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The Assassin #1
Manhattan Massacre
Robert Briganti is the Assassin. Ruthless, indifferent to his own survival, he lives only to destroy the Mafia.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 13, 2022
Peter McCurtin’s take on the “Lone Man against the Mafia” theme is heavily derivative upon Don Pendleton’s Executioner series in ways that I won’t go into and rather focus more on the differences. The main thing that sets the Assassin apart is that Robert Briganti operates in the open, he announces himself and his intentions to the media, then doggedly pursues his targets much like a hard-boiled cop or private eye. The Executioner relies more on stealth and espionage techniques, more James Bond than Mike Hammer. Not much new here from a plot perspective (even Pendleton ran out of ways to kill off the Mafia after 38 books) although the Briganti character is well fleshed out and interesting, the story moves at a blistering pace, and McCurtin’s writing is solid and evocative. Manhattan Massacre is easily equal to the best of the slew of 1970s war against the Mafia books. I would like to read more books in this series. Not sure if they have been republished or if I have to track down the old paperbacks. I’ll give this one four stars.
June 14, 2023
Well, if you want a supremely entertaining and immensely stupid book about a two fisted man of action killing off "Mafia Pigs" have I got the book recommendation for you! I am not sure "Over The Top" is a good enough qualifier for this pulp, because that barely scratches the surface. By far my favorite part is the LENGTHY digression on alternative American history near the end. It's something that needs to be read to be believed. I have quickly picked up the rest of the books in this series. Loved how in the gutter and entertaining this was.
February 24, 2024
This is sort of like the Friday the 13th to The Executioner's Halloween. It didn't originate the genre, but it proved you could do a knock-off that would still sell. The Assassin led to a cottage industry of books that were basically the same character (or at least rewritten to be the same character) like The Sharpshooter and The Marksman. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Thankfully, I was able to pick up an ebook for cheap from Piccadilly Publishing. In a nice touch, they managed to use the original cover art instead of cheap stock art. I know it doesn't matter for a bunch of ones and zeros on a Kindle, but it's the thought that counts.
Happily, the story is a good mix of being thrilling in its own right and something you can knowingly chuckle about on account of how sheerly sleazly it is (we get this aside about the villain: "The lying feature writers who buddied up to Crazy Joe always played him up big as a ladies’ man, but I remembered other reports that Joe Coraldi had two convictions for sodomy, both in his teens before he was written up as the Errol Flynn on the spaghetti scene—both before he landed in the slam, where dicking up your fellow man is as natural to cons as price fixing is to hundred-grand-a-year executives.") The Punisher is controversial enough these days even when Marvel has him fighting Trump voters and lecturing cops; imagine if he dropped something like that in the middle of a Spider-Man comic!
Robert Briganti--this is before vigilantes would get outre names like Johnny Rock and Mark Hardin--is a former carny sharpshooter (!) who then went to work as a weapon salesman (we're told that the company's products were occasionally tested on "Skid Row derelicts"!). He's implied to be some combination of arms dealer and CIA asset, before he got out of the game with the love of a good woman--so good she's a Quaker! He still works at a gun store (I'm beginning to sense a motif) and when he refuses to sell to a Mafia bigwig, they kill his wife and son.
Much gunplay follows on the streets of a grimy seventies New York City, with author McCurtin lovingly describing the filth, bums, and other pleasures of the city for the Quentin Tarantino in all of us. Briganti is no sentimentalist: he only takes a break to 'release tension' with a hot-to-trot hooker (the narrative makes sure we know she's sexy and loves to bang) and to attend the oratory of a Black Power activist who holds on about how Christopher Columbus was a black man in what seems like crass attempt to up the page count.
It's still a svelte 150 pages, with the set-up briskly breezed through, and ending with an anti-Mafia rant by Briganti (he hates The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight!) that seems designed to haul this book to novel-length by the skin of its teeth. I appreciate the hustle.
Thankfully, I was able to pick up an ebook for cheap from Piccadilly Publishing. In a nice touch, they managed to use the original cover art instead of cheap stock art. I know it doesn't matter for a bunch of ones and zeros on a Kindle, but it's the thought that counts.
Happily, the story is a good mix of being thrilling in its own right and something you can knowingly chuckle about on account of how sheerly sleazly it is (we get this aside about the villain: "The lying feature writers who buddied up to Crazy Joe always played him up big as a ladies’ man, but I remembered other reports that Joe Coraldi had two convictions for sodomy, both in his teens before he was written up as the Errol Flynn on the spaghetti scene—both before he landed in the slam, where dicking up your fellow man is as natural to cons as price fixing is to hundred-grand-a-year executives.") The Punisher is controversial enough these days even when Marvel has him fighting Trump voters and lecturing cops; imagine if he dropped something like that in the middle of a Spider-Man comic!
Robert Briganti--this is before vigilantes would get outre names like Johnny Rock and Mark Hardin--is a former carny sharpshooter (!) who then went to work as a weapon salesman (we're told that the company's products were occasionally tested on "Skid Row derelicts"!). He's implied to be some combination of arms dealer and CIA asset, before he got out of the game with the love of a good woman--so good she's a Quaker! He still works at a gun store (I'm beginning to sense a motif) and when he refuses to sell to a Mafia bigwig, they kill his wife and son.
Much gunplay follows on the streets of a grimy seventies New York City, with author McCurtin lovingly describing the filth, bums, and other pleasures of the city for the Quentin Tarantino in all of us. Briganti is no sentimentalist: he only takes a break to 'release tension' with a hot-to-trot hooker (the narrative makes sure we know she's sexy and loves to bang) and to attend the oratory of a Black Power activist who holds on about how Christopher Columbus was a black man in what seems like crass attempt to up the page count.
It's still a svelte 150 pages, with the set-up briskly breezed through, and ending with an anti-Mafia rant by Briganti (he hates The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight!) that seems designed to haul this book to novel-length by the skin of its teeth. I appreciate the hustle.
July 10, 2016
Man's wife and son are killed by the mob. Man gets brutal revenge. The end. There's not much to this book plot wise and it's told in long expository paragraphs punctuated by brief action scenes but it's ok all the same. There's an odd scene with a black power group that seems tacked on and a rather abrupt hooker scene that goes nowhere but it was the start of a series so maybe it gets better.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews