The Fifth Angel

Here is an instance in which the performance outstrips the material. Tate Donovan's delivery of this gory tale of revenge and vigilantism breathes life into a cliché-ridden novel. The production features artfully placed sound effects that almost disguise plot holes as numerous as the bullet holes in the hero's victims. This cookie-cutter story of an outraged parent hunting down sex offenders and the colorful and bathetic agents who pursue him is tailor-made for Hollywood. An interview with the author, a lawyer and former football pro, rounds out the set. D.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

January 6, 2003
Like Green's previous thriller, The Fourth Perimeter, this book opens with an engaging premise that becomes less credible as the novel unfolds. Jack Ruskin, a senior partner in a prominent New York law firm, is beside himself with rage; his 15-year-old daughter is semicatatonic after being raped by a repeat sex offender, and the criminal has gotten off with a minimal sentence. Jack decides to take the law into his own hands. He hunts down and kills a randomly selected sex offender in upstate New York. Driven by bloodlust, Jack then embarks on a series of similar vigilante executions as he travels around the country on business for the firm. He falls in love with Beth, an empathetic young counselor at his daughter's hospital, but there's a close call when Beth nearly catches him surfing the Web for likely victims. He offs another criminal while the he and Beth are on an idyllic getaway in the Adirondacks. As the bodies pile up, FBI agent Amanda Lee is assigned to track down Jack. Amanda has her own interest in the case—her partner was recently killed by a child abuser resisting arrest. The briskly paced thriller culminates in a revealing showdown when Amanda traps Jack on Long Island. The action is engaging, but between the lurid goings-on and the lurid prose ("His little girl was a shell with scars on her body and holes punched in her veins to feed her drugs"), the story verges on bad pulp. Fans of Green's earlier novels will be satisfied with this one, but some may wish he had brought a bit more craft and restraint to his compelling premise. Agent, Esther Newberg. (Feb. 18)Forecast:Readers may recognize the multitasking Green from his jobs as Fox Sports commentator,
USA Today columnist, CNN legal analyst and host of Comedy Central's
Battlebots; major television and print advertising will further up his profile.

Child molesters and serial rapists often slip through loopholes in the legal system, as Prosecuting Attorney Jack Ruskin well knows. When his teenaged daughter was left catatonic after being abducted and repeatedly raped for 10 days, her tormentor was released because of a bad search. After much soul searching, Jack decides to take action. Using his expert knowledge of forensics, he begins assassinating the worst offenders, carefully leaving nothing behind to trace him to the killings. In Jonathan Marosz's intelligent reading we feel the anguish of victims and parents and the conflict of law enforcement agents who must identify and arrest this avenging angel. Marosz's performance finds every bit of humanity in Tim Green's disturbing look at "justice" and the monsters who would exploit it. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine