Bloody Vengeance

Bloody Vengeance, by Jack Ehrlich

September, 1973  Pocket Books

I learned about this Pocket Books PBO via one of the last posts on Bill Crider's blog in 2017 and picked it up soon after, when I was on another of my frequent ‘70s crime kicks. I put it aside when I discovered that it was in first-person, though. I know it sounds lame, but I just prefer my pulp to be in third-person. Bill didn’t provide much of a review for Bloody Vengeance, just stating that it concerned cops taking the law into their own hands and that this turned into a national political movement. He concluded that “the book is very well done and pretty dang scary. You can tell yourself that it can’t happen here, but don’t you have to wonder a little?” To which a commenter named Jeff Myerson responded, “This sounds almost Trumpian.” 

It's interesting to read comments like this in 2022. Since 2017 we’ve had George Floyd and Botham Jean, cops arresting the parents of sexually-assaulted children at PTA meetings, cops arresting soccer moms for taking their kids to playgrounds that were closed due to Covid, cops arresting paddleboarders for being out on the water (alone!) during quarantine. We’ve watched as cops have choked unarmed women for the heinous crime of not wearing a mask outdoors, as they’ve trampled underfoot anti-mandate protesters in Canada. 

But then, cops haven’t had it easy. This past year 62 police officers were killed by guns, and crime is rampant in cities across the United States. Not so coincidentally, the current administration ran on a “defund the police” program. They’ve made some laughable attempts at walking this back recently, even lying that they never even said they wanted to defund the police, but…well, here’s a seven-minute montage of Democrat politicians saying they want to defund the police. 

So yeah, I guess an army of cops who go rogue to take down violent criminals could be considered “Trumpian,” but to tell the truth I like the idea better than the jackboot aggression we’ve seen directed toward citizens. But really my main issue with Bloody Vengeance is that it isn’t so much a “vigilante cop” novel as it is a political novel set in DC. While it starts off delivering on the setup promised on the back cover – frustrated cops finally deciding to make violent criminals pay – it ultimately derails into more of a “corrupt politics” yarn as the narrator, Lt. Rob Royce, finds himself spearheading a national movement…and being referred to as a new Hitler by the press. All this is indeed very “Trumpian,” particularly given that Royce is constantly accused by his left-leaning detractors of doing a bunch of Hitlerian stuff. 

Things begin a lot more smallscale, though, with Royce deciding at novel’s start to dish out some off-the-book justice in his Cape Cod domain. From there ultimately it will become a politicial movement, but the issue is that author Jack Ehrlich doesn’t go in the progression you might think. The helluva it is, Royce and his colleagues only ever take out violent criminals: murderers, wife-killers, even a hippie terrorist who has been trained by the KGB. The novel never goes into the darker realms one might suspect, with Royce’s movement becoming a fascist army taking out anyone who opposes them, not just criminals. So Bill Crider’s remark that the novel is “pretty dang scary” seems a bit hollow today…I mean personally, I think cops trampling anti-mandate protesters and siccing attack dogs on them is pretty dang scary. But killing off violent criminals who are back on the streets thanks to liberal judges? Not so much. 

The first half of Bloody Vengeance is pretty cool and delivers on the violent ‘70s crime vibe I wanted. We meet Royce, a veteran of Korea with fifteen years on the force, as he comes upon the mutilated remains of a woman who has been raped and killed – a “mass of breathing meat and bone.” The killer is easily captured and booked, but he gets off on a technicality thanks to one of those aforementioned liberal lawyers. When the creep flaunts his freedom as he waltzes past Royce in the courtroom, our narrator decides on the spur of the moment to get some bloody vengeance. Royce’s partner, Sgt. Willis (who himself has twenty years on the force), is game. The two men chase down the killer and execute him moments after he’s left the courtroom, dropping the body and car off at the junkyard to be smashed. 

This introduces what will become a trend: next Willis comes to Royce – who by the way is terrified his partner is going to turn him in, or that the Internal Affairs guys will easily deduce that he killed the perp – and proposes some bloody vengeance he wants to sow. This would be a “wife garroter” who we learn, via long flashback, killed his wife and again got off due to a liberal judge, despite the overwhelming evidence against him. Again Royce and Willis execute the creep and then head on over to the junkyard for corpse disposal. But as it develops, Internal Affairs never checks in on anything, and indeed no one cares that these violent killers are getting their just desserts. Royce realizes he’s tapped into something when the captain calls Royce in and basically gives him carte blanche to go off the books and kill the killers. Royce is even given his own department to do so. 

So already from the first quarter Bloody Vengeance is headed for something grander than just a “killer cops” angle. Soon enough Royce is reporting directly to the Commisioner, who not only support’s Royce’s extracurricular activities but gives him a “hate list” to work from. Royce begins putting together his team, from a “living computer” type who stores all the department’s details in his head so nothing is on the books, to a guy called “Super Jew” who was so violent when he was walking the beat that he got moved to a desk job. Of course, Royce puts him right back on the street. The team first goes into action against a gang of black criminals, taking out the leaders who have constantly gone free due to those goddamn liberal judges. Next up is a bloody melee against a biker gang, Royce memorably wearing “dusters,” ie brass knuckles that look like “gentleman’s gloves.” Royce doesn’t always kill, though; sometimes the vengeance is more poetic, like crippling the biker leader who himself crippled an innocent victim. 

