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Published Nov 2019
360 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
A New York homicide detectives pursue a serial killer in this apocalyptic thriller.
When James Manning and Covina "Dewey" Duwai are called in to investigate a string of murders, their investigations take them from the headquarters of the Russian mafia in Brighton Beach to a sweltering maze of shops in Little Hong Kong, with scant leads on the killer. But when Manning and Dewey apprehend a woman―a disgraced but brilliant rabbinical scholar―fleeing one of the crime scenes, they're brought face-to-face with the shocking truth: the Jewish legend of the hidden Righteous Men, the 36 who protect the world from destruction, is no legend at all. They are real, and they are being murdered.
As the bodies pile up and the world tilts further into chaos, Manning and Dewey must protect the last of the Righteous Men from a ruthless killer able to beguile his victims and command them against their will. Plunged into a deadly game of cat and mouse, the detectives find their arsenal of bullets and blades of little use against a foe who knows their every move.
Joining forces with the rabbinical scholar and a renowned anthropologist, Manning and Dewey set off on a perilous quest from New York to Gehenna in Israel to confront a murderer who won't stop until he's killed every one.
"While many narrative elements are noteworthy—the character depth, the powerful political and social commentary, the nonstop action, the breakneck pacing—it's the author's meticulously described and alarmingly realistic near-future Earth that will chill readers to their core. This dystopian cautionary tale stands as Pressfield's most ambitious work to date." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Cop mentality meets religious fanaticism meets the future in a highly entertaining pop noir." - Kirkus Reviews
"Every scene in 36 Righteous Men unfolds with cinematic intensity. Pressfield's imagination is fierce and disciplined as well as wildly creative, and those qualities serve him well in this strikingly inventive novel." - Rosanne Cash
"36 Righteous Men is a stunning futuristic noir thriller that mines the core of Jewish mysticism in search of the future of human survival. Its daring narrative held me in its grip from the start to the shocking end." - Robert Faggen
"Steven Pressfield writes as enchantingly of the hard-boiled mean streets of the future as he has of those same byways of the sword-and-sandals past." - David Mamet
"36 Righteous Men hits my favorite reading pleasures—history, mystery, and theology—all wrapped up in a page-turning thriller. I couldn't put it down." - Randall Wallace
This information about 36 Righteous Men was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Steven Pressfield is the author of the best-selling novels Gates of Fire and Tides of War, as well as The Legend of Bagger Vance. He is also the author of the cult classics on creativity The War of Art, Do the Work, and The Artist's Journey. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
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