Death Ride

by Ed Lasko adapted by Franklin William Blinn

Starsky & Death Ride

Genres: Crime

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Tim Deforest · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an adaptation of a very entertaining and action-packed first season episode of Starsky and Hutch. The author effectively expands this into a novel-length story by adding additional scenes from the point-of-view of the bad guys and changing them from the Red Shirt villains they were in the episode into more 3-dimensional characters. The result is a still entertaining and action-packed story with a little more depth to it than the original episode.

The author also adds one additional gun battle--on TV, the climatic fight is in a hospital corridor. This fight still happens in the novel, but it soon followed by one more gun fight in an airport parking lot. This is obviously done to pad out the page count, put the additional action is worked expertly into the story, so it doesn't feel like padding at all.

[Tim Ristow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this particular story — and the TV episode (“Death Ride”- 3rd episode of the first season) it’s based on. It’s nothing spectacular but this made for a more interesting read than the previous book in this series (#2 - “Kill Huggy Bear”)and feels better written as a whole. It fleshes out some scenes better and explains some things better than in the episode, and adds a bit of minor nuance to our main characters - Starsky in particular.

The whole car ride sequence into the country is fun and interesting to read as our heroes try to evade the hit men on their trail. There’s humor between Starsky & Hutch, a camaraderie that comes across well even on paper. The running gag about Starsky’s watch is goofy but tied into the story all the way to the end. The hit men themselves are given names and actually have some very minimal characterization to them, adding a bit more to their threat level (they aren’t just nameless bad guys). The concern over an information leak in the police department gives the story some added tension and a mystery element for Starsky & Hutch and Captain Dobey to solve.

There are some minor plot holes and the women are weakly written or all but forgotten by story’s end. Still, let’s not make any mistake: this is all about Starsky & Hutch and we’re with them the whole ride, guns blazing and red Torino tires squealing (and whatever other cars they’re in; for this story that includes a Checker taxi cab, a mobile van and Hutch’s Ford). It’s a fun diversion, quick read and entertaining little tale with our two favorite detectives.