Fear's Justice - Hardcover

Marc Olden

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679448381 ISBN 13: 9780679448389

Publisher: Villard, 1996

Synopsis

Late in life, Fear Meaghal has fallen head-over-heels in love with Linda, a detective who's married to corrupt cop Bobby Schiafino. When Linda is found murdered in an airport parking lot, Meaghal sees one thing after another wrong with the evidence and starts investigating--only to be blocked by other cops at every turn. Film rights sold to Robert DeNiro.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

"In came the ethnics with their turbans, electronic stores, fried bananas and slitty eyes," complains Fear Meagher, the narrating cop-hero of Olden's (Kisaeng) latest thriller. Fear, an NYPD detective, doesn't stop there: "to make up for what he'd done to their hair, God had given black guys big dicks." And so on. It demands much tolerance for readers to put up with these pervasive asides, but those who do will be caught up in a tense and muscular crime adventure as Fear takes on a gang of rogue cops who kill for hire. The detective enters the case after his married lover, also a cop, is murdered at Kennedy Airport, with a homeless black man as the likely culprit. A little sleuthing tells Fear that the suspect is being railroaded and that, behind the rush to judgment, lurk not only some unidentified political hotshots but also the dead woman's husband, a brilliant but sadistic fellow cop who vows revenge on Fear for the cuckolding. As Fear gets conned, manipulated by City Hall, beaten up and nearly killed in a series of suspenseful scenes, Olden has him rescue and bond with a radical black woman reporter whose life is jeopardized by her own digging into the case; but many readers may scorn this as a patent attempt to win sympathy for Fear, who might as well be called Mark Fuhrman. Olden lays down a hard-as-nails story that rings with savvy appraisal of halls of power and mean streets; his appraisal of readers' willingness to go the distance with his dedicated but hate-filled hero is more problematic. 30,000 first printing; film rights sold to Robert De Niro; author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Feargal "Fear" Meagher is a New York City detective in the Mark Fuhrman mode: he hates African Americans, female cops, gays, immigrants (especially those from Eastern and Southern Europe or any part of Asia), Jews, and pretty much anyone else he encounters. He blithely frames suspects, sets fire to an enemy's mistress, steals from a drug dealer, covers up misconduct, and engages in other behavior that would bring tears to Joe Friday's eyes. When his girlfriend is murdered in a parking lot at Kennedy Airport, apparently by a homeless derelict, Meagher decides to investigate for himself. He accidentally discovers a gang of rogue cops who, with high-level protection, hire out as contract killers. With some help from a politically ambitious deputy police commissioner, Meagher sets out to destroy this conspiracy. Olden's thriller is unfailingly readable and terrifically well written, a guilty pleasure of the highest order. George Needham

About this edition

• Publisher: Villard
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0679448381
• ISBN 13: 9780679448389
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 317