The Ultimate Death

The Destroyer #88

by Warren Murphy (Series Creator), Richard Sapir (Series Creator), Will Murray

As people begin dropping dead after consuming Chicken King poultry, the Destroyer and his omnipotent Asian mentor begin to suspect that a vegetarian vigilante is on the loose.

Genres: Adventure, Action

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 7, 1992

About the author

Warren Murphy was an American author, most famous as the co-creator of The Destroyer series, the basis for the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. He worked as a reporter and editor and after service during the Korean War, he drifted into politics.

Murphy also wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon 2. He is the author of the Trace and Digger series. With Molly Cochran, he completed two books of a planned trilogy revolving around the character The Grandmaster, The Grandmaster (1984) and High Priest (1989). Murphy also shares writing credits with Cochran on The Forever King and several novels under the name Dev Stryker. The first Grandmaster book earned Murphy and Cochran a 1985 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, and Murphy's Pigs Get Fat took the same honor the following year.

His solo novels include Jericho Day, The Red Moon, The Ceiling of Hell, The Sure Thing and Honor Among Thieves. Over his career, Murphy sold over 60 million books.

He started his own publishing house, Ballybunion, to have a vehicle to start The Destroyer spin-off books. Ballybunion has reprinted The Assassin's Handbook, as well as the original works Assassin's Handbook 2, The Movie That Never Was (a screenplay he and Richard Sapir wrote for a Destroyer movie that was never optioned), The Way of the Assassin (the wisdom of Chiun), and New Blood, a collection of short stories written by fans of the series.

He served on the board of the Mystery Writers of America, and was a member of the Private Eye Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, the American Crime Writers League and the Screenwriters Guild.

Reviews

[John Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the "ghost written" era of the series, overlong by some 60 pages. Simply lacks the pacing, wit and graphic violence of the early Pinnacle novels, which are always re-readable. Signet plagued the series by insisting they all be "supernovel" sized.

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating 2.5

Found this very average entry in the series.
Felt like a recycling of previous plot tbh, nothing wrong with that per se …. But this time around not for me.
Usually would have rated this a 3 but having a bad reading month I think

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

#88 in the Destroyer series. The Leader returns, with a new batch of vampires. Much chaos ensues.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the big men's adventure series from the 70's than ran an impressive 145 books. The series while an adventure/action story is also full of satire toward much of the mainstream fads and icons of the time. An interesting main character and the sarcastic mentor makes this a funny action/adventure read. With the new health craze calling for chicken instead of beef, the fortunes of Chicken King, Henry Poulette, are on the rapid rise. Then, suddenly, people eating this chicken start dying and the whole fast food industry is in an uproar. CURE knows it has to step in. Recommended