Joe Gores, Otto Penzler Presents a Time of Predators

Joe Gores, Otto Penzler Presents a Time of Predators - Thirty-six-year- old Paula Halstead met Rockwell on the bus because both of them were holding brochures to the opening of the San Francisco Spring Opera. At the Greyhound Station, she waits for her spouse Curt to arrive while Rockwell walks towards a car. A gang of four drunken teens on a lark viciously attack the blond. Paula pleads with them to stop, but they don't until Curt arrives. They flee the scene, but leave behind a blinded victim; Paula pukes up her guts at the horrific sight.

Rick Dean realizes Paula could identify him and his associates. They learn she is the wife of Los Feliz University anthropology Professor Curtis Halstead. The quartet plan to insure she says nothing so they obtain her home address and pay a visit. They viciously beat her, threaten her, and rape her. When they leave, unable to cope, she slashes her wrists.

The cops fail him so Curt knows he must find, torture, and execute the four punks who destroyed his life. He hires a PI who meets with no success either. Curt concludes he must descend into the underbelly of society to confront the killers on their terms, which he obsessively is determined to do.

This is a reprint of an award-winning 1969 tale that holds up quite nicely though feels like a historical. The storyline is character-driven whether it is Rick, Curt or Paula, but within an action-packed dark plot. The then rookie Joe Gores showcased a pessimistic San Franciscan society with his no SF elements version of Clockwork Orange meets Hammett.

Harriet Klausner