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Baby Shark #1
Baby Shark
In a roadside pool hall out west of Abilene, Kristin Van Dijk, 17, is forced by four thugs to watch the murder of three men, including her pool hustler father. She’s assaulted and beaten and left for dead as Henry Chin, a Chinese immigrant whose grown son was one of those murdered, saves her and secretly helps her recover. Because the local police show no interest in solving the pool hall crime, Henry hires a private investigator more set on justice than law to start a search for the nomadic killers. Then Henry hires two vets to teach Kristin how to protect herself. She develops into one tough package of trouble as she also perfects her pool. At eighteen, she looks for the thugs as she hustles pool in west Texas and earns the nickname Baby Shark. Revenge is difficult, but satisfying. Wonderfully drawn characters? as stark and beautiful as the Texas landscape from which they sprang. -- Billy Hayes, Midnight Express The writing is top notch, the story won’t let you stop reading, but who cares? Baby Shark is such a sexy cool character, I’m in love. -- Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller
270 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
Robert Fate
9 books16 followersRobert Fate Bealmea is an American author, best known for the Baby Shark series of mystery novels.
Born in 1935 in Oklahoma City, OK, Fate joined the US Marine Corps after High School. He used his GI Bill to go to schools in the US as well as the Sorbonne in Paris.
Before becoming a writer he worked in various fields and won an Oscar for his work in movie special effects.
Series:
* Baby Shark Mystery
Born in 1935 in Oklahoma City, OK, Fate joined the US Marine Corps after High School. He used his GI Bill to go to schools in the US as well as the Sorbonne in Paris.
Before becoming a writer he worked in various fields and won an Oscar for his work in movie special effects.
Series:
* Baby Shark Mystery
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
August 13, 2007
BABY SHARK (Suspense-Texas-1950s) – G+
Fate, Robert – 1st book
Capital Crime Press, 2006- Trade Paperback
*** Kristin Van Dijk is a young woman who travels with her father, a pool hustler. He hustles the wrong person in a small town in Texas resulting in his murder, the beating of the pool hall’s owner and his friend, Henry Chin, the murder of Henry’s son, the brutal beating and gang rape of Kristin and the burning down of the pool hall by a motorcycle gang and their leader whom Kristin names “Blue Eyes.” Henry saves Kristin from the fire, takes her off to heal. When they find the case has been buried by the police, Henry finds her teachers. Her classes are in pool, close-in fighting and shooting. Kristin’s focus is revenge and she emerges as “Baby Shark.”
*** I really vacillated on this one. Although I originally listed it in my Top Reads of 2006, the more I thought, the more it bothered me. It is well plotted and paced with a unique protagonist, strong characters and sense of place. They story grabbed me at page one and didn’t let go until the end. Kristin, Henry and Otis are wonderfully drawn; you can feel the relationship grow amongst them. I was appalled by what happened to Kristin, but also by the actions she then took. It is a book about violence, friendship, revenge and trust. It is also that age old question of legality, which failed in this case, versus justice. What changed my rating from Ex to G+ is purely personal. I have a problem with glorifying the anti-hero. I shall be interested to see how Fate avoids her becoming a one-dimensional in the future. Although I understand why so many people rated this at the top, I just couldn’t. This one is up to you.
Fate, Robert – 1st book
Capital Crime Press, 2006- Trade Paperback
*** Kristin Van Dijk is a young woman who travels with her father, a pool hustler. He hustles the wrong person in a small town in Texas resulting in his murder, the beating of the pool hall’s owner and his friend, Henry Chin, the murder of Henry’s son, the brutal beating and gang rape of Kristin and the burning down of the pool hall by a motorcycle gang and their leader whom Kristin names “Blue Eyes.” Henry saves Kristin from the fire, takes her off to heal. When they find the case has been buried by the police, Henry finds her teachers. Her classes are in pool, close-in fighting and shooting. Kristin’s focus is revenge and she emerges as “Baby Shark.”
