Raven, the ruthless,
unconscionable protagonist here reminds us of the evil, blood thirsty Dillon of
The dead stay dumb (one of Chase's many other books).
Raven has no qualms about using women, young fresh
girls, trafficking them for his own personal profits, rendering them worthless
all in a bid for the accretion of his lucre. And of course Raven has no respect
for human life at all. By killing at will he becomes the king of vice. And more
and more women are de-humanised and debased.
How appropriate one finds it, then when the two
main lieutenants of Raven ( their names hardly matter here) are avenged by such
women in the end, literally torn to pieces by the "harpies" who set
about them limb to limb with a knife, with ribbons of blood surrounding them.
And as for the kingpin Raven himself, he is
finally arrested when another woman he is despoiling bravely gets to grips with
him with a handy stone... pity she does not smash his head to smithereens
though ...
But the abiding impression is how Raven destroys
so many young women, crippling their resistance to prostitution in many ways.
This paves the way for some old fashioned racism as in the case of poor Sadie
who is incensed when she has to get so close to a negro....
We read: "...And then he was on her. The
horrible rancid nigger smell of him sickened her... before he pinned her
hands..." So sad for such ladies that we blacks have to stink so much, eh!
But it hardly matters. The important thing is that
the evil Raven and his organisation collapse in the end... and we can see that
so many women embroiled in prostitution are actually victims. Who says we don't
learn everyday- - P. Lothane
