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Baby Shark (2006)

par Robert Fate

Séries: Baby Shark (1)

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Private investigator Kristin Van Dijk and her obstreperous partner, Otis Millett, have been hired to find kidnapped teen oil heiress Sherry Beasley, who needs to be kept safe until her upcoming eighteenth birthday.
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Affichage de 1-5 de 12 (suivant | tout afficher)
My recent crime spree has taken me from Laos to Sweden and landed me in Texas, the setting for Robert Fate’s novel Baby Shark. Kristin Van Dijk is only seventeen when her father is murdered before her very eyes. She is left for dead after being sexually assaulted and beaten.

Although he lost his own son to the murderous biker gang, Henry Chin, owner of the pool hall where the crime went down, comes to Kristin’s rescue, pulling her out of the burning building and saving her life. Together, Kristin and Henry are determined to go after the men responsible for the deaths of their loved ones and for hurting Kristin. The police do not seem to care and someone has to pay the price of justice.

Baby Shark is set in Texas during the early 1950’s, a time before DNA testing, cell phones and computers. Women and minorities had their place in society and rarely stepped outside of that. Kristin broke the mold when she picked up the pool cue, following in her father’s footsteps, and trained to be a killer. She had been victimized once and instead of turning inward, she decided to face her fear and act out against it.

Kristin is both intelligent and quick on her feet. She has a hard outer shell, having built up her defenses to protect herself as best as she can. She can kill without remorse. And yet, she still holds onto her humanity. One of my favorite moments in the book is when she asks about the welfare of the dogs, knowing the owner will not be able to see to them anymore.

Robert Fate brings together an unlikely cast of characters. There is Henry Chin, the cabinet maker, who takes Kristin in and helps guide her down her new life path; Sarge, a World War II veteran, who teaches both Kristin and Henry how to fight; Albert, the one legged Korean War veteran who has a weakness for booze and whose knowledge in guns comes in handy; Harlan, a con man and pool hustler who mentors Kristin in the game of pool, shaping her into Baby Shark, a force to be reckoned with at the pool table; and Otis Millett, the former police officer now private investigator, who Henry hires to find the men behind the attack at the pool hall on that fateful night. Each of these men plays an important part in Kristin’s life as she transitions over from child to woman.

The novel is even more salient, coming from Kristin’s point of view. Robert Fate’s writing style is straight forward, and the story he has created is captivating. There was a split second near the beginning of the novel when I wondered if Baby Shark was for me, but that thought died a quick death the more I read. Baby Shark is one of those stories that grips hold of the reader and plays on the emotions. It is easy to understand why Kristin and Henry seek a justice of their own variety—and I cheered for them all along the way. ( )
  LiteraryFeline | Jun 29, 2023 |
Fast-paced action where the victim is also the heroine. Kristin overcomes odds that were so balanced against her as to bury most of us. She watches her father's murder, she is assaulted and left for dead, then the bikers that created the carnage attempt to burn the pool hall down to the bodies and evidence.

Henry Chin, the Chinese owner of the pool hall, who's son Will was also murdered wants revenge. Since in the 50's a non-white had no power, he begins to train Kristin to take his revenge.

I don't know how a 70 year old male writer has been able to so accurately get into the mind of a seventeen year old girl. But the character he has created so skillfully, is true to the period and to her age and sex.

From the moment you begin this book you won't want to put it down. You will be in Baby's corner all the way. The twists and turns may surprise and horrify you but you will read to the end. And, then want to know what happens next. Enjoy!. ( )
  Bettesbooks | Jul 31, 2016 |
(I reviewed this as an ARC)
Stories of private eyes, especially female ones, occasionally give us a bit of backstory explaining how the protagonist got where she is. (For example, Charlaine Harris’s Lily Bard series does this in flashbacks and allusions to her rape and assault.) Mr. Fate’s protagonist, Kristin Van Dijk aka “Baby Shark,” has something in common with Lily, as we learn in the first chapter. She has been brutally gang-raped by a motorcycle gang
in an attack that also killed her father (her mother has died before the book opens). However, she also suffers from living in Texas in the early 1950’s, meaning that she must contend with all the prejudices of the
time and place about rape victims and women in general. The other survivor of the attack, who becomes a good friend to her, is a Chinese-American and has a whole other set of prejudices to deal with.
In addition, the police don’t seem very interested at all in tracking down the killers. What’s a girl to do? This book, the first of a series of which at least two more are to come, is apparently setting the stage
by giving us the whole story of how Kristin Van Dijk became Baby Shark.