*** I really vacillated on this one. Although I originally listed it in my Top Reads of 2006, the more I thought, the more it bothered me. It is well plotted and paced with a unique protagonist, strong characters and sense of place. They story grabbed me at page one and didn’t let go until the end. Kristin, Henry and Otis are wonderfully drawn; you can feel the relationship grow amongst them. I was appalled by what happened to Kristin, but also by the actions she then took. It is a book about violence, friendship, revenge and trust. It is also that age old question of legality, which failed in this case, versus justice. What changed my rating from Ex to G+ is purely personal. I have a problem with glorifying the anti-hero. I shall be interested to see how Fate avoids her becoming a one-dimensional in the future. Although I understand why so many people rated this at the top, I just couldn’t. This one is up to you.
June 26, 2009
This is not a book I would ever have picked up on a whim. The title is hokey. So is the author's name. It's set in Texas. That's three strikes against it right there. I lived in Texas as a boy (in fact I was there in 1954, when this novel is set) and it's a place I've pretty much successfully avoided ever since. But solely because Nikki gave a later book in the series a rave review with 5 stars, I decided to give this first one a try. It's the goods. The most successful revenge fantasy I've read in years. The first person heroine, Kristin Van Dijk, witnesses the brutal murder of her father and then is immediately beaten, gang-raped, and left for dead in a burning building, all in the first few pages. She survives, recovers, is trained by former commandos, and becomes a pretty, young, good-hearted, well-read, clever, remorseless, killing machine. (I said it was a fantasy...)The rest of the book describes her terrible vengeance on the four bad guys from the opening pages. Half-way through the book she's already dispatched three of them, and then things start to pick up speed. The secondary characters are wonderful. The dialogue is spot-on. I laughed. I cried. I haven't had this kind of pleasure since Odysseus offed Penelope's suitors. Kristin joins the ranks of admirable, indestructible female killers like Thomas Perry's Jane Whitefield, or Robert Tanenbaum's Marlene Ciampi. I will definitely be reading more of these. Thanks, Nikki.
November 5, 2010
Readers will be torn between wanting to protect Baby Shark, aka Kristen Van Dijk, and wanting her to protect them in Robert Fate’s debut novel, Baby Shark. The book is populated with a cast of characters that intrigue, frighten, and inspire all at once. As the various characters help Kristen to identify and enhance her strengths and recognize her weaknesses, readers will be forced to look at themselves a little bit closer while longing for this type of support system in their own lives. Anyone who has ever felt vulnerable will recognize the actions taken to achieve justice from their fantasies. Fate manages to give a sense of realism to the fantasies that live in the minds of the victimized. Baby Shark is a well written, fast paced read that will leave the reader cheering for Kristen and feeling her pain, determination, and strength. Kristen is a character readers will long to know better.
February 24, 2023
An entertaining novel about a young woman's revenge against the bikers who killed her father and left her for dead. Echoes of Tarantino like. First in a series.
June 30, 2023
My recent crime spree has taken me from Laos to Sweden and landed me in Texas, the setting for Robert Fate’s novel Baby Shark. Kristin Van Dijk is only seventeen when her father is murdered before her very eyes. She is left for dead after being sexually assaulted and beaten.
Although he lost his own son to the murderous biker gang, Henry Chin, owner of the pool hall where the crime went down, comes to Kristin’s rescue, pulling her out of the burning building and saving her life. Together, Kristin and Henry are determined to go after the men responsible for the deaths of their loved ones and for hurting Kristin. The police do not seem to care and someone has to pay the price of justice.
Baby Shark is set in Texas during the early 1950’s, a time before DNA testing, cell phones and computers. Women and minorities had their place in society and rarely stepped outside of that. Kristin broke the mold when she picked up the pool cue, following in her father’s footsteps, and trained to be a killer. She had been victimized once and instead of turning inward, she decided to face her fear and act out against it.
Kristin is both intelligent and quick on her feet. She has a hard outer shell, having built up her defenses to protect herself as best as she can. She can kill without remorse. And yet, she still holds onto her humanity. One of my favorite moments in the book is when she asks about the welfare of the dogs, knowing the owner will not be able to see to them anymore.
Robert Fate brings together an unlikely cast of characters. There is Henry Chin, the cabinet maker, who takes Kristin in and helps guide her down her new life path; Sarge, a World War II veteran, who teaches both Kristin and Henry how to fight; Albert, the one legged Korean War veteran who has a weakness for booze and whose knowledge in guns comes in handy; Harlan, a con man and pool hustler who mentors Kristin in the game of pool, shaping her into Baby Shark, a force to be reckoned with at the pool table; and Otis Millett, the former police officer now private investigator, who Henry hires to find the men behind the attack at the pool hall on that fateful night. Each of these men plays an important part in Kristin’s life as she transitions over from child to woman.
