The Devil's Payback: Under Siege in The City

The Devil's Payback: Under Siege in The City

The Devil’s Payback takes place in San Francisco in 1971 and has three main characters, two women and a man, as they join together in an attempt to prevent a deliberately planned mass catastrophe in San Francisco. Much of the novel involves those three trying to uncover exactly what this plan is and then stop it, while striving desperately to stay alive. Jimmy Beckett is on the run from Los Angeles to San Francisco because he has become vaguely aware of a plot to cause massive havoc in San Francisco, and he flees north to try to find out what that plot is and stop it, while also trying to avoid arrest for a crime he didn't commit. After arriving, through an accident he encounters Phil(omena) Maka and Bea(trice) Aurelius, two law clerks working for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. From the beginning, these face enormous difficulties. They know through Jimmy that a mass murder is being planned, but they have no idea exactly where or when in San Francisco the event is supposed to take place, or even what type it is, and, for a complex reason regarding Jimmy, they can't afford to go to the police with what little knowledge they do possess. Their opponents have numerous advantages: they already know when, where and how the attack will occur, in addition to their being more numerous and ruthless. The other three do have some significant strengths, though: their own courage, to a degree most of them did not grasp in advance; the appearance of unexpected allies; and the conflicting goals and personalities of their opponents. By the time the story reaches its climax, a sizable number of violent deaths will have occurred, and they won't stop even with that climax. From the beginning, there is much that needs to be settled between individuals in both groups, a dynamic that plays itself out through the end of the novel. Overall, it's a story of hatred, courage, madness, trust, avarice undiluted by concern for other human beings, and even love with all of its complexity and contradictions. For most of the characters, it's an exhausting, painful, and eye-opening journey, as well as, for many of them, a deadly one.