A Time Of Predators - Joe Gores

[H_P_Saucecraft]

A Time Of Predators - Joe Gores (NEL, August 1971, first published by W.H. Allen 1970)

I did a search, but this one doesn't seem to have been covered. All I've found mentioned is the author's short story 'You're putting me on, aren't you?' In Lynn Picknett's anthology The Best Horror Stories.

Anyone read this one, or know anything else about the author?
I've had this one a while & will be reading it once I've finished The Rage. I shall post my thoughts when I've read it, but for now here are scans of the front & back covers:

[bushwick]

'Curt begins to change into a ruthless weapon poised for vengeance.'

This has surely got to be a good 'un.

[H_P_Saucecraft]

I have finished it & I'm a bit mixed to be honest.

While it's a good book, it does drag in a couple of places & doesn't seem to deliver what it promises. It starts of nicely, but never seems to fufil its potential for nastiness, as though the author was all set to go for it, but then got cold feet halfway through. This being NEL, I can't imagine the publishers asking the author to tone it down.

Certainly, it still rings true, with the police unable to convict & the main character taking things into his own hands, but it just feels like something is missing from this, that it's too subtle.

Enjoyable enough, but don't go in expecting exploitation (even though that's what the cover blurb seems to promise).

Dave

[dem bones]

Think i know what you're getting at here, having felt much the same sense of let down from Peter Hawkins' The Man With Mad Eyes. Again, there's nothing wrong with the book - it's very good on it's own terms - but it didn't turn out to be quite what i thought i was buying when i read the blurb and copped the Nel logo in the top corner!

Mind you, both of 'em have to die for covers, so you can't really complain too much.