Date: Oct. 10, 1989

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1989

Categories: FICTION