Product Description

Frank Corso is a pariah -- a journalist once vilified for making up "facts" on a major crime story. Yet slow, sheltered Leanne Samples trusts no one but Corso to tell the world that her courtroom testimony that put Walter Leroy "Trashman" Himes on Death Row was a lie. Convicted of the savage slaying of eight Seattle women, Himes is only six days from execution, unless Frank Corso and outcast photographer Meg Dougherty into a struggle that goes far beyond right, wrong, truth, and justice. Because the lowly and the powerful alike all want Himes dead at any cost -- despite startling new evidence that threatens to devastate a city once again.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #605247 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-01
• Released on: 2002-06-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Frank Corso, a renegade journalist with a conscience and a penchant for solitude, makes a winning debut in this new series from the author of the Leo Waterman novels (The Bum's Rush, etc.). Booted out of New York City and nearly out of journalism because of a nasty libel suit, Corso is taken on by the third-rate Seattle Sun and its proprietor, the steely Natalie Van Der Hoven. One of Frank's early pieces for the Sun examined the investigation of the "Trashman" crimes, a series of gruesome rapes and murders. The suspect, Walter Leroy Himes, was unsavory enough, but Corso wasn't convinced that he was the Trashman. Now Himes's execution date is fast approaching, and his principal accuser suddenly reveals that she was badgered into fingering Himes. As soon as Corso asks a question or two around the Seattle police department, the whole place starts alternately squirming and blustering. Corso enlists Meg Dougherty, a freelance photographer with legal training, as his assistant. Meg is covered head to toe with bizarre tattoos, thanks to a malicious boyfriend and one night of drugged sleep. More importantly, she's sharp and tough. Instead of ending with the pair sniffing out the real Trashman, Ford tweaks his tale a few more times, with missing evidence, secret lovers and a parent gone mad with grief. There's a love story here, too, tender and solid, that sneaks up on the reader and on the couple in question. Only a master could serve up such a fine story and then some. (May 1)Forecast: With a blurb from Harlan Coben, plus the popularity of the six Leo Waterman novels, this one could push Ford onto mystery bestseller charts.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Ford, the author of half a dozen deservedly popular Leo Wasserman mysteries, introduces Frank Corso, a defrocked journalist who was fired from the New York Times for fabricating a story and is lucky to be working as a columnist at the lowly Seattle Sun in Washington. The curmudgeonly Corso is glad to be toiling in relative obscurity, especially because he's making a pile of money on the side as an author of crime novels, but all that changes when the publisher who hired him calls in her favor by thrusting him back into the spotlight. There is new evidence that Seattle's finest may have arrested the wrong man to close a grisly serial murder case, and Corso is assigned to investigate. The problem is that the admittedly despicable Walter Lee Himes is due to be executed in six days, and neither a public bent on retribution nor a police department anxious to save face is in a mood to tolerate delays. The race against the clock lends urgency to Ford's narrative, but the most interesting plot twists come after time expires. This is a strong start to what promises to be another absorbing series from one of the mystery genre's most skilled writers. Dennis Dodge
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
'Fury is a winner - great bomb-ticking suspense, a wonderful sense of place, fine writing and flesh-and-bones characters. Must reading.' Harlan Coben; 'G. M. Ford is one of my favorite contemporary crime writers. Hilarious, provocative, and as cool as a March night in Seattle, he may be the best-kept secret in mystery novels. With the exhilarating Fury, he's at top of his game and that's as good as it gets' Dennis Lehane

Customer Reviews

"In this dreary and comfortless region..."
Sometimes my loyalties get in the way of good sense. When I think G. M. Ford, I think Leo Waterman, the slightly haphazard private investigator and the crew of alcoholics that act as his assistants. A little noir, often funny, these have been one of my secret delights for many years. All of a sudden, when I wasn't looking, Ford has started a new series with a totally different main character. My first reaction is 'who the heck is this Frank Corso, and what is he doing where Leo Waterman used to be?'

Corso, a newspaper writer nearly ruined by a reporting scandal, has made a new start in Seattle, writing columns and true crime books. Now a three-year-old story about a serial killer has come back to haunt him in the form of Leanne Samples, who was the main source of testimony against Walter Leroy Himes, and who now claims she lied. Himes is six days from execution and Corso wants nothing to do with the case, but fate has a way of playing tricks, and Corso finds himself digging through ancient history with the aid of Meg Dougherty, a tough lady photographer with a major tattoo problem.

Everyone wants Himes dead. He is an utterly irredeemable psychotic who, if he is innocent, is only so by accident. Corso finds himself at war with all of the Seattle police department and most of city hall. Everyone has something to hide. The only way to stop Himes execution is for Corso to find the killer himself. And that is likely to make Corso as dead as the eight victims.

Like a master, Ford picks you up on the first page, shakes you around until your brains rattle, slaps you into a rollercoaster seat and disconnects the brakes. Waterman fans will find that Ford has created a completely new character, fiercely private and attitude ridden. To make the break with the past complete, the pacing and style are different enough to make the reader feel that he has discovered an entirely new author. One who has no qualms about the occasional use of a two-by-four to get the reader's attention.

However, this isn't a simple tough guy noir story. There is as much solid detection as there is stomach churning. Plus some fine interior views of the dirty side of Seattle and the city's not so finest. Whether you are an old fan or someone considering making the first dip, you will find this a rewarding read.

Fury
Reclusive Frank Corso, disgraced ex N.Y. Times journalist, is working as a freelance syndicated columnist for the lowly Seattle Sun. He is the only person at the newspaper Leanne Samples, star witness for the prosecution in the Walter Himes 'Trashman' serial killer case, will talk to. Leanne is now saying she lied at the trial and the police won't listen to her. She thinks if Corso writes her story, it will stop Himes's execution, which is in 6 days. At the time of the trial, Corso was widely ostracized for voicing doubts about Himes guilt.

Leo Waterman makes a cameo appearance as the detective that locates Corso for Seattle Sun publisher, Natalie Van Der Horn; who pulls out her 'marker' and convinces him to write the story. He is paired with freelance photographer Meg Dougherty, who has a bizarre past of her own.

The subsequent investigaion by Corso and Daugherty make for a fast and furious storyline. In order for the governor to stop the execution, they have to find the real killer; and the clock is ticking...... The are twists and turns as the story moves at breakneck speed. I couldn't read fast enough.

Terrific plot, great characters. Buy it NOW!!

Fury, Fast & Furious
There�s lots of anger in this book, nicely diffused by the author�s deft sense of humor. He gives us a brooding sense of place in a Seattle that has seemingly skipped summer this year in favor of rain, fog and more rain��living in Seattle is like being married to a beautiful woman who is sick all the time.�

Frank Corso, failed journalist and best selling true-crime writer, is obsessively private with an implacable sense of justice. (When did God die, and leave HIM in charge?) He is coerced into investigative reporting when a witness recants her charge of rape against a convicted serial killer facing execution in seven days. As her testimony was key to the prosecution, it is more than likely he is not The Trashman, a particularly hideous killer.

Sounds like a slam-dunk for a white knight to ride to the rescue, doesn�t it? Well, not quite. Walter Lee Himes, the man on death row, is about the sorriest, despicable rag of humanity the author could conjure. He�s ugly, slovenly, a child molester, has a petty crime record as long as your arm with a trash mouth that would even dismay the ACLU. The City of Seattle comprising the Mayor, politicians, police and general public; plus the victims� families are overjoyed that Walter Lee will breathe his last in six days. It isn�t enough that Frank prove Walter Lee innocent; he must find the real serial killer. We are off on a breakneck, twist & turn yarn.

Mr. Ford draws some interesting characters, first and foremost sidekick Meg, a photojournalist, Goth lady, and victim of a terrible crime. Meg�s sadistic ex-boyfriend turned stalker captured her and tattooed her entire body including her face. For some reason, this chilled and horrified me more than any mayhem ever could. It says much for the author�s skill that you become far more interested in Meg than her tattoos. Robert Boyd aka Fury, the �tagger� (graffiti artist) who saw something he shouldn�t, is perfectly rendered as a kid in the �hood who is the despair of his hard-working mother. The cops and politicians are a little over the top, sometimes their motives and truculence hard to understand.

This is a twist and turn brilliantly plotted book, guaranteed to rivet you to your chair. I thought the last twist was one too many, and a few characters that were uncomfortably close to their real-life counterparts (the newspaper owner a la Katherine Graham), but overall a fine read. I�ll look for more of Mr. Ford�s stories.