Gradually though the story develops more into a political angle. Operating under the guise of the “International Police Benevolent Association,” Royce and his colleagues throw charity balls and make speeches, donating the proceeds to widows and families of downed cops. Through various connections they also meet up with a wealthy older man who “wants to give America back to Americans” and sets up the rogue force with its own massive country estate, a helicopter, and even a jet. Meanwhile Royce fears the FBI is onto him…but soon enough learns that the Feds too are approving of his methods. If anything in Bloody Vengeance shows its age, this sequence would be it. But as you can see, Ehrlich doesn’t seem to have any hidden theme; yes, every law agency supports Royce’s killing of criminals…but that’s all they’re looking for. They’re just sick of violent criminals constantly going free. Just compare to the Keller novel Death Squad; author Nelson De Mille handled this much better, delivering not only more action thrills but also working in the “deeper implications” stuff, with those rogue cops also killing off liberal judges and the like. 

Royce is so focused on telling us about his exploits that he doesn’t bother much with personal stuff. In fact we don’t even learn until page 35 that the dude’s married and has a kid, but he comes home one day to find that his wife’s left him and taken the kid with her. Royce shrugs it off, already feeling more free to pursue his goal of killing crooks! He isn’t the most likable of protagonists, though, which I’m assuming was Ehrlich’s intention. His narrative voice is also kind of annoying; the narrative itself is relayed in perfect diction, but when Royce speaks via dialog he says “ain’t” a bunch. It just comes off a little awkward. And for that matter, a lot of Bloody Vengeance is told via summary, with Royce thinking back to how all this started and then detailing moment by moment as the movement grew. He’s also very shy with the sleazy details; Royce seems almost suspiciously disinterested in women, but then late in the novel starts hooking up with a few of them, including most notably the hotstuff wife of a senator who is out to get Royce’s force. But in all cases the sexual tomfoolery is totally off-page. Boo! 

And yes, the senator – at this point we are into the “DC politics” stuff, with a senator being the lone man who wants to bring down Royce’s killer-cop force. Royce starts working behind the scenes to frame the guy, and as this goes on Bloody Vengeance loses its pulpish conceit and trades more on “realistic” political manuevering. I mean when it gets right down to it, the novel’s kind of a failure if what you are looking for is a pulpy action novel that rips off Magnum Force. I mean these rogue cops have a mansion outside the city, a helicopter, a jet, and unlimited funds, but Ehrlich instead wants to focus on backroom politicking in Washington. Occasionally we’ll get some action scenes, like when they’re called in to handle activists who have taken over a college campus for social justice reasons having to do with a domestic terrorist. Despite TV coverage Royce and crew perpetrate the “Grace College Massacre,” as the media soon dubs the ensuing carnage. Once again the book shows its age here; it’s hard to imagine a college so willing to violently purge social justice activists today. 

But then, Bloody Vengeance was published in a more rational era. Royce finds himself becoming more of a celebrity due to his frequent appearances on TV. While the media rakes him over the coals, the people respond incredibly favorably to him. (Hmm…this somehow sounds familiar…) Gradually Royce begins to understand his own cult of personality, and uses it to expound on the benefits of his force. There’s a great part, very resonant today. where he gives a speech on TV and turns it into a rallying cry for the silent majority, which per his argument is sick to death of the increasing crime and lawlessness of the land, and of course this only wins him more support.

Ehrlich takes the novel in an unexpected direction when Royce, chagrined over the increasing hatred directed at him by the media, calls up a certain reporter and asks him for his advice on how Royce could appear non-Hitlerian. Predicatbly, the reporter – who has become the chief voice against Royce – initially believes it’s all a put-on, before refusing to help Royce and then hanging up on him. This I felt was nicely-handled commentary by Ehrlich. However our author leaves Royce’s future a big question mark; the novel climaxes on another major speech, where Royce considers disbanding his group. At this point they’ve even done jobs for the President himself, heading over to London to take out that aforementioned hippie terrorist. But after a surprising late action scene Royce changes his mind on disbanding, and by novel’s end it seems that his association is about to become more powerful than ever. 

At 220 pages, Bloody Vengeance aspires to be something “more” than just a violent cop thriller…but at the same time, I wanted a violent cop thriller. I wasn’t interested in the politics stuff, and I thought the novel could’ve benefited from more sex and violence. But then I say that about most every book I read. What I found most interesting was how our modern world is so similar to the one depicted here; indeed, Royce tells us at one point that “The entire national crime rate was up.” But whereas this leads to a cop army in Bloody Vengeance, here in the real world we, uh, defund the police. But then that’s clown world in a nutshell.