The Fifth Angel

by David Wiltse

Mark Stitzer, the troubled victim of a war-game gone wrong, leaves a path of death and destruction as he attempts to resume his original mission and elude the police and the FBI

Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

David Wiltse was born in 1940 in Lincoln, Nebraska. He graduated from the University of Nebraska and currently lives in a small town in Connecticut. He has written plays for stage, screen and television and won a Drama Desk award for most promising playwright for Suggs (first produced at Lincoln Center in 1972). Always popular with Bookhaunts readers, his novels include the John Becker Novels and Billy Tree/Falls City Novels.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

One summer day I decided I was going to read a novel. In my mind I had never read a novel, for a novel was a big book with no pictures and it came in this odd little size with newsprint like paper and was sold in CVS. There were quite a few books to choose from at this particular CVS, and I don't remember what the runners up to The Fifth Angel were, or what exactly won me over by this particular book. Actually I know what won me over to this book. 1) It's like First Blood in New York. That's what it says right over Fifth Angel. That's cool right? That also sounds like the movie The Park is Mine, a wonderful movie where Tommy Lee Jones takes over Central Park for a day or two around around Veterans Day, because Vietnam Vets aren't getting enough respect. 2) The guy looks kick ass, he's not a gun, and a bayonet, and bullets, lots of bullets. Around this time I would rent movies because they had Chuck Norris on the cover holding a machine gun (or two Uzi's, a la INVASION USA; or even better if the cover of the video box had a ninja, or say someone with a flame thrower on his back. If there had been a movie with a ninja that used a flame thrower it would have been my favorite movie ever at this point.
So anyway, this was the first 'real' book that I ever read. Or at least in my mind it was. I remember spending a good part of a Saturday reading it. I don't think I liked it, but maybe I loved it so much I forgot how much. If asked I might say that Stephen King's Different Seasons was the first real book I read, but really deep down it's this book, the one with the dude with the M-16 with a knife attached to the barrel.

[Wayne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover proclaims that this reads like "First Blood" in the city. The menacing man with the M-16 and a bandolier of ammo is very misleading. Where Rambo is a Vietnam vet that pretty much wants to be left alone and is pushed to far by an uncaring system. Mark Stitzer, our dime store Rambo is a killing machine that got stuck in a hole during war games and had to drink his own urine and dig himself out. He goes bug house loco and gets institutionalized, only to escape and kill innocent people along the east coast. Even exploding a bomb with shattered glass and other sharp objects at a parade on a busy Manhattan street with women and children.

The main character is very unlikable to say the least. He's a killing machine with no conscience. Who ever crosses him, dies. Even strangling a single mother and her pre-teen child. This book lost my interest at every turn of the page. What's even worse is the relationship of the pseudo Rambo's nephew with his aunt. It seems that Carl, the nephew, was raised by Mark Stitzer and his wife when his parents die. The wife does divorce the lunatic after he's committed. Then, while the crazy man is out killing, the nephew and his aunt enter into a sexual relationship. It doesn't stop there. The aunt then has a one off with the looney.

If you have a craving for this kind of junk, stick with Stallones pre face lift trash. Two stars is rather kind.

[Marissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of miltary maneuvers, explosions, infiltration, blood, and a pyscho locked up in a looney bin but still training for the ultimate order. GREAT forget about everything else read. It's macho reading but this chick enjoyed it immensely.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not my usual genre for me. In fact, I only read The Fifth Angel because my husband asked me to. That said, I was surprised by this book.

The storyline was not only interesting; it was gripping! Did I really say gripping for a book genre I don't care for? Yes, I did!! David Wiltse started the book with a bang and the action never stopped till the last page. Most of the characters were well developed characters (Stitzer, Carl, Stroup, Capello). The others were developed, but not as well.

The action was also nicely developed, though a little 'too much' for my taste. (Again, this is not a preferred book genre of mine.) It was interesting to see the workings of a mad man.

[Lindsey Prater · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fluff read

[Joni · Rating 4 out of 5]

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