The Kill Clause : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Don't try this at home
Review: THE KILL CLAUSE is one of those thrillers where I almost feel guilty not awarding a High Five.

U.S. marshal Tim Rackley lives in SoCal with his wife Andrea, a deputy in the local police department. On the very first page, the two learn that the dismembered body of their 7-year old daughter, Ginny, has been discovered. Shortly thereafter, the suspected perp, a convicted child molester named Kindell, is cornered. Before the man is taken in for booking, Tim is given an opportunity by the arresting officers to execute the suspect. Left alone with Kindell, the slimeball gives Tim the hint that there was an accomplice, so Tim allows him to be taken into formal custody hoping the subsequent investigation will yield more information. But it doesn't, and the court sets the accused free on a technicality. Soon thereafter, Tim is approached by The Committee, a vigilante group of five men and one woman proposing to act as judge and jury on seven high profile murder cases where the suspect has gone free. They want Tim to join their deliberations, and then execute those condemned. The bait is the seventh and last case, which is Kindell's. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time by all concerned.

There's much that author Gregg Hurwitz does right in this book. His prose skillfully depicts gritty and suspenseful action. The dialog is well constructed. (My pet peeve about too many potboilers is that all characters "sound" the same.) Rackley himself has a clever bag of tricks from years of military and law enforcement experience that makes him an eminently dangerous man. He knows how to booby-trap a .357 pistol so it blows off the shooter's hand, or pack an audio earpiece with explosive so it blows off a head. He can simulate infected needle tracks using a syringe full of Visine, Comet cleanser, and a crushed vitamin C tablet. He pulls metal fragments out of his body using nothing but Advil, hydrogen peroxide, and a tweezers. Don't try these parlor tricks at home.

My biggest problem with the novel, compelling me to shave off a star, is that I never felt more than indifference towards Rackley. Yes, the murder of Tim's daughter and the subsequent downward spiral of his marriage did inspire sympathy. Yes, I was riveted by his consummate and deadly resourcefulness. But there was nothing about the man that was particularly engaging. I think of other fictional action series heroes whose quirks make them endearing. Trouble-magnet Munch Mancini (by Barbara Seranella), who has a smart-mouth response to life in general. Ex-military cop Jack Reacher (by Lee Child), a rugged individualist so out of the mainstream that he hasn't a clue how to iron a shirt or manage a household budget. Or skip tracer Stephanie Plum (by Janet Evanovich), who's basically just a klutz. Even Eastwood's Dirty Harry persona had his catchy sayings ("Are ya feeling lucky, punk?") Rackley is nothing of the sort. And while this didn't prevent me from finishing the book, it would, oddly enough, keep me from buying other novels by the same author. A hero with a likability quotient means that much.

Rating:
Summary: Are You Kidding?
Review: The Kill Clause revolves around a premise so ridiculous and badly thought-out that you can never truly enjoy the narrative, or any single part of the book for that matter. And that's a shame, because Greg Hurwitz really has a great way with words. His writing is premise and very enticing; he's got a way with words that always makes you feel like reading on. It's too bad his talents were completely waisted on this book.

When Tim Rackley's young daughter is raped and murdered, the man thinks his life is over. At the trial, the murderer is released on a technicality. And then, he quits his job after being accused of having commited an offence while apprehending a murder suspect. That's when he is contatcted by The Commission, an organization composed of five men and one women who have all been mistreated by the judicial system at one point or another in theirl lives.

They have decided to take justice in their own hands. They will seek men who found a way to escape the system and kill them themselves. And they want Tim to be their prime hitman.

This is the kind of stuff you only read in books (or see in films). You cannot believe a single moment of this book. The fact alone that Tim accepts the Commission's proposition is ridiculous enough; in the beginning, when given the chance to excute his daughter's killer, he refuses because he knows better. It's hard to think that a man who is able to do such a thing would then turn around and become the very kind of monster he's been fighting all his life. As a matter of fact, all the characters are so badly sketched out that they all blend into one big incoherent mess. These characters have no real conviction, no real purpose.

As the plot progresses, Hurwitz throws ridiculous subplot after ridiculous subplot our way, to the point where I just couldn't wait to finish this book. The high morality lesson the author obviously wants to transmit with this book is so badly transposed that it falls on you like a five ton anvil. And the fact that you can see the little "surprise" near the end coming from a mile away doesn't help things.

That said, I'm sure the book will be turned into a Hollywood film. This is the kind of preposterous thing Hollywood craves; the kind of really bad b-movie you see coming out year after year and tanking miserably. I'm sure - I hope - Hurwitz is capable of much better. A true disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: a Must
Review: the kind of Book that never lets up&just keeps bringing the heat non-stop.once you start reading it&get into it you can't stop.from the time I opened it I couldn't put it down.it was a real thriller that just had so much adventure&what I truly enjoyed the Book too many a risk&left nothing for chance.the mark of a Winning Book from start to Finish.

