The intruder : a novel /

The flap copy says Blauner's latest has already been "sold to Hollywood for almost $3 million," a sure sign that the Tinseltown powerbrokers see commercial success for this hard-edged, intense story about a New York City lawyer whose family is threatened by a deranged homeless man. Jacob Schiff is a successful, happily married man with a comfortable life--comfortable, that is, until his wife Dana, a psychiatric social worker, meets John Gates, a homeless man beset by tragedy and delusions. Gates, convinced that Dana is his former wife who's been "stolen" by Jacob, begins threatening the Schiffs, and nothing they do seems to keep their tormentor away. Enter Philip Cardi, a con man masquerading as a contractor, who is more than happy to help Jacob get rid of the pesky Gates--but at a far-too-high price that's only disclosed after it's much too late. With an air of menace that's almost palpable, Blauner's book takes readers on a roller-coaster ride with near-certain disaster lurking around every curve. A fine thriller. --Emily Melton

The Edgar-winning author of Slow Motion Riot (and of Casino Moon) makes an intense journey into Death Wish/Straw Dogs territory, producing an edged weapon of a novel that stabs at the fears of the urban middle class. Jacob Schiff is a successful Manhattan attorney. His wife, Dana, a psychiatric social worker, offers help and hope to a mentally disturbed homeless man named John Gates. When his feelings for Dana turn obsessional, Gates begins to stalk the family, generating violent confrontations and threats. The police offer no real solutions and so Schiff makes the mistake of his life: he recruits a day-laborer/street enforcer, Philip Cardi, to warn the homeless man off. But Cardi, in pursuit of Gates, brutalizes and kills another homeless man. In response, Gates, who witnesses the crime, runs away, leaving Schiff to face a murder charge on his own. The scenes of violence are horrifyingly real, rendered in stark imagery that marks Blauner as a genuine stylist. Adept characterization makes the violence even more effective, as Blauner constructs Schiff as a decent, intelligent, caring man who learns that his friends aren't friends, his associates don't care and that he and his family must slay dragons alone. The final scene, in which the Schiffs face off against an infuriated killer, is a tour de force of savagery. There is a lot of button-pushing going on here: a crazed homeless man and a bully from Bensonhurst make easy targets; the Schiffs make obvious victims/heroes. Even so, Blauner is a skillful manipulator, offering a disturbing thriller that won't be easily forgotten. 200,000 first printing; film rights sold to Mandalay Entertainment; foreign rights sales sold in U.K., Italy, France, Japan, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

This novel already has been sold to Hollywood for big bucks as a Straw Dogs (1971) type of thriller about a man trying to protect his family when the legal and justice systems fail. Jake Schiff, a successful New York lawyer, and his wife and son are harassed by John Gates, a deranged homeless man. Taking matters into his own hands gets Jake indicted. His law partners desert him, the mob wants him convicted, Gates may not testify to save him, and his family's stability is crumbling. Such sensational highlights do not, however, do justice to the book. It is an insightful, finely crafted examination of the often uncontrollable forces that can bring down any of us. Blauner (Casino Moon, LJ 8/94) shows both Gates and Schiff as frighteningly real protagonists whose civilized veneers have cracked. Recommended, regardless or even in spite of what the film version may be like. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/96.]‘Roland Person, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A memorably violent confrontation between a perfect New York family and a homeless man with nothing left to lose--and a lot more in common with the family than they'd like to think. Once John Gates had a family and job of his own. But after his daughter was run down before his eyes, he stopped taking his medication and lost his job as a subway motorman. Now, after a harrowingly detailed slide, he's on the streets as plain John G., seeing his daughter and ex-wife everywhere, most disturbingly in the face of Dana Schiff, the psychiatric social worker who interviews him at still another E.R. Convinced that Dana's really the wife he lost, he starts to haunt her, forlornly complaining to a priest that Dana's husband Jacob, a well-connected attorney, ``stole my life by moving the molecules around.'' But there's only so much harassment Jake and Dana can take, and after their initial complaint takes John G. off their street for only a day or two, Jake allows Philip Cardi, a local contractor, to talk him into some stronger countermeasures. When their fateful expedition to John G.'s home ground is over, a man will be dead, and Jake, at first counting on Philip to shield him, soon realizes that he's been set up. Philip is turning state's evidence; his old buddies in the D.A.'s office would love to burn him; an alarming rift has opened in his marriage (``The only thing he's ever held back from her. . . is the murder in his own heart''); and Blauner (Casino Moon, 1994, etc.) has pinned his hero's last hope for acquittal on somehow dredging up--and proving the sanity of--the very man he was trying to get certified and locked away. Uncomplicated, irresistible melodrama. Just try to tear yourself away from it long enough to cast the big-ticket movie. (First printing of 200,000; film rights to Mandalay)