
Liberal CPA turns vigilante after his wife and daughter are brutally attacked in his New York apartment. Slow-starter (the hero doesn't even take a swing at anyone until the halfway point) that develops into a thoughtful, non-exploitative discourse on crime and self-defense. You know it isn't all about the killing when a large chunk of the climax is in the form of a psychological profile of the unknown killer. Ends well. Made into a movie in 1974 starring Charles Bronson. Followed by a sequel, Death Sentence, in 1975.