Book Review: Death Wish by Brian Garfield

I was familiar with the Charles Brosnon/Micheal Winner movie (who isn't!) , but until now the original source novel by Brain Garfield (an author known previously to me for his many excellent westerns) had passed me by.

I picked up this novel for my kindle on a whim; having come across it whilst browsing and I very much enjoyed it. It's basically the same story as the movie it inspired, and it also justifies the actions of the vigilante that drives the plot in a similar fashion, but it contains much more depth than the the movie and leaves the reader empathizing with Paul Benjamin (Paul Kersey in the movie) and fully understanding, if not applauding him for bringing a kind of wild west gun juctice to the criminals who are ruling the streets of 1970's New York.

The novel fully gets inside the character of Paul Benjamin and shows us how an accountant, a life long liberal can step over that line and become the ultimate in right wing rhetotic - judge, jury and executioner. Much of the novel concentrates on the mundane aspects of the main characters life and his transition to madness is fully realized in a believable fashion.

It's not as nasty as the movie it spawned, and for that even more compelling, and it sense of time and place is vivid. I'd highly recommend this book.