The novel is even more salient, coming from Kristin’s point of view. Robert Fate’s writing style is straight forward, and the story he has created is captivating. There was a split second near the beginning of the novel when I wondered if Baby Shark was for me, but that thought died a quick death the more I read. Baby Shark is one of those stories that grips hold of the reader and plays on the emotions. It is easy to understand why Kristin and Henry seek a justice of their own variety—and I cheered for them all along the way.
Although he lost his own son to the murderous biker gang, Henry Chin, owner of the pool hall where the crime went down, comes to Kristin’s rescue, pulling her out of the burning building and saving her life. Together, Kristin and Henry are determined to go after the men responsible for the deaths of their loved ones and for hurting Kristin. The police do not seem to care and someone has to pay the price of justice.
Baby Shark is set in Texas during the early 1950’s, a time before DNA testing, cell phones and computers. Women and minorities had their place in society and rarely stepped outside of that. Kristin broke the mold when she picked up the pool cue, following in her father’s footsteps, and trained to be a killer. She had been victimized once and instead of turning inward, she decided to face her fear and act out against it.
Kristin is both intelligent and quick on her feet. She has a hard outer shell, having built up her defenses to protect herself as best as she can. She can kill without remorse. And yet, she still holds onto her humanity. One of my favorite moments in the book is when she asks about the welfare of the dogs, knowing the owner will not be able to see to them anymore.
Robert Fate brings together an unlikely cast of characters. There is Henry Chin, the cabinet maker, who takes Kristin in and helps guide her down her new life path; Sarge, a World War II veteran, who teaches both Kristin and Henry how to fight; Albert, the one legged Korean War veteran who has a weakness for booze and whose knowledge in guns comes in handy; Harlan, a con man and pool hustler who mentors Kristin in the game of pool, shaping her into Baby Shark, a force to be reckoned with at the pool table; and Otis Millett, the former police officer now private investigator, who Henry hires to find the men behind the attack at the pool hall on that fateful night. Each of these men plays an important part in Kristin’s life as she transitions over from child to woman.
The novel is even more salient, coming from Kristin’s point of view. Robert Fate’s writing style is straight forward, and the story he has created is captivating. There was a split second near the beginning of the novel when I wondered if Baby Shark was for me, but that thought died a quick death the more I read. Baby Shark is one of those stories that grips hold of the reader and plays on the emotions. It is easy to understand why Kristin and Henry seek a justice of their own variety—and I cheered for them all along the way.
May 31, 2015
(I reviewed this as an ARC)
Stories of private eyes, especially female ones, occasionally give us a bit of backstory explaining how the protagonist got where she is. (For example, Charlaine Harris’s Lily Bard series does this in flashbacks and allusions to her rape and assault.) Mr. Fate’s protagonist, Kristin Van Dijk aka “Baby Shark,” has something in common with Lily, as we learn in the first chapter. She has been brutally gang-raped by a motorcycle gang
in an attack that also killed her father (her mother has died before the book opens). However, she also suffers from living in Texas in the early 1950’s, meaning that she must contend with all the prejudices of the
time and place about rape victims and women in general. The other survivor of the attack, who becomes a good friend to her, is a Chinese-American and has a whole other set of prejudices to deal with.
In addition, the police don’t seem very interested at all in tracking down the killers. What’s a girl to do? This book, the first of a series of which at least two more are to come, is apparently setting the stage
by giving us the whole story of how Kristin Van Dijk became Baby Shark.
If you do not like scenes of extreme violence, you should not read this book. It could easily be made into a movie by Quentin Tarantino or Sam Peckinpah (in which case I wouldn’t go – I can read it, I just can’t watch it).
Kristin or Baby Shark (her dad was a pool player and she becomes an even better one) is an exceptionally strong character, yet I found her believable (and yes, Robert Fate really is a man, and writes from a female point of view very well). Although she performs many acts that I would consider highly reprehensible in real life, I found her a sympathetic character. The book is full of action, but there is more to it than just a shoot-‘em-up. Baby Shark creates a new family for herself
with the few people she’s able to trust, and they are all intriguing characters. She also thinks about her own motivations and feelings in a very intelligent way.
