Dirty Harry #7: Massacre at Russian River by Dane Hartman

 

(pb; 1982: seventh book in the twelve-book Dirty Harry series. Sequel to Dirty Harry #6: City of Blood.)

From the back cover

“A lot of grass─the illegal kind─grows in the hills of Northern California. Where there’s marijuana, there’s money. Where there’s money, there’s murder. And where there’s murder, there’s ‘Dirty Harry’ Callahan. In a wilderness where even the local cops are criminal, Harry must live─and kill─by a law higher than the law of the land: his own.”

Review

MASSACRE is an entertaining, waste-no-words and action-focused read, excellent for its hyper-masculine subgenre. This is a near-impossible-to-set-down B-movie book, with its sketched-out characters (aside from Callahan), rapid-fire developments, danger-and-corruption-all-around storyline. MASSACRE does not have any egregious, troubling-in-2020 politics and social attitudes like the giallo-esque The Long Death (third book in the series). This is a blast of a read, worth your time and cash.

Followed by Dirty Harry #8: Hatchet Men.

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According to Wikipedia, Dane Hartman is the pen name of “several writers. . . [including] martial arts expert Ric Meyers and Leslie Alan Horvitz.”