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Hellfire
Glass was the killer that some called a hero. O'Shay was the cop who had to hunt him down.
Nick O'Shay plays by the book—a NYPD detective blessed with luck, looks and a raw instinct for solving crimes. But now O'Shay is caught in the worst storm of terror the city has ever seen. New York's sexual underworld is running with blood, from the porn shops to the S&M clubs to the three-hundred-dollar-an-hour brothels. A vicious killer is on the loose, bombing and murdering his way into the headlines, vowing to purify America with fire. To find him, O'Shay must descend into a nightmare world of sex, drugs and human depravity, hunting a madman to the very brink of his own sanity. And before it's over, Glass will come after him, with…HELLFIRE.
Nick O'Shay plays by the book—a NYPD detective blessed with luck, looks and a raw instinct for solving crimes. But now O'Shay is caught in the worst storm of terror the city has ever seen. New York's sexual underworld is running with blood, from the porn shops to the S&M clubs to the three-hundred-dollar-an-hour brothels. A vicious killer is on the loose, bombing and murdering his way into the headlines, vowing to purify America with fire. To find him, O'Shay must descend into a nightmare world of sex, drugs and human depravity, hunting a madman to the very brink of his own sanity. And before it's over, Glass will come after him, with…HELLFIRE.
320 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1987
5 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 20, 2024
I saw the cover of this book online and became obsessed with tracking it down. It’s pretty rare to find online and I finally tracked down a copy for a price I could live with.
I figured this was going to be similar to the film Cruising with Al Pacino (also based on a book) and it’s not too far off from that films premise. Though this book decides to go into strange and interesting directions. This is the only book listed for Thomas Tyger which I’m pretty sure is a pseudonym.
Nick O’Shay is a NYPD detective who is trying to track down a killer who is bombing S&M clubs, gay clubs, porn shops and drug corners. Simple enough premise. What makes this book unique is the characters of the cop O’Shay and are killer Glass.
Are killer dresses up like the Lone Ranger while committing his crimes. He’s got an extreme right wing view when it comes to the people who he considers scum that need to be removed from NY (gays, drug dealers and users, porno sellers, and anyone else in the sexual underworld). Of course he also indulges in pornography and hates himself for doing so. He’s a Vietnam vet that hates what his country has become so he decides to do something about it. He’s a loner and we get to see how his extreme views and his attitude about women ruin a date he’s on (it ends with him trying to rape her). The press props him up as someone who has had enough and has decided to do something about it. Thus some parts of the public look up to him as a hero.
Meanwhile our cop has a very left leaning view when it comes to the sexual underworld. He seems fascinated by it and is not judgmental. The book has him doing research into the underworld so we get all kinds of perverted kinks and perversions described to us. He’s also has a younger girlfriend who was a former prostitute and who still smokes pot and snorts coke. He’s totally fine by it. He does have a rant where he complains about the courts being more for the criminals then the victims, but other then that it’s a bit of a surprise that his character isn’t the typical right leaning cop ala Dirty Harry. The other cops on the squad tracking down the killer fit this mold.
The book is a bit disjointed in that there are long stretches of the cops just b.s.ing about life and the case, learning about the sexual underworld or following the killer around while he monologues about the dregs of society. Then the book starts picking up the pace and starts to get a bit nuts.
We have our killer dressed up as the Lone Ranger having a porn peddler spread his cheeks so he can shoot him in the rectum. Then there’s a crazy scene where he ties a victim to a bed, puts on a record of the William Tell overture and proceeds to cut the tattoos off said victim while signing along to the record.
I liked the bizarre nature of this book. Reading a lot of these types of books it was a bit of a fresh take seeing our cop hero more tolerant towards different types of lifestyles while our killer is more narrow minded in his world view. I was also a little surprised by how it ends. I also liked the weird references that are dropped. O’Shay helped with the capture of the Son of Sam. There’s references to The Dead Kennedy’s and the 1970 film JOE. The weird pacing drags it down a bit. I would probably give it 3 and 1/2 stars, but there were enough entertaining parts to bump it up to 4.
I figured this was going to be similar to the film Cruising with Al Pacino (also based on a book) and it’s not too far off from that films premise. Though this book decides to go into strange and interesting directions. This is the only book listed for Thomas Tyger which I’m pretty sure is a pseudonym.
Nick O’Shay is a NYPD detective who is trying to track down a killer who is bombing S&M clubs, gay clubs, porn shops and drug corners. Simple enough premise. What makes this book unique is the characters of the cop O’Shay and are killer Glass.
Are killer dresses up like the Lone Ranger while committing his crimes. He’s got an extreme right wing view when it comes to the people who he considers scum that need to be removed from NY (gays, drug dealers and users, porno sellers, and anyone else in the sexual underworld). Of course he also indulges in pornography and hates himself for doing so. He’s a Vietnam vet that hates what his country has become so he decides to do something about it. He’s a loner and we get to see how his extreme views and his attitude about women ruin a date he’s on (it ends with him trying to rape her). The press props him up as someone who has had enough and has decided to do something about it. Thus some parts of the public look up to him as a hero.
Meanwhile our cop has a very left leaning view when it comes to the sexual underworld. He seems fascinated by it and is not judgmental. The book has him doing research into the underworld so we get all kinds of perverted kinks and perversions described to us. He’s also has a younger girlfriend who was a former prostitute and who still smokes pot and snorts coke. He’s totally fine by it. He does have a rant where he complains about the courts being more for the criminals then the victims, but other then that it’s a bit of a surprise that his character isn’t the typical right leaning cop ala Dirty Harry. The other cops on the squad tracking down the killer fit this mold.
The book is a bit disjointed in that there are long stretches of the cops just b.s.ing about life and the case, learning about the sexual underworld or following the killer around while he monologues about the dregs of society. Then the book starts picking up the pace and starts to get a bit nuts.
We have our killer dressed up as the Lone Ranger having a porn peddler spread his cheeks so he can shoot him in the rectum. Then there’s a crazy scene where he ties a victim to a bed, puts on a record of the William Tell overture and proceeds to cut the tattoos off said victim while signing along to the record.
I liked the bizarre nature of this book. Reading a lot of these types of books it was a bit of a fresh take seeing our cop hero more tolerant towards different types of lifestyles while our killer is more narrow minded in his world view. I was also a little surprised by how it ends. I also liked the weird references that are dropped. O’Shay helped with the capture of the Son of Sam. There’s references to The Dead Kennedy’s and the 1970 film JOE. The weird pacing drags it down a bit. I would probably give it 3 and 1/2 stars, but there were enough entertaining parts to bump it up to 4.
October 11, 2010
It is a book about the dark side of america, the nightlife, the sexlife etc. A few times while reading I felt a little weird wondering if the Author is just making things up. If you have a good stomach and want to learn about the dark (sex) life of America, read it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews