Eye for an Eye

by Erika Holzer

After listening over the telephone to her daughter's rape and murder, Karen Newman decides to fight back, joining a vigilante group whose sworn aim is to exterminate criminals worldwide. National ad/promo.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Contemporary

251 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Erika Holzer received her B.S. from Cornell University and her law degree from New York University.

For several years following her admission to the New York bar, she practiced constitutional and appellate law with Henry Mark Holzer. Their clients included Soviet dissidents and defectors, and other lawyers for whom they prepared appellate briefs and Petitions for Certiorari for the Supreme Court of the United States.

One of the Holzer firm’s clients (and later friend) was the novelist, Ayn Rand. Because of Rand’s literary influence, Erika Holzer switched careers from law to writing.

With Henry Mark Holzer, she co-authored “Aid and Comfort”: Jane Fonda in North Vietnam, proving that Jane Fonda’s trip to Hanoi during the Vietnam War, and her activities there, constituted constitutional treason.

Again with Henry Mark Holzer, Erika co-authored Fake Warriors: Identifying, Exposing, and Punishing Those Who Falsify Their Military Service.

Her other non-fiction writing consists of essays, articles, reviews, political and legal commentary.

In addition, Erika is author of the book Ayn Rand: My Fiction-Writing Teacher: A novelist’s mentor-protégé relationship with the author of Atlas Shrugged.

Reviews

[Regina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, the book is just okay. It will keep your attention and it's easy to read, but something about the author's style is off. It feels sort of "half-assed" for lack of a better word. At parts in the story where something was clearly supposed to be of great importance or great revelation to the characters, I found myself confused with understanding only coming 20 pages later. Several times I was left scratching my chin at some line of dialogue that was framed as clever.

Also, very anticlimactic. The end especially, but even just throughout. The first quarter gets you so interested and then it's just blah. Happens several times within the plot- you think it's finally getting into an actual A-B-C story and it's just more let down.

Very different from the movie. Movie was mom with vengenace on her mind, Book was more Mom becomes voice of reason for victims who used to want revenge.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The movie was better, extremely different from the book, but not bad.

This book was a Libertarian's wet dream of a revenge novel. In a world of libtard judges soft on crime and full of technicalities, crime victims are fed up. Karen Newman, whose daughter has been raped and murdered, wants revenge on the men who killed her daughter and to avenge other victims. Yet, as Karen is seduced into a vigilante group full of victims, not all of Victims Anonymous are good and some are just as evil as the criminals they hunt.

The book is filled with plot twists that are at times less than believable, and characters are seemingly killed off once they fulfill their roles in the book to an almost ridiculous degree.

[Matteo Aiello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ho trovato questo libro inizialmente originale e affascinante da leggere, in quanto promuove un meccanismo di Giustizia Privata attuato dalla protagonista Karen Newman, la quale ha subito la perdita di sua figlia, la quale è stata uccisa. Tuttavia ho realizzato, in una seconda parte del libro, che quest'ultimo iniziava ad esprimere un concetto ripetitivo, nonostante non mancassero i colpi di scena.
Sconsiglio questo libro, in quanto l'ho trovato banale in alcuni capitoli, ma soprattutto ho individuato la mancanza di alcuni elementi che avrebbero potuto ravvivare la narrazione degli eventi.

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 1995. A fast paced plot, rich charactrizations, crisp and concise dialog and a credible narritive.

[Angela]

After a mother hears her daughter being attacked and killed over the phone, she decides to fight back by joining Victims Anonymous - vigilante group. Her fight for justice and love
GOOD

[Manoj Saha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eye for an Eye (1996 film)

[Harry Roger Williams III · Rating 4 out of 5]

About half way through her Kindle book, Ayn Rand, My Fiction-Writing Teacher: A Novelist's Mentor-Protégé Relationship with the Author of Atlas Shrugged, I stopped to read Holzer’s novel, to see if she knew what she was talking about. I placed an interlibrary loan request, prepared to dislike her writing.
It arrived with wonderful blurbs from awesome authors: Nelson DeMille and Dorothy Uhnak on the front cover, Ed McBain and Sandra Scoppetone on the back. Inside were more from Dorothy Salisbury-Davis, Barbara D’Amato, Warren Murphy (one of my favorites), Thomas Chastain, Donald Hamilton and others, including major newspapers. Her portrait, inside the back cover, made me think, “She looks like someone who idolizes Ayn Rand – no happy idiot here, but one who is uncompromising in her views and values.”
I was not prepared for the experience of reading Eye for an Eye and enjoying it so much. It kept me turning pages, rooting for heroes and heroines, hoping that justice would be meted out to evildoers. It also kept me guessing. Wait, that’s not exactly it. It surprised me with unexpected plot and character twists that made sense once revealed, and never felt contrived. This was a very satisfying novel. Bravo, Erika Holzer!

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this--but it's telling that looking over my shelves to decide what needs to go to liberate shelf space, this was one of the first books I drew down. Holzer is a competent writer--and that's not to be disparaging. It's easy to understand what caught the eye of film-makers in this story of a mother looking for revenge for her murdered daughter. The adaption with Sally Field and Kiefer Sutherland is a good, memorable film, as this is a good memorable book. Not that many books, that decades after reading it, I can call the basic plot to mind. But given that, there's just not enough in terms of either style or character or impact that makes me want to read it again and again--or watch the film again and again. So, bottom line, if this book comes your way, read it. I think you'll be entertained. But a keeper? No.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a long time ago after seeing the movie starring Sally Field, Keifer Sutherland, and Ed Harris. Loved the movie, loved the book. Here's a short synopsis that I copied from amazon, since it's been so long since I read it and I can't remember the details -

"Advertising executive Karen Newman's worst nightmares come true when a gang of street thugs rape, mutilate, and murder her daughter on Halloween night. When the gang's leader is released by a "humanitarian" judge, she is outraged. By Christmas she has joined an underground vigilante group, Victims Anonymous, and avenged her daughter's death."

[Kaylol · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's ok.

[Amy Mossoff · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe I'm just not in the mood, but I can't get past the first few pages of this book. Maybe I'll try again someday.