Blood Oath

The Sharpshooter #2

by Bruno Rossi, Russell Smith (AKA), Peter McCurtin (Contributor)

The most powerful Mafioso in America thought he was untouchable. But he hadn't counted on the killer-for-good known as the Sharpshooter!

John (The Rock) Rocetti continues his all-out war on the Mafia. Without a doubt, the change in Rock’s demeanor has a lot to do with his chronicler, not the same ghost writer responsible for writing #1: The Killing Machine.

This one opens to an entirely different feel, Iris is gone and Rock is in Xenia, a quaint New York town. The difference in writing style, and more aggressive nature, reveals this one being written by Russell Smith. The author mistakenly calls Rock by the name Magellan (hero of the MARKSMAN series) at various points in the book, and makes it clear that he was a very sedulous author (to put it mildly.)

Rock is out to get a Mafia don hiding in an almost inviolable fortress and therefore reasonably blasts Mafia butt in this very violent entry. BLOOD OATH has all the requisite "explosive violence for the 70's" (as Leisure books notes) and delivers nicely.

Paperback

First published October 1, 1973

About the author

Leisure Book's series, THE SHARPSHOOTER was spawned by author "Bruno Rossi" in 1973. But who is Bruno Rossi? The first books in the series were composed by various staff writers, most notably Peter McCurtin and Russell Smith. Other authors in the series include: Leonard Levinson, John Stevenson, John Marshall and Paul Hofrichter.
~Blogger Rayo Casablanca, http://sickhipster.blogspot.com/2006/...

Reviews

[Holger Haase · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short entertaining read, the kind of vigilante revenge series that was all the rage way back then and would later inspire the Marvel PUNISHER character and was churned out by the dozen in the 1970s, but love when I find mysterious notes in second hand paperbacks. This one had me intrigued for a while.

These books were usually written by a number of house writers under pseudonym. (Bruno Rossi in this case.)

Inside the cover page the previous owner had indicated page numbers and character names and in the corresponding pages circled those names.

Took me a little while to figure that these were editing screw ups where instead of e.g. using Johnny Rock (the character's name) they used Magellan, the name of the protagonist in a rival series THE MARKSMAN.

So seems like this book was initially written for the MARKSMAN series then changed for the SHAPRSHOOTER and in the process they simply forgot to edit out all references to the other character.

Probably of interest to absolutely no-one but me but I love those trashy discoveries.

[Mikepottz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Johnny Rock holed up in a small village, taking refuge in a small farm where his neighbour a mob boss is selling stolen goods. Vans come and go from his business warehouse. Johnny's first two kills were mobsters in a black sedan, shot through the head as they were driving and for extra measure, bullets in the gas tank sending orange flames sky high, the car rolling over and over. Rock then drinks a beer at the local bar, the bartender doesn't like him so Rock smashes is fists in his face, blood spurting then returns to his beer quietly drinking. Don't disturb Rock when he wants a drink. He is then attacked by two mobsters and he will shot one in the temple, careful not to get any spray on his clothes. He will explode grenades, shoot an UZI into flesh, chunks ripping. Can't work out if Rock is a likeable character or not.