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Hard Freeze

door Dan Simmons

Reeksen: Joe Kurtz (2)

LedenBesprekingenPopulariteitGemiddelde beoordelingAanhalingen
335776,685 (3.67)7
Revenge has never been served so cold. Joe Kurtz, former investigator and convicted felon, is on parole. But the years he spent in Attica didn't make his old haunts any safer. Back on the streets of Buffalo, he's already marked by a local Mafia don. As if watching his back weren't enough work, Kurtz has also been hired by a gravely ill John Frears, whose daughter met a grisly fate at the hands of a murderer. Frears wants one thing before he dies: for Kurtz to find the fiend that the authorities couldn't. But the calculating killer -- a master at changing identities -- has a little unfinished business of his own. Dodging a contract on his head and tracking a serial killer on the loose, Kurtz plunges headfirst into the icy waters of revenge as both victim and avenger.… (meer)
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Engels (4)  Spaans (1)  Duits (1)  Tagalog (1)  Alle talen (7)
1-5 van 7 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
Pequeño Jaco Farino, el último patriarca de una familia de la mafia, quiere muerto a Kurtz y está mandando a pelotones de asesinos a sueldo a por él. La bella Angelina Farino, hermana de Pequeño Jaco, ha vuelto de Sicilia y también tiene sus propios y mortíferos planes para el detective. Por si eso fuera poco, un violinista moribundo le pide a Kurtz que encuentre al asesino de su hija. Al principio rechaza el caso, pero pronto se encuentra tras la pista de un hombre que no es solo autor de la muerte de una niña, sino un despiadado asesino en serie; un maestro del cambio de identidad con el poder suficiente para enviar cien hombres a la caza del duro detective.
  Natt90 | Mar 9, 2023 |
A child rapist / murderer, unimaginably intelligent, who uses his intelligence, not to take down pendejo elite who make the world into a fascism, but to take on aliases, with power, to help him rape and murder even more teenage girls. That's who this story is about.
Joe Kurtz, an ex PI, ex military, is taking him on. Joe Kurtz is also extremely intelligent, and extremely dangerous. You'd never think he'd be able to get out of the straits he's in, in this story, but he does it!
I like the ending, for all the violence done to the bodies. It's not what you think.

Frears, a world famous violinist, who is dying of cancer, and whose daughter was raped and murdered by the violent criminal in this story, explains to joe Kurtz what he has learned from Lawrence kohlberg, the philosopher who had a theory that human beings passed through stages of moral development, just as they have to pass through Jean Piaget's stages of development.
" 'Level one was simple avoidance of punishment. Moral boundaries are set only to avoid pain. ...Level 2 was a crude form of moral judgment motivated by the need to satisfy one's own desires. ...Level 3 was sometimes called the good boy / good girl orientation -- a need to avoid rejection or the disapproval of others. ...Stage 4 was the law and order level. People had evolved to the moral degree that they had an absolute imperative not to be criticized by a duly recognized authority figure. Sometimes entire national populations appear to be made up of stage 4 and lower citizens.'
'Nazi germany,' said kurtz.
'Exactly. Stage 5 individuals seem motivated by an overwhelming need to respect the social order and to uphold legally determined laws. The law becomes a touchstone, a moral imperative unto itself.'
'ACLU type who allow the Nazis to march in skokie,' said kurtz. 'is stage 5 the top floor?' Asked kurtz.
Frear shook his head. 'Not according to the research that professors KohlBerg and Frederick were carrying out. A level 6 individual makes his moral decisions based on his own conscience and attempts to resonate with certain universal ethical considerations.. even when those decisions fly in the face of existing laws. Say, Henry Davidson Thoreau's opposition to the war with mexico, or the civil Rights Marchers in the south in the 1960s. Professor Frederick used to say that the United States was founded by level 6 minds,' said frears, 'protected and preserved by level fives, and populated by level fours and below. Does this make any sense, Mr kurtz?'
'Sure. But it hasn't done a damned thing towards telling me why you left juilliard and went to the Vietnam war.'
Frears smiled. 'At the time, this idea of moral development was very important to me, Mr kurtz. Lawrence Kohlberg's dream was to find a level 7 personality.
'who would that be?' said kurtz. 'Jesus christ?'
'precisely,' frears said with no hint of irony. ' or Gandhi. Or socrates. Or buddha. Someone who can only respond to universal ethical imperatives. They have no choice in the matter. Usually the rest of us respond by putting them to death.'
'hemlock,' said kurtz. Pruno had made Plato's dialogues required reading for him in attica.
'Yes.' frears set his long, elegant fingers on the metal briefcase. 'Lawrence kohlberg never found a stage 7 personality. but he did find something else, Mr kurtz. His testing showed that there were many people walking the street who can only be classified as level zeros. Their moral development has not even evolved to the point where they will avoid pain and punishment if their whim dictates otherwise. Other human beings' sufferings means absolutely nothing to them. The clinical term is "sociopath," but the real word is "monster." ' "[The premier imperialist's rulers.]

