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| Damnation Street (Weiss and Bishop) | 
 enlarge | Creator: Andrew Klavan
Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $21.25
You Save: $5.70 (21%)
New (4) Used (2) from $10.72
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 2643623
Format: Abridged, Audiobook, Cd
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Abridged
Number Of Items: 5
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.1 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 1423312864
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781423312864
ASIN: 1423312864
Publication Date: September 5, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Book is brand new, and has never been opened. Thousands of satisfied customers!
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Product Description
Scott Weiss is a private detective. John Foy is a professional killer. The woman is Julie Wyant, a hooker with the face of an angel.
Julie spent one night with Foy - a night of psychopathic cruelty that Foy called love. Desperate to get away from him, she vanished without a trace. And Foy wants her back.
There's only one man who can find her: Weiss, the best locate operative in the business. She's begged him not to look for her, fearing he'll bring the killer in his wake. But Weiss can't stay away.
Now, from a town called Paradise, through a wilderness that feels like hell, Weiss searches for Julie - and the killer follows, waiting for his chance.
They are two expert hunters matching move for move - until it ends in gunfire on Damnation Street.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Damnation Street...Near The "Middle of Nowhere at Midnight" January 14, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Klavan ties up most of the loose ends of his Weiss/Bishop series (following "Dynamite Road" and "Shotgun Alley") in this hard boiled noir, "Damnation Street." Scott Weiss, ex-cop and head of his own PI office in San Francisco, is still tracking the elusive Julie Wyant, a prostitute that he may or may not be in love with...even though they have never met (don't ask).
The man who calls himself John Foy, dubbed "the Shadowman" by the media, is also still tracking Julie for his own perverted purposes which include his belief that he also is in love with her based on a one night encounter. Both these protagonists are obsessed with Julie, or what Julie represents to them. Scott has come to realize the only solution to this on-going cat and mouse game is for him to find Julie knowing "The Shadowman" will follow him setting up a final, ultimate confrontation. Foy also realizes the unhealthy symbiotic relationship that has developed between he and Weiss and also agrees to an inevitable confrontation with the three of them...of course, with a different predicted outcome than Weiss's.
Scott's former employee, the nihilistic, violence prone Jim Bishop, is still trying to find himself when he stumbles upon information that Weiss is in deadly peril from "The Shadowman" due to a secret strategy guaranteeing Scott's death. Bishop's respect for Weiss impels him to enter the chase and save Scott thereby redeeming his own self respect and meaning in life. Now we have four main characters all moving across the chessboard with similar plans yet vastly different motives.
Klavan's pacing is non-stop, full-speed-ahead action leaving little time to stop and catch your breath. It is one of those books that if you like these characters, you will find most difficult to put down. Reading the first two installments will give you a deeper appreciation of the characters but this effort can certainly be read as a stand-alone. Weiss's intuitive ability to "know" or sense things about people acts almost as a sixth-sense allowing him to keep a step ahead of others and to outguess the best plans of the villains. It is a unique "hook" that I find intriguing in this series.
The story is told from several points of view including a first person insertion of Klavan into the plot as an operative out of Weiss's agency. All in all, I found this a most enjoyable read that stretched the noir/crime thriller genre without going over the top. You'll laugh, you'll cringe, and you'll lose your breath at times...but, hey, isn't that what a good book should do for us?
 reader be warned May 22, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I only read the first five chapters, so this is not a full review of the book. The writing and plot seem good enough but the reader will find foul language and explicit sex within the first 27 pages. Just a bit surprised to get this in a book endorsed by Laura Ingraham.
Excellent Book, Excellent Series January 9, 2007
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book Provides an Excellent End To An Overwhelming Great Series. Cannot Wait To Read Future Books From Andrew Klavan
HIghly Recommend Reading The Whole Weiss Bishop Series but This Book Can Be Enjoyed Solo
To say that Damnation Street is hard-boiled is an understatement December 14, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
As stated in its Author's Note, Damnation Street is part of the continuing story (following 2003's Dynamite Road and 2004's Shotgun Alley) of "two lost men," Scott Weiss, head of San Francisco PI agency Weiss Investigations, and Jim Bishop, formerly one his operatives.
The novel picks up with a conflict in progress: Weiss is using his extraordinary tracking skills to find a hooker that he thinks he's in love with. Weiss has another motive for tracking her down, because he knows she's attracted another unrelenting suitor, a twisted killer known as The Shadowman; Weiss believes that once he finds her, he'll also find the killer, whose very existence is deeply offensive to him. Fearing that Weiss is in way over his head, the nihilistic Jim Bishop tries to protect him by taking out the Shadowman before he can hurt his ex-boss. The devious and deadly Shadowman, however, has other ideas.
To say that Damnation Street is hard-boiled is an understatement that wouldn't do the book justice--dark, depressing, steeped in violence, the book is a story arc from Sin City exquisitely rendered in bleak, hard- hitting prose. Balancing cruelty and tenderness, pathos and humor without ever insulting the intelligence of readers, the book features several set pieces which definitely aren't recommended for the faint of heart. At it's core, though, this is a book about redemption and rehabilitation, and, more importantly, about courage and loyalty. A journey into the dark side of human existence, it ultimately conveys a message of hope and optimism.
Almost a perfect "10" October 22, 2006
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
This is the third outing of Weiss and Bishop, narrated by a young Klavan. PI Scott Weiss realizes the only for beautiful prostitute Julie Wyant to ever be safe and stop running from the psychopathic killer called "Shadowman," is to find Julie, knowingly leading the killer to her, and killing the killer first. When Jim Bishop, now estranged from Weiss, learns "Shadowman" has a trick he is counting on Weiss not having planned for, Bishop is determined to find Weiss and save him. Add to this young Klavan, working in Weiss' office. He finally has a case of his own following the daughter of the Berkeley professor who is concerned that she has suddenly become distant and staying out more. Unfortunately, the young woman is someone Klavan fell in love with after meeting once, but let her slip away when he become involved in an affair with an older woman who also works for Weiss.
Now for a bad analogy--this book made me think of figure stating with major sections of fast skating punctuated with daring jumps, occasional slower sections to alter the pace, an explosive crescendo and finally stopping and taking their bows and, as with figure skating, I loved it.
The story is totally plot driven but that doesn't mean without character development. One could actually read it as a standalone, although it is better to read the whole series. The dialogue is sharp and the action gripping. There is brutality and profanity but appropriate, with exception to one character where I felt it was misplaced. There is humor and pathos which balance out the action and violence.
You can tell author Klavan is a screenwriter as the story is very visual. I highly recommend this for the noir reader, and what a treat you'll receive.
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