Dead City

by Shane Stevens

Book Overview

The acclaimed author of By Reason of Insanity, The Anvil Chorus, and Go Down Dead offers "a relentlessly chilling and stark novel" (The Kansas City Star) and "a fresh, vital look at organized... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671783912
• ISBN13: 9780671783914
• Release Date: June 1974
• Publisher: Pocket
• Length: 307 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

One of my All Time Favorites

DEAD CITY is one of my all time favorite books. It is also a short and quick read, and I've read it about 5 times. The novel deals with Harry Strega, a young and pretty much emotionally-stunted war veteran who returns to Jersey City, NJ, and whose goal is to join up with the New Jersey mob. Harry starts small and works his way up to being an enforcer. I do not wish to give away the plot, but suffice it to say that as the author Shane Stevens' locale and language are street-gritty-mean, it doesn't end with Harry washing down a piece of Mom's homemade cherry pie with a glass of ice cold milk at her kitchen table on the family's Iowa farm. DEAD CITY is dead realism featuring low to medium level wise guys breaking legs, hijacking trucks, and engaging in assorted other forms of related hi-jinks. I love the language, the scene setting, and the characters in the book, and if you find the subject matter and a noir ambience appealing, you'll like DEAD CITY.

Blood red realism

Sopranos who? Within the world of mob fiction, there has never been a more objectively coldblooded view of the workings of organised crime from the bottom up.No romanticism, no false heroics, no bad guys with a heart of gold. Like it says on the sleeve, "this is what it is".

Scorsese was made to direct this.

This one will knock your socks off! It's THE GODFATHER meets MEAN STREETS. This is a riveting tale of the mobsters on the lower levels. The city racketeer on down to the street soliders....A warning though (no it's not about the level of violence, although it's quite violent): This is not an easy read. Not because Steven's prose or style is awkward, heck no, his writing is to the point and a pleasure to read. Some impatient and...ah let's just say it, not so bright readers may have a problem with the novel's depth. DEAD CITY covers every wheel and deal, scam, hustle and hit. And we a privy to many character's point of view....I'm not saying it's Dos Passos or Pynchon, but its deep man, deep.

A Gritty Assessment of Organized Crime On All Levels

This is the great, really twisted, little book that was the inspiration for Stephen King's villian, Alexis Machine, in The Dark Half. The story revolves around the various levels of the organized crime syndicate during the early '70s, between the shooters, the muscle, and the bosses they work for. Perhaps the best writing takes place with Stevens' smooth portrayal of his characters as he takes you inside each of their heads and documents their motives and individual psychosis; also his cold, unemotional portrayals of various terrible events and descents involving them truly brings a chill to the spine, and I would liken parts of Dead City to Requiem For A Dream for its disturbing dramas. I couldn't put it down, and would give it a full five stars sheerly for it's grim style (not something you find often), but my only complaint would be that this book could have been a bit more developed, and at times felt rushed. Some characters I would have liked to learn more about, but it just didn't happen. Other than this, the book excels in its gritty assessment of organized crime, and doesn't seek to glorify it like most media presentations (for which it should be commended on alone), and will make the blood run cold!

Great read.

After reading BY REASON OF INSANITY I went out and got the only other two Stevens books I could find, this on and THE ANVIL CHORUS. Still haven't read CHORUS yet but did read this. It is a great story that'll keep you hooked. I'm still wondering, though, if Stevens is still writing and where I can find info on the man.