The bouncer: a novel
Description
Joe Brody is just your average Dostoevsky-reading, Harvard-expelled strip club bouncer who has a highly classified military history and whose best friend from Catholic school happens to be head mafioso Gio Caprisi. FBI agent Donna Zamora, the best shot in her class at Quantico, is a single mother stuck at a desk manning the hotline. Their storylines intersect over a tip from a cokehead that leads to a crackdown on Gio’s strip joint in Queens and Joe’s arrest—just one piece of a city-wide sweep aimed at flushing out anyone who might have a lead on the various terrorists whose photos are hanging on the wall under Most Wanted. Outside the jailhouse, the Fed and the bouncer lock eyes, as Gordon launches them both headlong into a nonstop plot that goes from back-road gun show intervention to high-stakes perfume heist and manages to touch everyone from the CIA to the Flushing Triads. Beneath it all lurks a sinister criminal mastermind whose manipulations could cause chaos on a massively violent scale.
For readers who like a heavy dose of fun with their murder, this is crime fiction at its freshest, from a virtuoso of the “darkly comic, stylish literary thriller” (Associated Press).
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Booklist Review
*Starred Review* A too-little-known writer who, for the last several years, has been turning out delightfully offbeat tales of fringe crooks with plenty of pizzazz (The Serialist, 2010; Mystery Girl, 2013) now stakes his claim as a major player in the comic-thriller world. Joe Brody is a Dostoevsky-reading bouncer at a strip club in Queens run by his high-school pal and now Mob higher-up Gio Caprisi. When the FBI closes down the strip club in a search for terrorists, Joe is at loose ends and reluctantly agrees to participate in a holdup designed to relieve some redneck gun enthusiasts of a shipment of their wares. This piece-of-cake job naturally turns out to be anything but, and soon Joe is dodging the feds (including agent Donna Zamora, with whom he shares a mutual attraction), sundry mobsters, and a pair of rich-kid terrorists who have set their sights on a vial of perfume with some deadly characteristics. The supporting players, from the cross-dressing Mob don to agent Zamora to the other members of Joe's ill-fated gang that couldn't shoot straight, are almost as endearing as Joe himself. Thomas Perry fans should catch up on Gordon's oeuvre as quickly as possible. This jewel of a book is as close as a devotee of comic caper novels can come to the sublime quirkiness of Perry's classic Metzger's Dog (1983).--Ott, Bill Copyright 2018 Booklist
Publisher's Weekly Review
One night at Club Rendezvous ("Queens' finest gentleman's club, conveniently close to the airport"), the NYPD, a SWAT team, and the Feds roll in as part of a coordinated citywide sweep for anyone with even remote terror connections and arrest several people, including bouncer Joe Brody, the hero of this impressive crime novel from Edgar-finalist Gordon (Mystery Girl). During his temporary detainment in a crowded holding cell, Joe runs across an acquaintance who persuades him to take part in a weapons heist. The job goes wrong, but Joe survives and ends up in a much more complicated situation. Meanwhile, frustrated FBI agent Donna Zamora keeps running across Joe as she tries to move from receiving tips to actual field work. Joe, "a hard-luck kid from Queens whose file read like a roller coaster of comebacks and blown chances," proves his mettle in the quest to bring down the terrorists. Gordon's sharply drawn supporting cast adds a nice balance to all the action. Cinematic writing makes this an obvious candidate for graphic novel or film adaptation. Agent: Douglas Stewart, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* A too-little-known writer who, for the last several years, has been turning out delightfully offbeat tales of fringe crooks with plenty of pizzazz (The Serialist, 2010; Mystery Girl, 2013) now stakes his claim as a major player in the comic-thriller world. Joe Brody is a Dostoevsky-reading bouncer at a strip club in Queens run by his high-school pal and now Mob higher-up Gio Caprisi. When the FBI closes down the strip club in a search for terrorists, Joe is at loose ends and reluctantly agrees to participate in a holdup designed to relieve some redneck gun enthusiasts of a shipment of their wares. This piece-of-cake job naturally turns out to be anything but, and soon Joe is dodging the feds (including agent Donna Zamora, with whom he shares a mutual attraction), sundry mobsters, and a pair of rich-kid terrorists who have set their sights on a vial of "perfume" with some deadly characteristics. The supporting players, from the cross-dressing Mob don to agent Zamora to the other members of Joe's ill-fated gang that couldn't shoot straight, are almost as endearing as Joe himself. Thomas Perry fans should catch up on Gordon's oeuvre as quickly as possible. This jewel of a book is as close as a devotee of comic caper novels can come to the sublime quirkiness of Perry's classic Metzger's Dog (1983). Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
One night at Club Rendezvous ("Queens' finest gentleman's club, conveniently close to the airport"), the NYPD, a SWAT team, and the Feds roll in as part of a coordinated citywide sweep for anyone with even remote terror connections and arrest several people, including bouncer Joe Brody, the hero of this impressive crime novel from Edgar-finalist Gordon (Mystery Girl). During his temporary detainment in a crowded holding cell, Joe runs across an acquaintance who persuades him to take part in a weapons heist. The job goes wrong, but Joe survives and ends up in a much more complicated situation. Meanwhile, frustrated FBI agent Donna Zamora keeps running across Joe as she tries to move from receiving tips to actual field work. Joe, "a hard-luck kid from Queens whose file read like a roller coaster of comebacks and blown chances," proves his mettle in the quest to bring down the terrorists. Gordon's sharply drawn supporting cast adds a nice balance to all the action. Cinematic writing makes this an obvious candidate for graphic novel or film adaptation. Agent: Douglas Stewart, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Aug.)
Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly.