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Upgunned
Elias McCabe is having one hell of a night: He gets kidnapped at gunpoint by a professional hit man and is forced to shoot blackmail photos of a prominent politician. Things go wrong with the shoot... very wrong. When the night is over, Elias is scared to death ... and ten thousand dollars richer. If he keeps his mouth shut. But he doesn't -- and now the hit man has targeted him for payback. As a desperate amateur in the games of death, Elias is up against a seasoned pro. As his entire life slides into the abyss, he has to stay alive by inventing new ways, moment-by-moment, to avoid, misdirect, and finally confront his ever-more-determined murderer as corpses and collateral damage stack up coast-to-coast in their wake.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published February 14, 2012
4 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
David J. Schow
197 books146 followersDavid J. Schow is an American author of horror novels, short stories, and screenplays, associated with the "splatterpunk" movement of the late '80s and early '90s. Most recently he has moved into the crime genre.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 1, 2013
Elias McCabe is a pro photographer. He gets forced by a hitman to take some blackmail pics of a politician. Unfortunately the politician ends up dead! If Elias keeps his mouth shut he gets to go free, with ten grand! But he doesn't and now it's payback... Another great read, hot on the heels of INTERNECINE, by former splatterpunk, Dave Schow. The new king of hard case crime.
July 15, 2012
This one is so much out of the Warren Ellis playbook that I'm surprised it doesn't have a blurb from him
on the cover. It is a straightforward thriller, peppered with [highly implausible] anecdotes about a host of the messed up things humanity
has to offer. Tell me that doesn't sound like Crooked Little Vein.
Fortunatly, I liked Crooked Little Vein quite a lot, and I liked this one too.
It starts as a straightforward, if hard-edged, thriller: a cynical photographer, narrating in the first person
is kidnapped by a psychopath and made to take some blackmail photographs.
But the reader is surprised (at least I was) when in the second chapter the point of view flips and we get the
story from the psychopath's point of view.
Chambers, the aforementioned psychopath, has a great voice and is a very interesting character.
Unfortunately, he's also so unredeemably nasty that there's no real way to root for him. The thing that
would have elevated this novel from pretty good to amazing would have been a story line that offered the reader a
real choice.
There are a miriad of other flaws: the denoument is weak. The main character is really tremendously ineffective.
But overall this is a fun ultraviolent romp through hollywood's seamy underbelly. I will be checking out the author's other work.*
* Which, incidentally includes the screenplay for the Crow, which I've seen, and leads to a creepy bit of in-world
verisimilitude when the weapons handler on a movie set discusses with great seriousness the changes in weapons safety following
brandon lee's death on the set of The Crow.
on the cover. It is a straightforward thriller, peppered with [highly implausible] anecdotes about a host of the messed up things humanity
has to offer. Tell me that doesn't sound like Crooked Little Vein.
Fortunatly, I liked Crooked Little Vein quite a lot, and I liked this one too.
It starts as a straightforward, if hard-edged, thriller: a cynical photographer, narrating in the first person
is kidnapped by a psychopath and made to take some blackmail photographs.
But the reader is surprised (at least I was) when in the second chapter the point of view flips and we get the
story from the psychopath's point of view.
Chambers, the aforementioned psychopath, has a great voice and is a very interesting character.
Unfortunately, he's also so unredeemably nasty that there's no real way to root for him. The thing that
would have elevated this novel from pretty good to amazing would have been a story line that offered the reader a
real choice.
There are a miriad of other flaws: the denoument is weak. The main character is really tremendously ineffective.
But overall this is a fun ultraviolent romp through hollywood's seamy underbelly. I will be checking out the author's other work.*
* Which, incidentally includes the screenplay for the Crow, which I've seen, and leads to a creepy bit of in-world
verisimilitude when the weapons handler on a movie set discusses with great seriousness the changes in weapons safety following
brandon lee's death on the set of The Crow.
March 2, 2012
“Upgunned” By David J. Schow, published by Thomas Dunne Books.
