Death Games: A Novel

by Mike Jahn

Overview

Why is a beauty from the horse country of Virginia stalking and killing mobsters with a Civil War pistol? The top brass of the New York Police Department think she’s a hired killer. But Bill Donovan, head of the West Side Major Crimes Unit, knows it’s much more complicated. And before long the mysterious “hit lady” has drawn him into a web of international intrigue, revenge, and death.

Characters to watch are assorted Mafia hoods; a passel of eccentrics who live at the Seventy-ninth Street Boat Basin; the regulars at Riley’s saloon—Donovan’s favorite hangout and (perhaps) Clint, Donovan’s ill-tempered snapping turtle. Also on hand are Sgt. T. L. Jefferson, Donovan’s redoubtable assistant, and Sgt. Marcia Barnes, the black undercover policewoman who is his on-again, off-again lover. Here’s another jaunty big city thriller by the author of the much acclaimed Night Rituals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393332339
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/12/1987
Series:	Bill Donovan Mystery Ser.
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

Editorial Reviews

Bill Donovan, head of the West Side major crimes unit, has an unusual problem to solve. Somebody is going around Manhattan shooting the likes of Frankie Rigili, Vincent Ciccia and other Mafiosi with an antique revolver that the police lab says is at least 100 years old. Moreover, the assassin appears to be a very pretty and patrician young woman. At first Donovan figures the hit lady must be a specialist hired by Timmons, a black thug. But then it turns out that the killer's backers have somehow managed to wiretap the New York Police Department and are tied in with the federal super-cop organizations. Unfazed, Donovan pushes his investigation to a bloody denouement, in which a Newport yachting club is trashed in the midst of the America's Cup. Jahn provides plenty of shoot-'em-up action, but the New York wise-guy dialogue sounds tinny to a native ear, and the plot device of 1940s-style Mafia hoods cavorting on today's Upper West Side is a disconcerting anachronism. The characters in the novel display quirks rather than real character. Lieutenant Donovan, for example, maintains a large snapping turtle in a bathtub. (September 28)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Using a Civil War Colt 44 revolver, a beautiful hit woman is killing the leaders of organized crime on Manhattan's West Side. Police Lieutenant Bill Donovan and his partner, Sergeant Jefferson, must sort out the murders and prevent a threatening underworld slaughter. But all is not what it appears to be and the swift-moving denoument arrives with all the suddenness of a thunderclap. Too many coincidences make the detection a trifle contrived, but Jahn, who won the Edgar for The Quark Maneuver , writes smooth prose that keeps the reader's interest to the end. JV

Library Journal