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Gunshot Straight (2000)

by Lou Berney(Favorite Author)

3.64 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

review 1: As stated on the book jacket, this debut novel owes a lot to the work of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiassen. If you enjoy those writers, you'll like this. A cast of likeable criminals with no law enforcement anywhere to be found run from Vegas to Panama. Shake Bouchon is wheelman just released from an LA prison and quickly takes an job from Lexy, his Armenian crime boss and one time lover. All he has to do is go to Vegas and make a swap, but soon finds a surprise package in the trunk, that being Gina, a duct-taped soccer mom. Or is she? After a bungled exchange, Shake and Gina take possession of a valuable briefcase, the contents of which are quite surprising. I won't spoil it, but it had me laughing. Of course, they're not the only ones who want it, and those in pursuit a... morelso want both of them dead. This could have been a cheap rip-off of the aforementioned writers, but the author brings his own style to the writing. The characters are memorable, and I liked the intelligent descriptions of settings. The little bit of history thrown in there for good measure sealed the deal for me. Great stuff.
review 2: Boy, I read the reviews like "adored this novel," and "best crime story I have ever read," and I wonder if I read the same book? Yes, the writing is pretty good. And there are some excellent action scenes in the book. But I was frustrated by the lack of likable characters. There are no "good guys" (or gals, for that matter) in the entire book. Everyone is out to kill, murder, defraud, torture, swindle, cheat, or hurt someone else. Every single person. After a while I just kept rolling my eyes. I like having someone to root for, but by the end of the book I was sort of hoping they would all just kill each other.Secondly, there was an extreme number of f-bombs (129, to be exact). It's just so unnecessary. (Yes, before you accuse me, I will gladly accept the title of 'prude.') I just think there are better ways to write dialog, excessive profanity is the easy way out. I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but since it's my review, I wanted to be clear about what I didn't like. less

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