If you do not like scenes of extreme violence, you should not read this book. It could easily be made into a movie by Quentin Tarantino or Sam Peckinpah (in which case I wouldn’t go – I can read it, I just can’t watch it).

Kristin or Baby Shark (her dad was a pool player and she becomes an even better one) is an exceptionally strong character, yet I found her believable (and yes, Robert Fate really is a man, and writes from a female point of view very well). Although she performs many acts that I would consider highly reprehensible in real life, I found her a sympathetic character. The book is full of action, but there is more to it than just a shoot-‘em-up. Baby Shark creates a new family for herself
with the few people she’s able to trust, and they are all intriguing characters. She also thinks about her own motivations and feelings in a very intelligent way.

I don’t normally like “noir” all that much, and in some ways this is a noir story. I also am heartily sick of coming-of-age stories, and in its way, this is one. Yet I could hardly put it down and finished it in one day. I’m eager to read the next two books in the series. If you can stand the heat, take a chance on Baby Shark when it comes out. ( )
  auntieknickers | Jun 5, 2013 |
Baby Shark opens with gut-wrenching violence against the unlucky patrons at a pool house. The unapologetic violence of the scene captivates, even as the reader wants to look away. Among the victims are 17-year-old Kristin, who is brutally raped and beaten, and her father, who is murdered.

Kristin doesn't remember getting out of the pool hall when she wakes in the hospital, but she learns that the owner - the only other survivor of the attack by a gang of bikers - dragged her from the building despite his own gunshot wounds, and manages to drive her to the relative safety of the hospital. She also learns that the police have no intention of investigating the murders and assault. Kristin and Henry find a new family in each other, drawn together by a need for both safety and revenge. Together they live, train, and plan.

Baby Shark is a tale of survival and what it takes for two damaged individuals not only to recover, but to find justice. Kristin (aka Baby Shark) seeks not only to avenge her father's death, but also to reclaim her dignity and establish herself as a strong, independent figure, regardless of the abuse she suffered and regardless of her gender in a very gender-biased setting. One reviewer remarks on a lack of morality in Kristin's actions, but my own reading suggests something very different: it is not necessarily a quest for Hammurabian revenge, but justice. If the police had pursued and prosecuted the bikers responsible for these violent crimes I would suggest that Kristin and Henry would not have have sought out their own form of justice; given the circumstances of their case, they sought punishment that was otherwise denied.

As I first read of the attack on the pool hall I did not expect to like this book, but the narrative quickly sped away, and before I knew it I was at the novel's end. ( )
  London_StJ | May 24, 2012 |
Opening Sentence: "...The rumble of the machines stopped everything cold..."

Kristin Van Dijk, 17,travels around with her pool hustler father. On the night that the book opens she is forced by four bikers to watch the murder of her father before she herself is raped, badly beaten and left for dead. The owner of the Pool Hall were the assault took place is Henry Chin, a Chinese immigrant whose grown son was one of those murdered. He drags her out of the burning building and saves her. He hides her and helps her recover. Henry finds out that the local police are not going to investigate the pool hall crime, so he hires a sleezy ex-cop private investigator to search for the gang of killers. Henry hires a martial arts expert and a weapons expert to train Kristin in how to protect herself. A friend of her father's brings up her pool talents to that of expert. She is now one tough cookie as she starts to hustles pool in west Texas and earn the nickname Baby Shark. Now comes the revenge part.

I started out really getting into the story, was a fast paced start with a horrific opening followed by Baby rebuilding her life and becoming strong in every sense of the word. I really admired her fortitude. Then came the first killing - or should I say massacre!!! In the end it was just too much gratuitous bloodshed, revenge and eye for an eyemanship. Very quickly I was turned off by the whole concept of revenge that the plot is based on. The whole ethical thing worried me - if someone hurts you - then they can be justified in hurting them back? This is not what I want my grandson to learn. Sometimes bad thing happen to really good people - stay good and move on - don't bring yourself down to their level.

I won't be reading the second one in the series - which I have - I will pass them on to a friend who likes the more hard core stuff. I am much more happier at the cozier and of the mystery spectrum where my ethics are less likely to be challenged. ( )
  sally906 | Jan 9, 2009 |
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Private investigator Kristin Van Dijk and her obstreperous partner, Otis Millett, have been hired to find kidnapped teen oil heiress Sherry Beasley, who needs to be kept safe until her upcoming eighteenth birthday.

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