Rating:
Summary: An exciting thriller
Review: The plot of this book hinges on a father seeking revenge for the killing of his daughter after the suspect goes free on a technicality. This is not a new concept, but the author does a great job of exposing the reader to the moral dilemma the parents, both of whom are police officers, have to face. And, there is plenty of action. This is a fascinating thriller but does bog down in a few chapters. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: They keep getting better!
Review: This is Hurwitz's best book yet. After making it through the first, harrowing pages, I could not put this book down. The action is non-stop, yet it is offset by a very interesting character study of a father, and how he copes with loss, grief, revenge and justice. I read this book in two sittings.....and that was only because I had to go to work. A fantastic read.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful Emotions Impact Values
Review: U.S. Marshall Tim Rackley has his values and sanity challenged when his 7 y.o. daughter is viciously raped and murdered by a man who is later released on a technicality. Consumed with overwhelming anger and devastating grief, Tim is offered the opportunity to vent his rage when he is asked to join a group of others who want to punish killers who have escaped justice.

Gregg Hurwitz excels in tapping into the emotions that most of us would feel when dealt an unfair hand. Ranging from unimaginable sorrow to uncontrollable rage, Hurwitz gives us a lesson in morals and ethics and shows how emotions can interfere with logic and rational thought.

The KILL CLAUSE is very well-written and powerfully done. Highly Recommended!!!

Rating:
Summary: exciting vigilante thriller
Review: Upon learning of the rape and dismemberment of his beloved daughter Virginia, US Marshal Tim Rackley went ice cold as if his heart was sucked out of him. He knows nothing will ever be the same. His wife Dray is in shock, but Tim no longer feels except frustration and anger and offers her nothing and doesn't seeks her comfort to ease his ire. Realizing the man he believes is the culprit will walk only brings more rage.

The Commission, an encounter group that shares Tim's outrage that the system enables killers to walk, recruits the former cop. They do not care about his adjustment to life without Ginny. Instead he becomes one of their hitmen providing vigilante justice to those animals who escaped. However, as the haze clears and he realizes some of his peers are loose cannons like the crazed Mastersons, Tim invokes THE KILL CLAUSE that eliminates his involvement, but first he must take care of rampaging Commission killers hurting anyone in their path.

This is an exciting vigilante thriller that blends a delightful look at Tim the executioner on the job within a comic book Hollywood feel (Bronson's Death Wish). Readers will understand Tim's reactions and subsequent actions to Ginny's horrific murder as he and the Mastersons insure gore and blood flows freely through the veins of the plot. Though not for everyone, Greg Hurwitz purveys an action packed thriller starring a hero seeking justice in all the wrong places.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Ambushing a best-seller; movie to come
Review: What makes this thriller worth reading are the two main ingredients: the sort of brute force expertise about cops and criminals that cannot be faked (replete with the siege-mentality psychology endemic in law enforcement), and the sort of narrative control that makes the pages turn. A third ingredient, a more than passing knowledge of high tech, crime-related gadgetry including some extensive weapons knowledge, nicely enhances the text, demonstrating that Gregg Hurwitz knows his stuff.

Quite simply, Hurwitz is a very good writer who put an enormous amount of energy into the research, planning and writing of this novel. He is also a guy who, at least in part, is enamored of two-fisted justice and the action hero as seen in movies starring, e.g., Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, and Silvester Stallone. If you liked Paul Kersey, Dirty Harry, and Rambo, you will love The Kill Clause.

Hurwitz begins with the tried and true formula for righteous vengeance so beloved by Japanese and Hollywood action/adventure movie-makers by raining grievous and horrific harm upon his upstanding (and very talented) hero Deputy US Marshal Tim Rackley. Hurwitz takes no chances here: Rackley's beautiful seven-year-old daughter is raped, murdered and mutilated by a sickie who is set free on a technicality. Then, when Rackley courageously and heroically shoots a couple of murderous drug dealers in self-defense, a front page newspaper pix showing his fellow officers celebrating with high fives turns a "good shooting" into a request that he take some time off while they investigate.

Instead, Rackley turns in his badge. Meanwhile, because of their shared grief, his marriage to the love of his life is going south. He moves out of their Moorpark, Simi Valley, California home and takes up residence in a dive in the inner city of L.A.--all the better to provide cover as he sets out to right some wrongs.