And here's the part that's violent that I liked. The level zero, Hanson, child rapist/murderer, gets his comeuppance. And it's not even Joe Kurtz who does it:
"100 yards away through blowing snow, snug in the driver's seat of the Cadillac suv, Hansen heard none of this. He turned the ignition, heard the V8 roar to life, set the heater to maximum, and flipped on the halogen headlights.
He had just raised his hand to the gear shift when there came a soft tik-tik and 32 lbs of C4 explosive rigged under the floorboards, in the engine compartment, behind the dash, and especially carefully around the 40 gallon fuel tank, exploded in tight sequence.
The first wad of explosive blew off Hansen's feet just above the ankles. The second batch of C4 blew the hood 100 ft into the air and sent the windshield flying. The main packet ignited the fuel tank and lifted the two and a half ton vehicle 5 ft into the air before the SUV dropped back onto burning tires. The interior of the Cadillac immediately filled with a fuel-air mixture of burning gasoline.
Hansen was alive. Even as he breathed flames, he thought, I'm alive!
He tried the door but it was buckled and jammed. the passenger seat was twisted forward and on fire. Hansen himself was on fire. The wood and polymer steering wheel was melting in his hands.
Not knowing yet that his feet were gone, Hansen lurched forward and clawed at the dashboard, pulling himself through the jagged hole where the windshield had been.
The hood was gone; the engine compartment was a well of flames.
Hansen did not stop. Reaching up and over with hands of molten flesh, he grabbed the optional roof rack of the Cadillac and pulled his charred and burning legs out of the wreck, twisting free of the interior, dropping himself away from the Flaming mass of metal.
His hair was on fire. His face was on fire. Hansen rolled in the deep snow, smothering the flames, screaming in agony.
He crawled on his smoking elbows farther from the wreck, rolling on his back, trying to breathe through the pain in his lungs. He could see everything clearly, not knowing that his eyelids had fused with his brow and could not be closed. Hansen held his hands in front of his face. they hurt. He saw in a surge of disbelief bordering on a weird joy that his fingers had bloated like hot dogs left too long on the charcoal grill and then burst and melted. He saw white bone against the black sky. The flames illuminated everything in a 60-yard radius.
Hansen tried to scream for help but his lungs were two sacks of carbon."

See what I mean? Now imagine that happening to the rulers of the Imperial power. Laugh out loud.

( )
  burritapal | Oct 23, 2022 |
This was a decent hard-boiled mystery story. It is very action driven. There are no clear good guys and bad guys just action everywhere. Joe Kurtz is blunt and gets the job done with a ton of collateral damage. I didn't like any of the characters, but the story definitely kept my attention from start to finish. ( )
  jguidry | Jun 10, 2019 |
This novel is part of a series of three books from the "Joe Kurtz" series. It has been many years since i have read the series so i am not going to do a in-depth review. I did however want to let other readers now that it is fantastic and that they really should give it a turn. I do not think you will be disappointed. Pleas give it a shot and hold on for a exciting and thoughtful ride. ( )
  Trentazoid | Nov 4, 2015 |
Klasse! Wird immer besser! ( )
  truller10 | Feb 26, 2014 |
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Revenge has never been served so cold. Joe Kurtz, former investigator and convicted felon, is on parole. But the years he spent in Attica didn't make his old haunts any safer. Back on the streets of Buffalo, he's already marked by a local Mafia don. As if watching his back weren't enough work, Kurtz has also been hired by a gravely ill John Frears, whose daughter met a grisly fate at the hands of a murderer. Frears wants one thing before he dies: for Kurtz to find the fiend that the authorities couldn't. But the calculating killer -- a master at changing identities -- has a little unfinished business of his own. Dodging a contract on his head and tracking a serial killer on the loose, Kurtz plunges headfirst into the icy waters of revenge as both victim and avenger.

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