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    The Bouncer
    The Bouncer
    The Bouncer
    Ebook267 pages

    The Bouncer

    By David Gordon

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Introducing Joe the Bouncer in “a tour-de-force, ranging from underworld crime to a unique caper and a terrorist plot . . . an outstanding new voice” (Robert Crais, #1 New York Times bestselling author).
     
    In David Gordon’s diabolically imaginative thriller, The Bouncer, nothing and no one is as expected—from a vial of yellow fragrance to a gangster who moonlights in women’s clothes.

    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.

    “A brilliantly goofy caper novel in the grand tradition of Donald E. Westlake.”—The New York Times Book Review

    “[An] impressive crime novel . . . Gordon’s sharply drawn supporting cast adds a nice balance to all the action.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateAug 7, 2018
    ISBN9780802165770
    Author

    David Gordon

    David Gordon was born in New York City. He attended Sarah Lawrence College and holds an MA in English and Comparative Literature and an MFA in Writing, both from Columbia University, and has worked in film, fashion, publishing, and pornography. His first novel, The Serialist, won the VCU/Cabell First Novel Award and was a finalist for an Edgar Award. His work has also appeared in The Paris Review, Purple, and Fence among other publications.

    Read more from David Gordon

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    Reviews for The Bouncer

    4/5

    21 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is a fast moving tale about an ex-Special Forces member, Joe, with nightmarish memories of Afghanistan, who is working as a bouncer at a strip club for an old friend, a mob boss. Joe decides to take on a couple of outside jobs as well, including heisting a bunch of weapons that are about to be sold illegally to a bunch of gun nuts in the middle of the woods. And this is where things begin to go very quickly off track. This deal leads to another, far more dangerous one, and Joe, never one to turn own a challenge or the chance for a quick buck, signs on. Or maybe he has a bit of a death wish, since between jobs he has to inject himself with narcotics in an attempt to blot out his Afghan memories--and probably a few of the new ones he is creating. And! There are SO MANY ands! And there is a pretty FBI agent on his tail, sort of, whose path he keeps crossing in the strangest places. And naturally, her ex-husband works for the CIA. And there is a cat-like Russian safecracker with plenty of charms of her own, who becomes Joe's partner in crime (as well as discussing Russian literature with him). And a really smart African American hacker who finds himself in quite a bind. And Gio, Joe's gangster friend, who has a few problems of his own. And his wife, who's trying to figure out where Gio got lipstick on his collar. And the really bad guys, a psychotic anti-American terrorist and his pregnant wife, who swap sweet nothings in between plotting to kill thousands of people. And many others just as strange and compelling.So, as I hope I have conveyed, this book is pretty much over the top in every way possible. It reminds me of the work of Anthony Neil Smith, who also deserves a major publisher. This book just moves so fast, however, and has so many great interactions between characters, that there isn't much time to think about just how implausible it all is if you stop to think about it, but why would you want to do that? I have a feeling a sequel is coming. Though much evil is taken, much abides. Okay, I'll quote from Tennyson rather than Dostoevsky.
    • 3/5
      Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for an e-ARC of The Bouncer by David Gordon in exchange for an honest review. This book captured my attention in the first chapters. Joe Brody, a bouncer in a strip club owned by criminal elements, is a sympathetic sort of man who gives most people a break. His gentle nature is what endears him to the reader. What did not read well was the over-abundance of characters and plot lines: Joe's attraction to FBI agent Donna Zamora, his lifelong friendship with crime boss Gio Caprisi, the CIA, the Triads, gun running, a perfume heist, a confidential informant etc. etc. I read until the last fifty pages before I gave up, mainly because I found myself not caring what happened to our hero. A simpler plot might have been an asset for this novel. Not a bad read, but not a great one.
    • 4/5
      Right from the first chapter, I liked Joe, and I liked this book! He reminds me a bit of Richard Stark's "Parker" and the writing itself felt a little like Elmore Leonard. This was just a lot of fun! Joe is a bouncer at a strip joint, but so much more! Like Jack Reacher more! He goes on a heist, goes against the FBI, CIA, and some terrorists, and gets his sheriff 'badge' to boot! The only negative in this book, for me, is when Joe chases Adrian. It is so lame and slap-sticky. More like the Marx Brothers than any of the examples I gave above. If that scene were written like the rest of this book, I'd give it five stars for sure! As is, I still really enjoyed the read, and am excited to start the next one - which I just checked out of the library! Go, go, go, Joe!

    Book preview

    The Bouncer - David Gordon

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