The Fifth Angel

Rating:
Summary: An effective and highly recommended thriller
Review: Attorney Jack Ruskin is torn by the anguish that his daughter was sexually assaulted by a child molester. His daughter is now institutionalized and his wife has left him. His previous life is shattered. As a means of revenge, he has become a vigilante killing child predators throughout the country. On his tail are highly accomplished FBI agents trying to stop Jack from taking the law into his own hands any further.
Tim Green has written a highly suspenseful thought provoking tale as to what truly constitutes evil. Is Jack Ruskin a criminal? The reader would tend to side with the opinion that he is in fact a hero. His victims are shadowy figures with little room for sympathy as depicted by the author. The pacing becomes relentless as we follow Jack on his quest for revenge and, incidentally, in his attempt to turn his life around. Effective simple and direct episodes are used in conveying this effective and highly recommended thriller. I would definitely seek out this author's other work.

Rating:
Summary: Death Wish . . . was better
Review: Jack Ruskin is a man beset with grief. Believing he was/is responsible for the rape and torture of his 15 year old daughter, he becomes an avenging angel, wreaking havoc, anonymous havoc of course, on those pedophiles he finds registered on the Net. Basically he declares war on them, seeking them out on business trips he takes for his law firm, and then executes them.

He finds support from those who circumstantially witness part of his efforts (returning a young girl to the ER he unexpectedly discovered; a police officer who feeds him to the Pittsburgh sex offender registration book; a pedophile's unsympathetic neighbor) we assume because they support his brand of vigilante justice.

The big question is whether he is a hero like the Charles Bronson character of the 70's "Death Wish," or just another psychopath without the horrific sexual baggage.

I believe the novel could have been exponentially better had Tim Green given the reader a real moral decision to make, as is often presented in the novels of Alan Furst or earlier, by Pierre Boulle. Killing criminals loses it's appeal, in the broad sense of plot, along with the tenth grade and Steven Segal movies.

The first 1/2 of the book is well written although the descent into pulp comic book plot and sophmoric dialogue is rapid and all encompassing.

Rating:
Summary: A Thriller That Will Capture and Hold a Reader's Interest
Review: Jack Ruskin is an incredibly successful attorney and devoted father. After his daughter is kidnapped and sexually molested, his intellect becomes the tool of tracking known perverts and eliminating them from society. As he hunts and kills perverts, he ends up being hunted by both Amanda Lee and David McGrew in a thrilling battle of wits and deduction.

In an enthralling tale that reflects today's headlines regarding missing children, author Tim Green has written a book sure to engage the interest of many readers. Here is a well-plotted story with many twists and turns sure to please readers of thrillers.

The moral issue of killing is brought sharply into focus and certainly warrants a thoughtful response by the reader to such a question and premise.

This story is loaded with attention-grabbing detail and locales that reverberate with authenticity and, ultimately, an ending that is pleasing in the completion of many of the complexities of the story. There are descriptions in this novel that are brutally graphic, but appropriate to the story being told.

The Fifth Angel is not a read for the faint-hearted, but worthy of being read by anyone for the solid foundation on which the story is based and told.

Here's a fast-paced and enthralling thriller that dices with the age-old issue of killing. The Fifth Angel is an enjoyable read for the stout-hearted. But, there is graphic violence in this story. It is a story, as modern as today, which should interest any reader that likes thrillers.

Rating:
Summary: Superficial nonsense, no depth, no suspense
Review: Thank GOD that I checked this out at the local library, rather than bought it...
The characters are cardboard cutouts, the suspense was nonexistent, there is NO moral dilemma, the main character seems to exist in a relationship vacuum (no parents, no siblings, no significant relationships other than the unseen ex-wife and new - albeit generic - girlfriend?). The "hook" - that he decides to kill molesters - is interesting, but the plot execution (sorry) is patently absurd. These predatory people are cunning survivors, not just the hulking stereotypical monsters portrayed here. The relative ease with which he - a lawyer apparently untrained in firearms - dispatches these scum is painfully comical.
In short, reading this book was a waste of time.

Rating:
Summary: Move on
Review: This book was one of the worst thrillers I have ever read and I've read too many to mention. The beginning was somewhat compelling but as it went on it became almost laughable. To believe that anything that happened in the last 100 pages could actually occur in real life is so comical, it's not even funny. Each scene became more unbelievable. It was a Page Turner though.
I couldn't wait to turn those last pages so it would end my suffering.