The Wild Life: A Joe the Bouncer Novel (Joe The Bouncer)
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4,6 • Оценок: 14
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- 9,99 $
От издателя
Joe the Bouncer seeks the killer of NYC’s most desirable call girls in the newest caper in “a unique and worthwhile series” (CrimeReads)
Expulsed Harvard student and ex-Special Forces operative suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome so severe that it turned him to drug and alcohol abuse, Joe Brody is getting his life back together, living with his grandmother in Queens and taking what should be a simple job as a bouncer at a strip club where he can spend most of his night reading the classics. The only catch is that his childhood friend Gio Caprisi, now head of New York’s Italian Mafia, relies on Joe’s extra-legal expertise when things get particularly nasty on the streets — where, in an agreement between Gio and the rest of the city’s biggest crime syndicates, it’s understood that Joe is the sheriff for an industry that doesn’t call the cops.
Most recently, New York’s criminal underworld has been shaken by the disappearance of its most successful and desirable call girls, vanishing one by one from the brothels where they’re employed. As a pattern emerges, what might otherwise appear to be a choice to pursue a new life comes to resemble something more troublesome — the work of a serial kidnapper — and when a woman turns up dead, the hunt for the predator behind it all becomes even more urgent.
To find the killer, Joe will have to plunge into the seediest fringes of Manhattan and its surrounding boroughs, populated with memorable characters that add humor and heart to this fast-paced caper. There is still sleaze behind the pristine veneer of 21st century New York, and Gordon, whose writing is often compared to Donald E. Westlake and Elmore Leonard, knows all the best places to find it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Edgar finalist Gordon's rollicking fourth Joe the Bouncer mystery (after 2021's Against the Law) finds Joe, a former Special Forces operative, still fighting lingering PTSD while working as a club bouncer in Queens and reading the classics in his spare time. He's also an all-purpose Mafia fixer, and when sex trade workers begin to disappear under suspicious circumstances, New York's crime bosses turn to Joe for help. Can Joe and his team find the killer before more lives are lost? In the caper tradition popularized by Donald E. Westlake and Lawrence Block, Gordon uses humor to good effect. The parking lot fight in which Joe uses a copy of Ulysses to beat up a pair of thugs, no doubt a literary first, and his attempt to teach a self-defense class at a local community center are particularly amusing. The character-driven plot contains quite a large cast, but each member has an important role to play. Delightful misadventures include a wild chase on a yellow-and-orange Ducati motorcycle and a luxury car heist. Gordon's found his groove in this one.