I don’t normally like “noir” all that much, and in some ways this is a noir story. I also am heartily sick of coming-of-age stories, and in its way, this is one. Yet I could hardly put it down and finished it in one day. I’m eager to read the next two books in the series. If you can stand the heat, take a chance on Baby Shark when it comes out.
(Originally posted on DorothyL)
Stories of private eyes, especially female ones, occasionally give us a bit of backstory explaining how the protagonist got where she is. (For example, Charlaine Harris’s Lily Bard series does this in flashbacks and allusions to her rape and assault.) Mr. Fate’s protagonist, Kristin Van Dijk aka “Baby Shark,” has something in common with Lily, as we learn in the first chapter. She has been brutally gang-raped by a motorcycle gang
in an attack that also killed her father (her mother has died before the book opens). However, she also suffers from living in Texas in the early 1950’s, meaning that she must contend with all the prejudices of the
time and place about rape victims and women in general. The other survivor of the attack, who becomes a good friend to her, is a Chinese-American and has a whole other set of prejudices to deal with.
In addition, the police don’t seem very interested at all in tracking down the killers. What’s a girl to do? This book, the first of a series of which at least two more are to come, is apparently setting the stage
by giving us the whole story of how Kristin Van Dijk became Baby Shark.
If you do not like scenes of extreme violence, you should not read this book. It could easily be made into a movie by Quentin Tarantino or Sam Peckinpah (in which case I wouldn’t go – I can read it, I just can’t watch it).
Kristin or Baby Shark (her dad was a pool player and she becomes an even better one) is an exceptionally strong character, yet I found her believable (and yes, Robert Fate really is a man, and writes from a female point of view very well). Although she performs many acts that I would consider highly reprehensible in real life, I found her a sympathetic character. The book is full of action, but there is more to it than just a shoot-‘em-up. Baby Shark creates a new family for herself
with the few people she’s able to trust, and they are all intriguing characters. She also thinks about her own motivations and feelings in a very intelligent way.
I don’t normally like “noir” all that much, and in some ways this is a noir story. I also am heartily sick of coming-of-age stories, and in its way, this is one. Yet I could hardly put it down and finished it in one day. I’m eager to read the next two books in the series. If you can stand the heat, take a chance on Baby Shark when it comes out.
(Originally posted on DorothyL)
May 18, 2008
Baby Shark is not to be taken for granted. She can beat you at pool and walk away leaving you broke and bewildered. She can break your leg or shoot you through heart and won’t hesitate to do so. To her friends she is very loyal but if you cross her she will hunt you down.
Kristen Van Dijk was just an ordinary 17-year old girl when she waited in the car for her father Marvin Van Dijk outside Henry Chinn’s pool hall. That night changed her life forever. She was suddenly an orphan with severe injuries to her body and soul and with a hate towards The Lost Demons, the biker group that made her an orphan and left her burning for revenge. Kristen named the men Scarecrow, Mechanic, Bear and Blue Eyes.
With the help of Henry Chinn she recovered her health and started training for a life of revenge. More than one person helped her along the way and make for an interesting group.
Baby Shark is exciting and a book that I didn’t want to end at all. But the good part is Robert Fate did not quit when he finished Baby Shark. Beaumont Blues and High Plains Redemption are the next two books featuring Baby Shark.
Kristen Van Dijk was just an ordinary 17-year old girl when she waited in the car for her father Marvin Van Dijk outside Henry Chinn’s pool hall. That night changed her life forever. She was suddenly an orphan with severe injuries to her body and soul and with a hate towards The Lost Demons, the biker group that made her an orphan and left her burning for revenge. Kristen named the men Scarecrow, Mechanic, Bear and Blue Eyes.
With the help of Henry Chinn she recovered her health and started training for a life of revenge. More than one person helped her along the way and make for an interesting group.
Baby Shark is exciting and a book that I didn’t want to end at all. But the good part is Robert Fate did not quit when he finished Baby Shark. Beaumont Blues and High Plains Redemption are the next two books featuring Baby Shark.
November 13, 2009
Wooden characters and boring plot that reads like the treatment for a hundred cheesy Hollywood revenge pictures, complete with ridiculous hostage rescue/shoot out ending most readers could have written. And many would have the sense to leave out.
The fact that the main character plays pool, with all its wonderful possibilities for drama in miniature, is entirely unexploited. The few times she plays the actual games are not described. You could replace her pool playing with competitive Pac Man or ping pong and hardly affect the story at all.
February 21, 2011
Texas, 1958. Pool halls. Crooked lawyers. Corrupt cops. No Country for Old Men, or young women. A crime adventure that hits the ground running with heroes you can root for, and more gunplay than Saturday night in Abilene, by one fantastic, very underappreciated writer, Robert Fate. Part pulp, part noir and all action. This read was more fun than an old matinee serial. They never should have messed with Baby Shark!
May 14, 2012
Pretty good story of revenge.
This is the first of a series featuring Kristin. This story opens with Kristin witnessing the murder of her father and then being raped by the motor cycle gang that killed him. Henry is the owner of the pool hall where the murder and rape take place, also losing his son to the killers.
The story moves on over about a two year period with Kristin and Henry, with the help of a P.I., Otis, plotting and extracting their revenge.
This is the first of a series featuring Kristin. This story opens with Kristin witnessing the murder of her father and then being raped by the motor cycle gang that killed him. Henry is the owner of the pool hall where the murder and rape take place, also losing his son to the killers.
The story moves on over about a two year period with Kristin and Henry, with the help of a P.I., Otis, plotting and extracting their revenge.
June 24, 2009
Excellent debut. Lots of fast action and appealing characters. Baby survives an horrific attack and learns to fight her demons.
January 11, 2017
Baby Shark is a fast-paced thriller set in the underworld of 1950s Texas. The action starts right away and doesn’t quit until the very last page. It’s a good book, but, unfortunately, the author chose to completely control the font on the Kindle version. Set to my normal reading size, the print was rendered very tiny. If I set it to a bigger, more comfortable reading size, when I switched to other books I was also reading, the font size on those was huge. This made the reading experience a bit annoying. I do not like it when authors choose to control the font and size like that.
November 28, 2021
From the first chapter, the author delivers. Unique young female anti-hero..... very good debut novel.
July 29, 2022
Very interesting book. So far I like the series.
May 5, 2013
#1 Baby Shark series; Protagonist: Kristin “Baby Shark” Van Dijk
Kristin Van Dijk’s life changed forever one fateful night at a pool hall in Texas in 1952. She’s only 17, but she’s there with her father who’s a traveling pool shark. Her mother having died a couple of years previously, Kristin’s father gave her a choice of traveling with him and living in the back of his big old car or going to live with stuffy, religious Aunt Dora in Oklahoma City. You’re sixteen, curious about the world, haven’t yet really gotten to know your father and have just lost your mother—which would you choose? Right. Now Mr. Van Dijk isn’t your typical hustler. He’s a rather erudite pool shark and the trunk of their car contains just as many books as clothes and other possessions, and he generally seems to have done a fairly good job of looking after his daughter.
That is, until he misjudges an opponent’s intentions and Kristin is forced to watch her father brutally beaten and killed, and then she herself is raped repeatedly, beaten senseless and left for dead in the burning pool hall—except that the owner, a diminutive Chinese man named Henry Chin, who has watched his own son be murdered as well, drags Kristen from the fire. After many weeks of hospital stays and surgeries, Kristin leaves to live with Henry on his isolated farm where she has her own small cottage and begins to plot revenge on the four men who left her an orphan and so physically and emotionally scarred.
Henry brings in a team of old friends who specialize in different things—hand to hand combat, firearms, physical training of all sorts—and Kristin trains hard, while Henry has hired a private investigator to help figure out who the men were and locate them. The police, of course, are just not that interested in pursuing justice. And after awhile, Kristin also decides she wants to shoot pool like her daddy, so one of his old cronies comes to work intensely with her and she becomes very good, eventually being given the name Baby Shark.
I wanted to like this book more than I did. The biggest problem I had with it was that this was 1952, supposedly, and yet very little about it made me feel like it was 1952. The attitudes of people, the way Kristin dressed and acted, even the medical attention and surgeries she had after her beating seemed too modern and didn’t work for me; she was obviously a modern woman transported back in time and would have stuck out like a sore thumb in her tight jeans. Much of what happened with the training and these mysterious friends of Henry’s also just seemed very implausible. So as much as I was rooting for Baby Shark, I just couldn’t really get fully behind her and the story because I never was quite able to believe it—and there was too much of the anachronistic about it to simply suspend disbelief. I’ve given it three stars for originality mostly, but I’ve decided not to read on in the series.
Kristin Van Dijk’s life changed forever one fateful night at a pool hall in Texas in 1952. She’s only 17, but she’s there with her father who’s a traveling pool shark. Her mother having died a couple of years previously, Kristin’s father gave her a choice of traveling with him and living in the back of his big old car or going to live with stuffy, religious Aunt Dora in Oklahoma City. You’re sixteen, curious about the world, haven’t yet really gotten to know your father and have just lost your mother—which would you choose? Right. Now Mr. Van Dijk isn’t your typical hustler. He’s a rather erudite pool shark and the trunk of their car contains just as many books as clothes and other possessions, and he generally seems to have done a fairly good job of looking after his daughter.
That is, until he misjudges an opponent’s intentions and Kristin is forced to watch her father brutally beaten and killed, and then she herself is raped repeatedly, beaten senseless and left for dead in the burning pool hall—except that the owner, a diminutive Chinese man named Henry Chin, who has watched his own son be murdered as well, drags Kristen from the fire. After many weeks of hospital stays and surgeries, Kristin leaves to live with Henry on his isolated farm where she has her own small cottage and begins to plot revenge on the four men who left her an orphan and so physically and emotionally scarred.
Henry brings in a team of old friends who specialize in different things—hand to hand combat, firearms, physical training of all sorts—and Kristin trains hard, while Henry has hired a private investigator to help figure out who the men were and locate them. The police, of course, are just not that interested in pursuing justice. And after awhile, Kristin also decides she wants to shoot pool like her daddy, so one of his old cronies comes to work intensely with her and she becomes very good, eventually being given the name Baby Shark.
I wanted to like this book more than I did. The biggest problem I had with it was that this was 1952, supposedly, and yet very little about it made me feel like it was 1952. The attitudes of people, the way Kristin dressed and acted, even the medical attention and surgeries she had after her beating seemed too modern and didn’t work for me; she was obviously a modern woman transported back in time and would have stuck out like a sore thumb in her tight jeans. Much of what happened with the training and these mysterious friends of Henry’s also just seemed very implausible. So as much as I was rooting for Baby Shark, I just couldn’t really get fully behind her and the story because I never was quite able to believe it—and there was too much of the anachronistic about it to simply suspend disbelief. I’ve given it three stars for originality mostly, but I’ve decided not to read on in the series.
May 18, 2008
Kristen Van Dijk's life is a bit unusual for a 17 year old girl in the 1950, going from pool hall to pool hall with her pool hustling father. But it all ends in a rural bar when a group of bikers show up to get revenge over a lost pool game. When it is all over Kristen's father and the bar owner are brutally murdered, the owner's father, Henry, is left for dead and Kristen herself is barely alive after a repetitive beatings and rape. But the police are in no hurry to solve the murder of a lowly pool hustler or the rape of a girl who, by even being in a pool hall, must have asked for it. The murder of the Chinese bar owner and the fact that they burned down the bar does not seem to matter much to the local lawmen either. The lost report on the whole happening is even more suspicious.
Henry brings Kristen home with him to recover in peace, hidden away on his back country ranch. There they decide that the killers of their family members must be brought to justice- if the law will not do it they will take care ofn it themselves. Kristen works to get her strength up both physically and mentally. She runs, learns to shoot a gun and, to become Baby Shark, play pool like a pro. With the help of PI Otis Millet they begin to track down the bikers who did the killings. But someone is definitely trying to protect the bikers, especially the one they call Blue Eyes, and it is up to Kristen, Otis and Henry to figure out who is interfering with their plans. And Kristen must discover if she can carry through on their plan for revenge.
This book should cause quite a discussion with its unusual heroine. Robert Fate has used first person voice to pull the reader into Kristen's world. This works to not only raise his audience's sympathy for a cold blooded killer, but causes them to stand up and cheer for her. The style of writing is cool and sparse to match the tone of the story. The characters are well defined without a lot of background to clutter up the pace. This makes it a full out run to the end, no stopping reading in between chapters.
This is an exciting debut for this author and we are glad he is not done here. We are now looking forward to spring of 2007 for Baby Sharks' Beaumont Blues and later for Baby Shark's Sooner Weekends. It will be interesting to see how Robert Fate continues Kristen's story after she has exacted her revenge. Maybe a chance for romance? But it is hard to imagine Baby Shark settling for a life in the mainstream.
(Wonder how long it will take movie producers to get ahold of these rights? Perfect combination of chick flick with blood gushing action- something for everyone. )
Henry brings Kristen home with him to recover in peace, hidden away on his back country ranch. There they decide that the killers of their family members must be brought to justice- if the law will not do it they will take care ofn it themselves. Kristen works to get her strength up both physically and mentally. She runs, learns to shoot a gun and, to become Baby Shark, play pool like a pro. With the help of PI Otis Millet they begin to track down the bikers who did the killings. But someone is definitely trying to protect the bikers, especially the one they call Blue Eyes, and it is up to Kristen, Otis and Henry to figure out who is interfering with their plans. And Kristen must discover if she can carry through on their plan for revenge.
This book should cause quite a discussion with its unusual heroine. Robert Fate has used first person voice to pull the reader into Kristen's world. This works to not only raise his audience's sympathy for a cold blooded killer, but causes them to stand up and cheer for her. The style of writing is cool and sparse to match the tone of the story. The characters are well defined without a lot of background to clutter up the pace. This makes it a full out run to the end, no stopping reading in between chapters.
This is an exciting debut for this author and we are glad he is not done here. We are now looking forward to spring of 2007 for Baby Sharks' Beaumont Blues and later for Baby Shark's Sooner Weekends. It will be interesting to see how Robert Fate continues Kristen's story after she has exacted her revenge. Maybe a chance for romance? But it is hard to imagine Baby Shark settling for a life in the mainstream.
(Wonder how long it will take movie producers to get ahold of these rights? Perfect combination of chick flick with blood gushing action- something for everyone. )
October 25, 2007
Kristin is tagging along with her pool shark father when he is murdered by a biker gang and she is beaten, raped, and left for dead. She's saved by the pool hall's owner, whose son was also killed in the gang's murderous rampage. Together they vow to get revenge. . . .
Baby Shark is a pretty effeciently plotted and satisfying story of how they train and go about getting their revenge. Sort of typical with these types of thrillers, the author is best at the action. Some of choices as far as dialogue is concerned, especially the Charlie Chan-ish verbal skills of Henry, the pool owner, might raise an eyebrow. But overall Baby Shark is a good read. It would also make a pretty good film in the right hands and it wouldn't surprise me if it originally existed as a screenplay.
Baby Shark is a pretty effeciently plotted and satisfying story of how they train and go about getting their revenge. Sort of typical with these types of thrillers, the author is best at the action. Some of choices as far as dialogue is concerned, especially the Charlie Chan-ish verbal skills of Henry, the pool owner, might raise an eyebrow. But overall Baby Shark is a good read. It would also make a pretty good film in the right hands and it wouldn't surprise me if it originally existed as a screenplay.
July 13, 2008
This debut book, Baby Shark, starts off fast – one night of violence and murder that ultimately leads to the birth (creation is probably a better word) of Baby Shark, a teenage girl who survives the chaos.
As a reader, you know what the book will be about. You know that the 17-year old girl who walked into the pool hall with her dad will eventually take not just the name Baby Shark but revenge on the men who left her scarred and fatherless. It’s not necessarily the destination that keeps you reading, but the road you travel with her to get there.
And by the end of the book, you’re anxious to see where she’ll go next.
As a reader, you know what the book will be about. You know that the 17-year old girl who walked into the pool hall with her dad will eventually take not just the name Baby Shark but revenge on the men who left her scarred and fatherless. It’s not necessarily the destination that keeps you reading, but the road you travel with her to get there.
And by the end of the book, you’re anxious to see where she’ll go next.
May 22, 2012
Okay, I finished the book. And, okay, I was going to give it a three-star rating because of a certain plot device used by the author (and just about every author given this particular situation... I'm not going to go into details, because I don't want any spoilers). I had to finish the book; I needed to find out what happened to everybody in the story. I stopped initially at the 62% level, and was not going to finish. I cared about the characters. But I was done. I'm tired of the same old thing happening. I realize it's just me. It's a successful plot device. But ultimately I had to finish anyway. You hooked me to the end, Mr. Fate. And I'll probably read the next ones.
