Wednesday, 6 November 2019

AUTHOR FAVOURITES: THE DEVIL DOESN’T WANT ME by ERIC BEETNER


Eric Beetner has been described as ‘the hardest working man in crime fiction.’ As well as numerous noirish thrillers and award-winning short fiction he’s ventured into western territory with the Lawyer series.

Eric tells me his favourite of his own books is THE DEVIL DOESN’T WANT ME. This is the first in a series of Lars-and-Shaine novels. ‘I think it’s the right blend of an antihero you root for, mayhem and violence, but with a real heart.’

Lars, a professional hit man, has been hunting Mitch the Snitch for 17 years. But then the aging gun for hire switches sides and ends up with Mitch’s teenage daughter Shaine, on the run from New Mexico to California. Angry mobsters and the FBI pursue.

Here’s some information about hit men, or contract killers, which I got via Wikipedia. (I didn’t want to delve any deeper in case I put my life at risk, which seems a high price to pay for writing a blog!)
Contract killing is where one party hires a killer (often called a hit man) or killers to murder a target individual or group of people. It does exist in the real world outside fiction. For example, in the United States, the gang MURDER, INC committed hundreds of murders on behalf of the NATIONAL CRIME SYNDICATE during the 1930s and 1940s.
A study by the Australian Institute of Criminology, looking at 162 attempted or actual contract murders in Australia between 1989 and 2002, indicated that the most common reason for murder-for-hire was insurance policies payouts. The study also found that the average payment for a 'hit' was $15,000 with variation from $5,000 up to $30,000. Contract killings accounted for 2% of murders in Australia during that time period. Contract killings also make up a relatively similar percentage of all killings elsewhere. For example, they made up about 5% of all murders in Scotland from 1993 to 2002.
Notable hit men include:
GLENNON ENGLEMAN, an American dentist who moonlighted as a hit man.
RICHARD KUKLINSKI, an American contract killer who claimed to have murdered over 200 men.
FRANK ‘THE IRISHMAN’ SHEERAN, a union official and mob hit man, who claimed he murdered former Teamsters president JIMMY HOFFA. 

BENJAMIN ‘BUGSY’ SIEGEL, who headed the BUGS and MEYER MOB  and was a hit man for MURDER, INC. Siegel was also the ITALIAN MOB’S main hit man during Prohibition. Ironically, he was himself the victim of a contract killing by unknown assailants in 1947. His murderers were hired by the American Mafia ruling body THE COMMISSION.

ILICH RAMÍREZ SÁNCHEZ, also known as CARLOS THE JACKAL, is more accurately a political assassin and terrorist than a crime-based hit man working solely for money. He’s a committed Marxist-Leninist who joined the POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE (PFLP) in 1970. He was given the code name 'Carlos' because of his South American roots (he was born in Venezuela.) In a case of life imitating art, Carlos was dubbed ‘The Jackal’ by UK newspaper ‘The Guardian’ after one of its correspondents reportedly spotted FREDERICK FORSYTH’s novel ‘The Day of the Jackal’  (about a contract killer) near some of his belongings.

He is currently serving a life sentence in France for the 1975 murder of an informant for the French government and two French counter-intelligence agents. During his trial in 1997, he said, "We never killed anyone for money, but for a cause—the liberation of Palestine.” In 2017 he claimed responsibility for a total of 80 deaths.
The Brazilian television presenter WALLACE SOUZA was accused of hiring hit men to murder at least five people in 2009 to increase his show’s ratings!

Contract killers have proved endlessly fascinating to novelists and film makers. Ernest Hemingway’s short story ‘The Killers’ inspired two films of the same name:
In 1946, with the hit men played by Charles McGraw and William Conrad.


And in 1964 with  Clu Gulager and Lee Marvin in the same roles.


FREDERICK FORSYTH’s aforementioned novel ‘The Day of the Jackal’ was made into a movie in 1973 with Edward Fox as the paid killer.


Other films about hit men include PULP FICTION (a very over-praised movie in my opinion) with Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta


and MR AND MRS SMITH with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt as a married couple unaware that their partner is a hired killer – and that they've been hired to kill each other!


And ROAD TO PERDITION (2002) with Jude Law as the assassin.


Reviews of THE DEVIL DOESN’T WANT ME:

‘Beetner is a maestro with his action scenes.’

‘Sizzling cinematic prose… crime fiction at its most entertaining… marks the arrival of a bold new talent.’

Has more depth than your typical hitman/mob shoot-em-up.’

‘Laced with dark humour.’

‘A true noir masterpiece.’