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The Hard Stuff
The Bouncer
Ebook series2 titles

Joe the Bouncer Series

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this series

In this humorous, action-packed crime thriller, a strip club bouncer working for a coalition of mob bosses must steal $4 million in diamonds—twice.

Ex-black-ops-specialist-turned-strip-club-bouncer Joe Brody has a new qualification to add to his resume: an alliance of New York City’s mob bosses has deemed him its “sheriff.” In the straight world, when you “see something” you “say something” to the law. In the bent world, they call Joe.

Still reeling from a particularly difficult operation—and having plummeted back into the drug and alcohol addiction that got him kicked out of the military as a result—Joe has just managed to detox at the clinic of a Chinese herbalist when the mob bosses phone. They need Joe to help them swindle a group of opioid dealers (of all things). But these are no typical drug-ferrying gangsters. Little Maria, the head of the Dominican mob, has discovered that her new heroin suppliers belong to an al Qaeda splinter group, and that they’re planning to use their drug funds to back their terrorist agenda. With Joe in command, the mob coalition must pull off an intricate heist that will begin in Manhattan’s diamond district. At stake is not only their business, but the state of the world.

For readers who like a liberal dose of humor mixed with gritty crime, The Hard Stuff is a brilliant, action-packed thriller from a fresh virtuoso of the crime caper genre.

Praise for The Hard Stuff

“With The Bouncer (2018), Gordon established himself as a major player in comic thrillerdom, right up there with Thomas Perry . . . Much of Gordon's genius comes from his ability to build character in a few subtle brush strokes, so his entire cast . . . get under our skins in an instant and stay put. There are some grisly doings this time, but the lightness of touch that distinguishes Gordon's prose, whether his characters are bantering or dismembering, is still what makes this series soar.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Highly entertaining. . . . Gordon has a knack for twisty story lines, nonstop action, and over-the-top sequences.” —Publishers Weekly

“Gordon is fashioning himself an impressive crime world niche somewhere between Donald Westlake and Elmore Leonard, with his raucous, rollicking stories of New York City crime. . . . Come for the intricate, surprising crime scenarios; stay for the banter.” —CrimeReads
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 1, 1991
The Hard Stuff
The Bouncer

Titles in the series (2)

  • The Bouncer

    The Bouncer
    The Bouncer

    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)

  • The Hard Stuff

    The Hard Stuff
    The Hard Stuff

    In this humorous, action-packed crime thriller, a strip club bouncer working for a coalition of mob bosses must steal $4 million in diamonds—twice. Ex-black-ops-specialist-turned-strip-club-bouncer Joe Brody has a new qualification to add to his resume: an alliance of New York City’s mob bosses has deemed him its “sheriff.” In the straight world, when you “see something” you “say something” to the law. In the bent world, they call Joe. Still reeling from a particularly difficult operation—and having plummeted back into the drug and alcohol addiction that got him kicked out of the military as a result—Joe has just managed to detox at the clinic of a Chinese herbalist when the mob bosses phone. They need Joe to help them swindle a group of opioid dealers (of all things). But these are no typical drug-ferrying gangsters. Little Maria, the head of the Dominican mob, has discovered that her new heroin suppliers belong to an al Qaeda splinter group, and that they’re planning to use their drug funds to back their terrorist agenda. With Joe in command, the mob coalition must pull off an intricate heist that will begin in Manhattan’s diamond district. At stake is not only their business, but the state of the world. For readers who like a liberal dose of humor mixed with gritty crime, The Hard Stuff is a brilliant, action-packed thriller from a fresh virtuoso of the crime caper genre. Praise for The Hard Stuff “With The Bouncer (2018), Gordon established himself as a major player in comic thrillerdom, right up there with Thomas Perry . . . Much of Gordon's genius comes from his ability to build character in a few subtle brush strokes, so his entire cast . . . get under our skins in an instant and stay put. There are some grisly doings this time, but the lightness of touch that distinguishes Gordon's prose, whether his characters are bantering or dismembering, is still what makes this series soar.” —Booklist (starred review) “Highly entertaining. . . . Gordon has a knack for twisty story lines, nonstop action, and over-the-top sequences.” —Publishers Weekly “Gordon is fashioning himself an impressive crime world niche somewhere between Donald Westlake and Elmore Leonard, with his raucous, rollicking stories of New York City crime. . . . Come for the intricate, surprising crime scenarios; stay for the banter.” —CrimeReads

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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