Voice of Armageddon

by David Lippincott

HE HAS ONLY ON TO COMMIT THE ULTIMATE ASSASSINATION....THE COUNTDOWN HAS STARTED....Colonius began by capitalizing on the public dread of assassination and skyjacking, sending pictures of himself standing near important figures he could easily have killed had he chosen to."The trouble with assassination is that most of the interest and sympathy goes to the victim, while the assassin winds up a mere footnote to history. I had to do better than that."That was how Lars Colonius started his journal. Then he went and bought a Brownie camera, a Wollensak tape recorder, a splicing board, a fishing vest and some plastic explosive. That was all he needed to hold the world to ransom..."You know, if they'd had to live in my time. Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers would still be running bicycle shops, Thomas Edison selling newspapers, and Marconi, I guess, working in a barbershop. Because the way things are these days, there's no room left for the brilliant oddball, the aggressive loner, or the self-taught genius. And those guys would've been just as unsuccessful and unknown as I am."Compelling, shocking, ingenious and with a pace that never flags, The Voice of Armageddon will keep you guessing until the final devastating chapter.'Once you start this book, you will be hooked' - New York Times'Suspense at its most undiluted' - C. P. Snow, Financial Times'A brilliantly plotted cliff-hanger' - Daily Telegraph

Genres: Fiction

249 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

David McCord Lippincott (1924-1984)

Reviews

[rndgmoat · Rating 2 out of 5]

David Lippincott is another forgotten author from the heyday of paperback trash. Based on the Wikipedia stub, he seems to have had a fascinating life and is now listed first as a composer rather than as an author of horror, suspense, disaster, and crime fiction. His novels are not frequently reviewed on this site; however, it seems like folks have generally favorable impressions.

This is a suspenser with a few creative, over the top, flourishes--including a Fire Island multiple murder that is as disturbing as it is implausible--that focuses on the crime spree of Lars Colonius, aka "Armageddon." Armageddon, inspired no doubt by Lee Harvey Oswald, wants desperately to be famous and won't settle for "mere" assassination. Instead, he concocts a convoluted plan that keeps much of the national law enforcement apparatus guessing, before finally unveiling his deadly intentions. Along the way, he's hunted by an eccentric team-- including Carlton Ambrose, the marijuana toking proto-profiler and his unlikely friend, Evan Evans, the overweight but deadly serious Texas lawman. Meanwhile, Colonius is content to use a "mentally retarded" (in the constantly used argot of this book) drifter he cruelly dubs "Einstein" as his "slave" to help him effectuate his twisted plan.

Based on the above, I was hopeful that I had discovered a new vein of obscure genre goodness, but so far I'm not totally sold on Lippincott as an author. The initial development of Colonius was compelling and seemed vaguely Thompsonian. Using "Einstein" as his accomplice is a twisted touch that wouldn't fly nowadays, but it adds an effectively disturbing note to the whole thing. However, this is one of those suspense books I mostly despise--the kind where we watch the suspect, from his POV, escape on one page, only to have the cops second-guess where he has gone for five more after (all the while you basically want to scream at the pages the correct answers to their questions). This style of plotting got really old, really fast. I also couldn't help but feel that the whole thing was more than a bit silly, and the ultimate "reveal" not really that shocking or, truthfully, worthy of the nationwide manhunt that preceded it.

Anyway, it looks like Lippincott wrote in a lot of different genres during his brief career, so I'm definitely not ruling him out based on the favorable reviews. But this one just didn't do it for me.

[Ann-Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A chilling novel about a seriously unstable man who plans every ingenious detail for his "rage against the world" and sends his sinister threats to the authorities by the name of Armageddon. They don't know who he is or even know who/what/where his target is, just that he gave them a countdown to when he will kill, Armageddon Day.

There were some disturbing and graphic things in the story that I didn't like and I also felt really bad for one of the characters who was mentally challenged. The suspense of the story was good though as the countdown got closer to Armageddon Day. I won't spoil the ending other than to say there was a twist that took me by surprise. Nevertheless, this is not a book I'd revisit.

Movie adaptation:

Armaguedon (1977)



Starring Alain Delon as Dr. Michel Ambrose, a specialist in criminal psychology who's brought in by the authorities to help find Armaguedon before it's too late.



The movie follows along kinda close to the original storyline with a few changes here and there, one of them being the ending. It didn't have that surprise twist that the book had. This isn't a favorite movie of mine, but I did like Delon in it.

[Lars Dradrach · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the books that i still remember all these years after, the description of the attention seeking killer made a huge impression on me at the time.
Maybe time for a reread

[Warren Fields · Rating 2 out of 5]

8.86

....

[Maximo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buen libro pero nada de otro mundo. Siento que podría haber sido más espectacular más grandioso de lo que fue, pero igualmente me pareció bien relatado bien contado. Llevadero y fácil de leer.