Dead Man

Joe Gores has become my new favourite author, even though he has been writing books since the late sixties. The words "Criminally Underrated" could have been invented for him! In Dead Man, Eddie Dain is a private investigator good at finding people who don't want to be found. When he tracks down someone for a gangster but continues to look into the case after he has been warned off, himself and his young family end up on the wrong end of shotguns wielded by two masked men. Five years later and Dain (who has dropped his first name) is a man reborn. He has built up his broken body, has become emotionally distanced from the rest of the world and is intent on tracking down those responsible for ruining his life. To do this he must go back to his job as a PI working for the kind of shady underground sorts who might just connect him to the gunmen and those who set up the hit. The climax of the novel takes place in the wilds of Louisiana where the sights of nature going about its deadly business mirrors Dain's own predicament....trapped deep in a swamp it's a matter of kill or be killed. Gores has written a very involving book with a great central character, can Dain who has lost everything have his revenge and eventually connect with the world again? The action when it hits is fast and brutal and the book moves along at a great pace to its memorable climax.