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.357 Vigilante #1
357: Vigilante
Good reading copy. Some wear from normal use and age.
195 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 19, 2022
"Who do you think you are, Charles F@ing Bronson?" That's what a street punk asks our vigilante right before he dies in this Death Wish clone that turns out to be a really good read. This book breaks no new ground. It's pretty much paint by numbers, but it's the kind of art I like.
Brett Macklin wakes up one day to find his father butchered in the streets of L.A. where he was a cop. All clues lead back to a gang calling themselves, The Bounty Hunters. The charges don't stick and they are released back into society. This does not sit well with Brett. He takes up his father's .357 and becomes "The Jury." The vigilante that takes out The Bounty Hunters. He also uncovers a sinister plot in the workings of city government. It's reach spreads through the city. He sees that he has a lot of work to do.
Brett Macklin wakes up one day to find his father butchered in the streets of L.A. where he was a cop. All clues lead back to a gang calling themselves, The Bounty Hunters. The charges don't stick and they are released back into society. This does not sit well with Brett. He takes up his father's .357 and becomes "The Jury." The vigilante that takes out The Bounty Hunters. He also uncovers a sinister plot in the workings of city government. It's reach spreads through the city. He sees that he has a lot of work to do.
June 22, 2017
This series interests me greatly. To give my reaction to this first entry into the .357 Vigilante series, I should mention that I read the second book in the series, Make Them Pay, back in 2007. My review then (http://scottsbookshelf.blogspot.com/2...) remarked on how campy, over-the-top, and tongue-in-cheek the series appeared to be, which caused disagreement between the two co-authors of the series when it was released under the name Ian Ludlow. Lewis Perdue agreed with my assessment ("It was SUPPOSED to be over-the-top bad."), while Lee Goldberg defended the series as a "light satire" of men's action series.
Now to the present, where the original three volumes of .357 Vigilante have been reprinted as eBooks - along with the fourth unpublished entry in the short-lived series - as The Jury series by Lee Goldberg. While I have no information as to why Perdue's name is not connected, my assumption is that rights were reverted to or purchased by Goldberg (or he's a silent partner, who knows), who is now cranking out books left and right. Be sure to check out his Amazon page or website for the latest.
So, the reason for this backstory just to review .357 Vigilante, aka Judgement? Because there is a serious shift in tone from the first book to the second that I was not aware of when reviewing the second novel (yet another reason not to jump into a series mid-stream). .357 Vigilante/Judgement plays the genre straight in this origin story, which includes the introduction of Mr. Jury/.357 Vigilante hero Brett Macklin -
is that a crime-fighting name or what? - whose personal loss turns him into a one-man jury. (Doesn't it always?) Gone are the cheesy puns and inventive criminal take-downs; this is kill-or-be-killed action-adventure vigilante pulp adventure fiction through and through. Not that there aren't the typical Men's Adventure genre cliches involved that might be taken less than seriously. Besides the usual Tragic-Event-Creates-Vigilante trope, there's the Religious Leader/Criminal Mastermind plot hat wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't a)So predictable, b)So cliche, and c)Anti-climactic with the expected over-the-top showdown at the end. Add to this an epilogue with a Mayor/Vigilante meeting that is very reminiscent to the Police Chief/Vigilante plot setup of Death Wish 3, and you have a beginning of the .357 Vigilante/Judgement series that is NOT purposely campy and tongue-in-cheek like Make Them Pay/Adjourned, but only because it seems to lack the self-awareness to do so.
If .357 Vigilante/Judgement was meant to be "light satire" of Men's Adventure novels, it feels as if the satire aspect gave way to direct mimicry in the first book, then bottomed out into dead-pan parody in the second. Oddly enough, this doesn't make either of them less enjoyable, just enjoyable in different ways that both work well in such a pseudo-serious genre. If you can't enjoy the absurdity of it all, you don't deserve justice!
Now to the present, where the original three volumes of .357 Vigilante have been reprinted as eBooks - along with the fourth unpublished entry in the short-lived series - as The Jury series by Lee Goldberg. While I have no information as to why Perdue's name is not connected, my assumption is that rights were reverted to or purchased by Goldberg (or he's a silent partner, who knows), who is now cranking out books left and right. Be sure to check out his Amazon page or website for the latest.
So, the reason for this backstory just to review .357 Vigilante, aka Judgement? Because there is a serious shift in tone from the first book to the second that I was not aware of when reviewing the second novel (yet another reason not to jump into a series mid-stream). .357 Vigilante/Judgement plays the genre straight in this origin story, which includes the introduction of Mr. Jury/.357 Vigilante hero Brett Macklin -
is that a crime-fighting name or what? - whose personal loss turns him into a one-man jury. (Doesn't it always?) Gone are the cheesy puns and inventive criminal take-downs; this is kill-or-be-killed action-adventure vigilante pulp adventure fiction through and through. Not that there aren't the typical Men's Adventure genre cliches involved that might be taken less than seriously. Besides the usual Tragic-Event-Creates-Vigilante trope, there's the Religious Leader/Criminal Mastermind plot hat wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't a)So predictable, b)So cliche, and c)Anti-climactic with the expected over-the-top showdown at the end. Add to this an epilogue with a Mayor/Vigilante meeting that is very reminiscent to the Police Chief/Vigilante plot setup of Death Wish 3, and you have a beginning of the .357 Vigilante/Judgement series that is NOT purposely campy and tongue-in-cheek like Make Them Pay/Adjourned, but only because it seems to lack the self-awareness to do so.
If .357 Vigilante/Judgement was meant to be "light satire" of Men's Adventure novels, it feels as if the satire aspect gave way to direct mimicry in the first book, then bottomed out into dead-pan parody in the second. Oddly enough, this doesn't make either of them less enjoyable, just enjoyable in different ways that both work well in such a pseudo-serious genre. If you can't enjoy the absurdity of it all, you don't deserve justice!
June 23, 2017
Paint by numbers with a pretty unlikeable protagonist who abruptly turns into a murdering vigilante without any real attempt to give weight to the idea that maybe it's wrong. The cops are painted as totally useless or corrupt and the side plot about the evil televangelist seems tacked on. The ending that sets up a sequel is super rushed and almost laughable... SPOILER: the mayor wants him to be a vigilante because he knows the cops can't handle the gang problem... really? It's like someone saw Death Wish and missed the point, then made a much crappier version. Also, what was with the constant mention of TAB soda? Was product placement a thing in these books at the time?
April 19, 2010
Since no one else has reviewed this book, I will. I was hoping it would be a light, quick read. I didn't expect brilliance, but wanted a competent bust-em-up yarn. I didn't get it. The dialogue was crap and not believable. The chain of events was nonsensical and the main character could have taken a bath in battery acid for all I cared. I didn't expect much, but got less.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews