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Revenger #1
Funeral Rites
John Stark came back from the dead to kill the man who sent him to gaol.
The Company set Stark up as fall guy in a payroll snatch and hooked his girlfriend on heroin to keep his mouth shut.
But Stark got out and when Carol died from an overdose he vowed vengeance on the men responsible.
The Company put a price on his head. Dead. But Stark was determined to stay alive - and smash the international crime organisation that lived off human degradation. Any way he could. Regardless of anyone who stood in his way.
When The Company set Stark up it created The Revenger!
The Company set Stark up as fall guy in a payroll snatch and hooked his girlfriend on heroin to keep his mouth shut.
But Stark got out and when Carol died from an overdose he vowed vengeance on the men responsible.
The Company put a price on his head. Dead. But Stark was determined to stay alive - and smash the international crime organisation that lived off human degradation. Any way he could. Regardless of anyone who stood in his way.
When The Company set Stark up it created The Revenger!
220 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 24, 2020
I found the December 1974 Pyramid Suspense edition of this novel titled Funeral Rites (Stark #1) at an antique shop several months ago. The cover looks so cool and like it's straight out of the world of Dirty Harry. Plus, the tagline on the cover is "John Stark - One Man Murder Machine Hellbent For Revenge!" The description on the back cover also was caught my eye right off the bat, especially with the final line: "And Stark was transformed into a one-man murder machine, pledged to take out Ryan and every other Company man he could reach, until he made it a Company of corpses!" And you know, I'd say the story pretty much lived up to all that promise. So, yeah, fair warning: the violence (and sex) is definitely gratuitous. I think I'm going to have to dig up the follow up installments of the Stark series.
December 14, 2025
Nice English villain story by Terry Harknett. The guy who wrote the "Edge" series of books. He even uses the character's name in that series, almost, for his pen name here. He uses Joseph instead of Josiah. You know what you are in for if you've read anything by the man. I'd say it's sort of a b-movie, second tier "Get Carter" type of story. Doesn't have all of that grit but it does pack a punch.
March 5, 2013
Intense violence and sex. On of the best vigilante style series of the period.
September 9, 2024
Well...it's never a good sign when I'm reading a 64,000 word novel and think to myself that they could have comfortably trimmed out 20,000 of those words and vastly improved the pace. But here we are.
The Revenger is a young man by the name of John Stark, which honestly might be the toughest part about him. He's a getaway driver for a payroll heist and he gets burned. To keep him quiet the multi-national criminal organization (known only as the Company) hooks his girl on heroin and promises worse if he talks. He doesn't talk, they bust him out of jail to supposedly work another job, and Stark has other plans, like rescuing his addict ladyfriend (Carol Burnett...not making that unexpected name choice up). Unfortunately for him, her, and the Company, she dies.
Now, if this were a proper American vigilante novel, this is where the real nasty killing would start. But since this is a British crime novel written by the prolific Terry Harknett (Joseph Hedges was one of his pennames), we instead get into the slog.
We are mired in endless descriptions of rainy London neighborhoods, infuriatingly tedious police procedure as they try to stop this "maniac" who, by the end of the book, has killed a total of six men, three of them accidentally. A scene that could take a sentence or two to wrap up drags us through paragraph after paragraph of description and detail, none of it adding to the thrill or atmosphere.
There's a bit of the expected Harknett mean-streak in this, including the senseless and bloody murder of Stark's parents, and some other casual violence that comes as a bit of surprise since most of the book is composed of tough guys talking about committing acts of violence and not actually following through.
We also get the usual ugly treatment of women and gay characters because it was the 1970s, but since no one in this book is treated as morally right, I find that nastiness a bit easier to swallow.
It's just a shame, because there is a decent book hidden inside of the endless driving and walking and raining. If you've a lot more patience for this type of thing, you might enjoy the first outing of John Stark more than I did.
The Revenger is a young man by the name of John Stark, which honestly might be the toughest part about him. He's a getaway driver for a payroll heist and he gets burned. To keep him quiet the multi-national criminal organization (known only as the Company) hooks his girl on heroin and promises worse if he talks. He doesn't talk, they bust him out of jail to supposedly work another job, and Stark has other plans, like rescuing his addict ladyfriend (Carol Burnett...not making that unexpected name choice up). Unfortunately for him, her, and the Company, she dies.
Now, if this were a proper American vigilante novel, this is where the real nasty killing would start. But since this is a British crime novel written by the prolific Terry Harknett (Joseph Hedges was one of his pennames), we instead get into the slog.
We are mired in endless descriptions of rainy London neighborhoods, infuriatingly tedious police procedure as they try to stop this "maniac" who, by the end of the book, has killed a total of six men, three of them accidentally. A scene that could take a sentence or two to wrap up drags us through paragraph after paragraph of description and detail, none of it adding to the thrill or atmosphere.
There's a bit of the expected Harknett mean-streak in this, including the senseless and bloody murder of Stark's parents, and some other casual violence that comes as a bit of surprise since most of the book is composed of tough guys talking about committing acts of violence and not actually following through.
We also get the usual ugly treatment of women and gay characters because it was the 1970s, but since no one in this book is treated as morally right, I find that nastiness a bit easier to swallow.
It's just a shame, because there is a decent book hidden inside of the endless driving and walking and raining. If you've a lot more patience for this type of thing, you might enjoy the first outing of John Stark more than I did.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews