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Fritz Agency
Christian Dittus
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English
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THE WILD LIFE

David Gordon

A Joe the Bouncer Thriller

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 Roth 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.
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Published 2022-02-01 by Mysterious Press

Comments

“Gordon deals sensitively with the world of sex workers, generating deep empathy for the Club Rendezvous crowd, both clients and employees, without oversimplifying the brutal business in which they are involved. Once more, Gordon combines gritty subject matter with tension breaking moments of comic humor, as when classics-reading Joe beans a thug with a copy of Ulysses. A moving portrait of ‘all the rats and cats and pigeons and crackheads and hookers and cruisers and weirdo artists' who pursue the wild life.” —Booklist (starred review) "Rollicking [...] 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." ? Publishers Weekly "Watching Donna and Joe compete, unwittingly, to solve the same case brings a novel and zany twist to the old game of cops and robbers. One wild ride." ? Kirkus "The series has an alternate world appeal not unlike John Wick, but run through with a deep appreciation for classic literature?and classic crime fiction in the Donald Westlake and Lawrence Block mold. It's not to be missed." ? CrimeReads “Exhilarating.” —The New York Times