November 25, 2009
PROTAGONIST: Kristin Van Dijk, pool player
SETTING: Texas
SERIES: Debut novel
RATING: 3.0
WHY: I know this one appeared on lots of people's tops for the year, but it didn't quite work for me. It was an enjoyable read, but there were so many inconsistencies and improbabilities that it just didn't hang together for me. I'll be reading the next to see where the premise goes. I am wondering where Fate will go with this character. I hope that she'll play more pool in the next book, as that seemed to disappear along the way in this one.
SETTING: Texas
SERIES: Debut novel
RATING: 3.0
WHY: I know this one appeared on lots of people's tops for the year, but it didn't quite work for me. It was an enjoyable read, but there were so many inconsistencies and improbabilities that it just didn't hang together for me. I'll be reading the next to see where the premise goes. I am wondering where Fate will go with this character. I hope that she'll play more pool in the next book, as that seemed to disappear along the way in this one.
June 6, 2012
Calling this book a "mystery" is inaccurate. It's a revenge story - think Tarantino with less style and more grit, and I mean that in the best way possible. They do have to find the ones they're getting revenge on, but it's very clearly personal, and always has been.
A little on the short side, but well written. If you like a good action read and a seriously tough female character, try it out. It's not too bad. Ends a bit abruptly, with no happy ever after, but that seems to be a hallmark of the "revenge" genre.
A little on the short side, but well written. If you like a good action read and a seriously tough female character, try it out. It's not too bad. Ends a bit abruptly, with no happy ever after, but that seems to be a hallmark of the "revenge" genre.
April 10, 2013
People don't always know what they are made of, until they are pushed to their limit. This is how Kristen Van Dijk becomes a fighter instead of a watcher. Prior to the incident that kills her father, Kristen was a teenager content to follow the pool hall circuit watching her father earn a living for the two of them. Since this was the only life she knew, she was happy in it. Once her father dies, she is left to pick up the pieces, and she decides to fight back and revenge his death. This is a fascinating portrayal of life in 50's Texas as well.
May 22, 2012
This book starred a tough kick-ass female character and made the character development believable, with excellent, well-developed supporting characters. The framework was stereotypical, the surviving daughter, beaten and raped when her father is killed, the shot and beaten surviving father of a son killed. However, the characters were vivid, the action fast and the writing kept me intrigued. This was not a book that was easy to put down.
June 8, 2012
A young girl traveled with her dad from pool hall to pool hall till one night a motorcycle gang changed the lives of many people. With years of healing and learning and studying many things she and her friends were ready. Hunting and searching they finally found all of them from the gang , and from then on it was their lives that were changed. The title of the book doesnt fit the story I dont think.
January 5, 2014
A great series opener about a young pool shark who comes into her own. Any attempt to describe this book would involve spoilers. Suffice it to say that this is an innovative noir thriller set in Texas in the mid 50s. Some great characters and solid writing. A nice diversion for a winter day. There are now five in the series and I will read the second one to see if it lives up to the first. Only 2.99 at Amazon.
March 17, 2010
What I said in the comments. This was a cliched revenge story told in the 1st person hard boiled manner that managed 1) to remain fascinating throughout and 2) only really got close to pulling a Xena/Alias/Buffy one time while still showing a girl hero. It was an amazing ride. Not sure I should have read it.
July 31, 2009
This is a fast action, read-in-one-sitting book, lots of violence, great revenge story. Not in the ranks of some of my other 4-stars, so maybe a 3.75, but still a good ride. I'll definitely read the sequels.
May 19, 2014
Loved this!! Very original! I loved Baby Shark, Henry, and Otis from the very start. Lots of great supporting characters - Wilma, Ivy, Arthur, Sarge, Harlan, Doc MacGraw. Can't wait to read more in this series!
June 19, 2012
This one kept me up all night finishing. Author has me wanting more of Baby Shark. Well crafted characters, scenes were believable which provided an exciting reading experience. Buckle up for a tense ride. Might be a tad graphic for a sensitive soul but believe not offensive.
January 6, 2009
I was engrossed in this book from page one. Other reviewers have given you the story and the plot. All I can add is - read this book!
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