36 Righteous Men: A Novel

The fate of the world hangs in the balance in this futuristic noir thriller.New York homicide detectives James Manning and Covina “Dewey” Duwai have been called in to investigate a string of brutal and bizarre murders with apocalyptic warnings carved in blood. Their NYPD bosses dismiss this stuff as preposterous. But when Manning and Dewey apprehend a defrocked rabbinical scholar fleeing one of the crime scenes, they are brought face-to-face with the shocking truth: the Jewish legend of the hidden Righteous Men, the 36 who protect the world from destruction, is no legend at all. They are real, and they are being murdered one by one. Manning and Dewey must save the last of the Righteous Men from a killer who may or may not be supernatural and who won’t stop until he has brought about the End Times for the entire human race.

David Mamet

"Steven Pressfield writes as enchantingly of the hard-boiled mean streets of the future as he has of those same byways of the sword-and-sandals past."

Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

"Pressfield keeps the revelations coming at an apocalyptic pace in this page-turner, where the planet’s fate comes to hang by the thread of a single human life."

Rosanne Cash, singer-songwriter and author of Composed: A Memoir

"Every scene in 36 Righteous Men unfolds with cinematic intensity. Pressfield’s imagination is fierce and disciplined as well as wildly creative, and those qualities serve him well in this strikingly inventive novel."

Randall Wallace, Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Braveheart

"36 Righteous Men hits my favorite reading pleasures―history, mystery, and theology―all wrapped up in a page-turning thriller. I couldn’t put it down"

Booklist

"[A]n absorbing take on good vs. evil, and disasters pulled from today’s headlines lend unsettling realism to the supernatural-tinged apocalyptic setting."

Adam Kirsch, Tablet Magazine

"Like Tom Clancy, Pressfield … writes fast-paced, stripped-down prose that is regularly interrupted by lovingly technical descriptions of computers, cars, and weaponry."

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[U]nputdownable…. While many narrative elements are noteworthy―the character depth, the powerful political and social commentary, the nonstop action, the breakneck pacing―it’s the author’s meticulously described and alarming realistic near-future earth that will chill readers to their core."

Robert Faggen, professor of literature, Claremont McKenna College

"36 Righteous Men is a stunning futuristic noir thriller that mines the core of Jewish mysticism in search of the future of human survival. Its daring narrative held me in its grip from the start to the shocking end."

About the Author

Steven Pressfield is the author of the hugely successful novels Gates of Fire, Tides of War, and Last of the Amazons, among others. His debut novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was made into a major motion picture starring Matt Damon and Will Smith in 2000. He lives in California.

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