Otto Penzler: Murder For Revenge

Copyright © Otto Penzler 1998

Like a Bone in the Throat’ by Lawrence Block © 1998 by Lawrence Block

Power Play’ by Mary Higgins Clark © 1998 by Mary Higgins Clark

Fatherhood’ by Thomas H. Cook © 1998 by Thomas H. Cook

West End’ by Vicki Hendricks © 1998 by Vicki Hendricks

Caveat Emptor’ by Joan Hess © 1998 by Joan Hess

Eradicum Homo Horribilus’ by Judith Kelman © 1998 by Judith Kelman

Dead Cat Bounce’ by Eric Von Lustbader © 1998 by Eric Von Lustbader

Angle’s Delight’ by Phillip Margolin © 1998 by Phillip Margolin

Front Man” by David Morrell © 1998 by David Morrell

Murder-Two’ by Joyce Carol Oates © 1998 by the Ontario Review Press

The Enemy’ by Shel Silverstein © 1998 by Shel Silverstein

Mr Clubb and Mr Cuff by Peter Straub © 1998 by Peter Straub

Is there a more human emotion than revenge? In fact, does any other life-form known to us engage in revenge, or even consider it?

Animals kill other animals for food, or self-defence, or for power, for rank within the community. But for revenge? No.

Humans, on the other hand, have engaged in this activity through all of recorded history. There have been many motivations for seeking revenge-political and financial, for example-but it is unlikely that any desire for revenge has been more frequently dragged from the centre of a person’s soul than the anguish of lost love.

Whether that love is taken away by a decision of the beloved or surreptitiously stolen by a rival lover, or heinously and permanently erased by a murderer of that love object, the passion for revenge springs readily into the heart to avenge that greatest of all losses. Power and money can often be acquired anew, but a lost love is almost always gone forever, and the frustration of that stolen joy may easily suggest the notion of vengeance.

Now, it is common for good and gentle people to whisper calmly that such thoughts should be banished from the mind. What good, they ask, can come of it? Seeking vengeance cannot return the lost, stolen, diminished, or vanished object of desire.

True, of course, else animals would certainly engage in acts of vengeance to retrieve their slaughtered pups or chicks or whatever their dead and consumed offspring are called. Mates of those once beloved that have served as meals for their predators would surely find a way to avenge their grief if they instinctively knew it would serve a useful purpose. But that is a pragmatist’s view of revenge and has no bearing on this matter.

As there are levels of all emotions, so there are levels of revenge and the desire-indeed, the need-for it. We are not concerned here with the hard foul on a basketball court that requires an even harder foul at the opposite end of the court. This book isn’t about a petty slight that inspires an immediate response of an equally trivial nature.

No, here we are dealing with wrongs of such magnitude that the heart fills with bile and hatred until it overflows. Such venomous fury cannot be controlled and the only suitable response is the most extreme that a man or woman can deliver: murder, or perhaps more accurately, death, because it is possible that revenge is proper and necessary and the word murder hints strongly at wrongdoing.

The tricky part of being a single force of policeman, judge, jury, and executioner is the lack of checks and balances. There is no voice of reason, no softening influence of distance, no notion of charity. When the white-hot lava of hate spews out of the heart, the injured has no focus beyond revenge and is blind to any other consideration.

“Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” Well, it’s a pretty clear thought and it glows like the brightest neon on the brain of the avenger. There are some, of course, who recall that this was said (or at least quoted as having been said) by the Lord, not by an out-of-control, grief-consumed human being who may not be best able to plot the most appropriate course of action.

Murder for Revenge offers different points of view. Some stories suggest (well, no, actually they shout) that revenge inevitably doubles back to the vengeful, causing greater harm than the initial injury. Other authors illustrate the comfort and justice that can be derived from unleashing the tethered rage of the innocent victim. And some even suggest that there’s something to be said for going either way, neither way being flawless; some might say this approach is kind of wimpy, but it’s pretty much the way the world works, if you ask me.

But see for yourself the many nuances of revenge offered in this wonderful (I can say that because I didn’t write it) book. Shel Silverstein’s story/poem/tale/fable/whatever is not unlike John Dickson Carr’s locked-room lecture, in which he offers more varieties of a solution to a complex problem than most people dare dream about. Peter Straub became so mesmerized with the endlessly delicious possibilities of revenge that his short story stretched into a memorable novella. Thomas H. Cook said he hadn’t written a short story in such a long time that he didn’t know if he could even do it again and, within fifteen minutes of nonstop eating, drinking, and talking, came up with the extraordinary little gem that awaits you. David Morrell said he had just finished a story that was based on a real-life figure, causing him such outrage that he had to write it as a piece of fiction to free himself from the anger that injustice instils in some.

However you feel about revenge, you will find a story in these pages that will support your view, and another that will make you blink and reconsider. It is a tribute to the strength of this visceral emotion that it has produced such powerful evocations of a fundamental human passion.

Otto Penzler

Rapidly becoming one of the most honoured authors in America, Lawrence Block has accomplished a rare trifecta. He is equally admired by critics, readers, and his fellow mystery writers. Men like his work, women like his work, American readers like his work, readers around the world like his work. He writes tough hard-boiled novels about Matthew Scudder that have legions of fans. He writes comedic soft-boiled novels about Bernie Rhodenbarr that have legions of fans. Can the man do no wrong?

Well, no. Stephen King once called him the only worthy successor to John D. MacDonald, and Matt Scudder the only worthy successor to Travis McGee, which is pretty good company. Irritatingly, he is also a very fast writer, though he hates to admit it.

When he was very young (not really that long ago), he wrote a full-length novel starting on Friday night to meet a Monday deadline. He casually mentioned once that he was going to a retreat for a month to write his next novel. I asked how it was possible to write a book that fast. His friend Donald Westlake said the biggest problem was what he would do to occupy the last two weeks.

Block wrote one of the half-dozen best mystery short stories of the past decade, ‘By the Dawn’s Early Light,’ and the following suspense story is a worthy successor.

Throughout the trial Paul Dandridge did the same thing every day. He wore a suit and tie, and he occupied a seat toward the front of the courtroom, and his eyes, time and time again, returned to the man who had killed his sister.