A classic. It introduces a fascinating world and intriguing characters. The plot ties up in a way that's not fully satisfying, but it's worth the read for the thrill of discovering Russo's vision of the future.

First published in 1992; published by Dover Publications on April 17, 2019

Destroying Angel is a better-than-average example of science fiction noir. The story is set in the near future. Society has taken a dystopian turn that provides the background for a crime story involving a gruesome serial killer. The novel tells a self-contained story, but it is also the first book in a trilogy.

Louis Tanner is a former cop. He became a cop to help people with drug problems because his girlfriend, Carla, died from an overdose, a death that still obsesses him. Tanner quit his job after he and his partner were shot. His partner died, leaving Tanner with the brooding sense of guilt that is common among ex-cops who star in crime thrillers.

As Tanner watches the bodies of a man and woman, chained together, being pulled from the water, he remembers when he pulled two chained bodies out of the water. There have been more than three dozen victims of the Chain Killer, but none in the last two-and-a-half years. The chains are fused to the bones of the victims and angel wings are tattooed inside their nostrils.

Tanner engages with Homicide Detective Frank Carlucci, who is supervising the extraction of the bodies. Notwithstanding his retirement, Tanner wants to know whether and why the chain killer has returned. Tanner and Carlucci work together to track down the killer.

Tanner lives in San Francisco, outside of the walled-off Financial District that houses the city’s wealthiest inhabitants. Chinatown has absorbed the former Italian enclave of North Beach. The Tenderloin is still dicey. Street soldiers keep order in the rest of the city, except for an area called the Core that is at least partially underground.

The street soldiers can’t stop a girl named Sookie from stealing motorized skateboards. But while Sookie is trying to hide in the underground tunnels, she comes across a room with chains that are very like the chains she has seen on the murder victims.

The science fiction elements give the novel an offbeat spin without overpowering what is essentially a detective story involving a serial killer story. For example, Tanner is asked to arrange a trip to the New Hong Kong satellite for a criminal who wants to regenerate his damaged body. There’s also a cyborg angle to the story that readers won’t encounter in a typical crime novel.

While Tanner is a typically tortured noir character, he is a sympathetic protagonist who has enough depth to carry the novel. Carlucci and Sookie are developed in less detail, but they probably have all the characterization they need. The Chain Killer is suitably creepy and his motivation to be evil is credible, at least in the context of a science fiction novel.

The story is gritty. It moves at a steady pace, not so fast that the dark atmosphere is lost but not so slowly that tension dissipates. The ending is true to the novel’s noir nature. Crossovers of the science fiction and crime genres don’t always work, but this one works better than most.

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Destroying Angel is a unique story that is well written. Richard Paul Russo did a good job at making his story come alive so you could picture his world.

Mr. Russo is a mysterious author. Far from prolific at the best of times and then nothing at all, radio silence. Not sure if he’s retired from writing, but what a shame that would be, because every book of his I’ve read, I liked. A lot. Not just me, either, and he’s got the awards and nominations to show for it. But at any rate, his two standalones I’ve read were terrific, in fact instrumental in igniting a passion for science fiction. And then this one turned up on Netgalley, a first book of Corlucci trilogy, so naturally I went for it without even checking out the plot summary. This was something different, though, not the traditional scifi of his other books, but a near future dystopia along the lines of cyberpunk genre. I’m not sure I’ve read that before, I might have, in fact, odds are, must have, but this time I was actively aware of reading it. Cyberpunk is defined by Wikipedia as a futuristically set science fiction featuring a combination of high tech and lowlife. So you got a fascinating juxtaposition of technological advancements and degeneration of social order to play with. Interesting, right? You bet it is. It also creates for a very dark, atmospheric, almost noir like mood. Some might say a perfect setting for a serial killer story. Which this is. Frank Corlucci, SFPD detective, oddly enough isn’t the main protagonist, Louis Tanner is. Tanner is a former cop, who still got all the connections for detective work, but not the passion for it, instead pursuing other conscience driven venues. Still, he gets, reluctantly, dragged into the investigation and sets off to find a man who just might help them find the killer. His journey takes him into Tenderloin district, which is the nightmarish center of the grim, gloomy, swampy, polluted and dirty place that San Francisco has become. Variegated cast of characters will either assist him or stand in his way, but Tanner’s determination will see him through. So it’s all pretty straight forward as far as the mystery thriller aspect of it goes, but then it’s also so much more. I love Russo’s writing, it’s succinct and yet manages to bring pages to life in an awesomely vivid manner. And his world building is absolutely superb. Oddly enough, despite some serious technological advances, it seems that the characters still used landlines and payphones and music still came on discs and tapes. Not sure if this was a failure of imagination (this would be difficult to believe with Russo) or a deliberate anachronism. But other than that the future world is a bleak grotesque place and all the cybernetic progress doesn’t even come close in compensating for the decline in quality of life. The characters’ desperation is tangible as they fight to survive in this new and augmented reality. You wouldn’t want to visit the place, but it makes for a great read, one about as enjoyable and entertaining as something this dark and heavy can be. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Because this is set in near future San Francisco, the author can make changes to the city environment to fit the story. Russo is to be commended for not going overboard with future developments. He never fully explains the origins of the Destroying Angel, other than being the result of a military experiment. These types of stories, the what-ifs, are always fun to read and break apart.