Now comes a counter-complication: Rackley is seduced by a motley crew of self-styled vigilantes who, through star chamber type trials, want to identify, judge, condemn and execute various violent criminals that the law has let go free for one reason or another. They want Rackley to do the executing, and they hold over his head as inducement the prospect of knowledge about others involved in the murder of his daughter.

Where Hurwitz is not entirely the novelist he would like to be (judging from his self-conscious press-release statement: "I don't like being dismissed because I've chosen to address issues in a medium that's suspenseful and plot-oriented"), is in the shallowness of his characters and his handling of male-female relationships. While his hero, Tim Rackley is seemingly explored in great depth, one cannot escape the sense that Rackley is really just a fantasy projection of Hurwitz's youthful idealism. The minor characters are quirky, kinky and extreme in a fascinating way that blinds us to the fact that they are also as deep as a puddle on the linoleum kitchen floor. And the second most important character in the book, Tim's police officer wife, Dray Rackley, despite being both feminine and tough enough to flip pukes, is never really revealed as anything more than a TV, politically-correct kind of housewife. I would liked to have seen her do more than hold Tim's hand and run some errands.

Hurwitz knows the genre and he knows the requirements. He is expert, and his expertise will pay off handsomely. But if he wants to go beyond the commercial novel to a work of art (and by the way, I'm not so sure he should) he needs to free himself from the psychology of the thriller novel, and follow the human truth wherever it may lead. (Of course the price for that will likely be no assured place on the best seller list and no movie option.)

Let me give an example of what I mean. Hurwitz obviously read some stats on what happens to marriages when the children die young. The stats show that the now childless couples tend to have a higher divorce rate than other couples. Hurwitz worked this into a subplot as he made us see Tim and Dray lose their desire for one another and begin to drift apart as they tried, each in his or her own way, to cope with their tragic loss.

However, if he had followed another kind of logic (say from evolutionary psychology), he might have had Tim and Dray become ravenously hungry for one another, a truth that I think would have been closer to the reality of his characters who, after all, deeply loved and were strongly attracted to one another. Indeed such a "truth" might have given their personas a psychological depth that they lacked. But would that play? Not in a novel aimed at a readership looking for escapist fare. Such sexual vérité would be distracting at best and disturbing at worst.

One other thing: the theme of the novel could be summed up in these words: our courts "do not address justice--only the law." A press release quotes Hurwitz as saying something similar, and similar words appear in the book. This is a problem that haunts our society, but Hurwitz's novel does not provide an answer. Clearly the path chosen by Hurwitz's morally-challenged vigilantes can be seen to be rejected by the way the novel develops. But how do we provide both justice and remain within the rule of law? Perhaps a commercial novel is not the right place to answer such a question. I would note that one of the distinctions that Hurwitz does not make in this novel is between justice and revenge. The latter word hardly appears but "justice" is replete throughout. Perhaps a clear understanding between the emotion of revenge and the legal concept of justice is necessary before we can address the problem of violent criminals slipping through the cracks.

Rating:
Summary: Exciting and thoughtful
Review: When his seven year-old daughter is killed, U.S. Deputy Marshal Tim Rackley's life comes apart. The local police arrange a fake suicide for the quickly caught child-molester but Tim decides to let justice run its course. The man is clearly guilty and Tim believes that the law and justice coincide. But in this case, a terrible botch in procedures sets the man free and Tim has to decide what to make of his life--as his marriage unravels. Out of the blue, a group approaches him--they are all victims of similar breakdowns in the justice system. They've set up a Commission that intends to redress justice failure and are looking for a point man--an executioner. Tim is their choice but can he turn his back on a lifetime of beliefs? The bait is almost impossible to turn down--they promise the full evidence on his daughter's case.

THE KILL CLAUSE addresses a common perception in America--that our justice system gives too much protection for criminals and too little to the victims and to society. For many, the idea of retribution is attractive and the Commission makes all of these arguments to Tim. That their arguments are flawed isn't really the point and author Gregg Hurwitz knows it.

Hurwitz solid and fast-paced action--both in the U.S. Marshal scene where Tim shoots several badguys and in the Commission scenes where Tim must confront some of the deadliest killers on the planet while on the run from the police himself. The depiction of Tim's marriage breaking down was moving and troubling as two people in love stand by helpless to do anything to prevent it.

Although the novel was mostly effective and compelling, at times Hurwitz's beliefs were presented in almost lecture form. The bar scene with the frustrated defense attorneys came off that way for me. The story would have been more powerful if Hurwitz had chosen to bring out his points solely through the story. And for me, the ending was just a bit too pat--so much so that it defeated much of the point of the book. Still, Hurwitz's writing is strong and THE KILL CLAUSE makes for an exciting and thoughtful read.