Category – Mystery/Thriller
Elias McCabe is a photographer that keeps himself afloat by delving into the world of pornography. One night he is asked to take pictures of a politician that would put him in a very compromising position. Trouble is, the politician dies and the pictures are still taken even thought he is dead. Elias is paid a substantial amount of money if he just keeps his mouth shut, he can’t and he doesn’t.
Chambers, who is the one responsible to see that this is accomplished, feels he must silence McCabe for his indiscretion. Chambers finds that McCabe is not his only problem but there are now at least nine other people who must also be eliminated.
Chambers leaves a trail of dead bodies but is unable to locate McCabe who has taken on a new identity working for a film producer.
Chambers, in running down McCabe, finds that McCabe has become very resourceful in staying alive while those around him are losing their lives.
It all comes down to a show down in a movie lot that has Chambers severely hampered by a serious eye injury and being impaired by a venom bite. McCabe, a neophyte when it comes to guns and killing, must find a way to outsmart Chambers.
This book is unusual in that each scene is told from a different perspective. One chapter will play out from the eyes of McCabe and the next will replicate the same scene but from the viewpoint of Chambers. Very different and very effective. The book is very well written but does contain violence and sexual content.
Category – Mystery/Thriller
Elias McCabe is a photographer that keeps himself afloat by delving into the world of pornography. One night he is asked to take pictures of a politician that would put him in a very compromising position. Trouble is, the politician dies and the pictures are still taken even thought he is dead. Elias is paid a substantial amount of money if he just keeps his mouth shut, he can’t and he doesn’t.
Chambers, who is the one responsible to see that this is accomplished, feels he must silence McCabe for his indiscretion. Chambers finds that McCabe is not his only problem but there are now at least nine other people who must also be eliminated.
Chambers leaves a trail of dead bodies but is unable to locate McCabe who has taken on a new identity working for a film producer.
Chambers, in running down McCabe, finds that McCabe has become very resourceful in staying alive while those around him are losing their lives.
It all comes down to a show down in a movie lot that has Chambers severely hampered by a serious eye injury and being impaired by a venom bite. McCabe, a neophyte when it comes to guns and killing, must find a way to outsmart Chambers.
This book is unusual in that each scene is told from a different perspective. One chapter will play out from the eyes of McCabe and the next will replicate the same scene but from the viewpoint of Chambers. Very different and very effective. The book is very well written but does contain violence and sexual content.
June 19, 2012
It's a duel of wills between a fashion photographer and a deadly assassin that's an electric ride from start to finish. And along the way, the reader is treated to a wealth of information about photography, weapons, film-making, and the 'shadow world' of hired killers.
Elite LA fashion photographer, Elias McCabe, is kidnapped by a hit-team and forced to photograph an influential SWAT team leader in compromising sexual situations. Yet when the man accidentally dies, they finish the lurid smear campaign using the man's corpse. At the end of the encounter, McCabe escapes when Gun Guy, the hit-team leader, is partially blinded in a darkroom accident. What follows is a vicious game of 'cat and mouse' which kept me reading through the night. Wildly Entertaining!!
Elite LA fashion photographer, Elias McCabe, is kidnapped by a hit-team and forced to photograph an influential SWAT team leader in compromising sexual situations. Yet when the man accidentally dies, they finish the lurid smear campaign using the man's corpse. At the end of the encounter, McCabe escapes when Gun Guy, the hit-team leader, is partially blinded in a darkroom accident. What follows is a vicious game of 'cat and mouse' which kept me reading through the night. Wildly Entertaining!!
December 4, 2012
I dont really like ultraviolent thrillers, except when I do. This one got blurbed by people I like, and sounded interesting, so I thought I might enjoy it. But alas I didn't. I think it did what it did solidly, but not remarkably.
August 8, 2013
YO more neologisms than Dos Passos. Smart and surprising. Believe the gun-porn hype, but don't confuse it for brainlessness.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews