Big Thrill Recommends The Big Thrill Recommends: DOUBLE BARREL BLUFF by Lou Berney

The Big Thrill Recommends: DOUBLE BARREL BLUFF by Lou Berney

Recommended by G. A. Rivers

Lou Berney’s latest book, DOUBLE BARREL BLUFF, brings the welcome return of his popular Shake Bouchon series in which the former wheelman for the Armenian mob, now settled into a quiet, domestic life in middle America, is confronted with an unwelcome face from the past. And it’s not just any face, but the face of the former right hand to the boss of LA’s Armenian mob standing in Shake’s back yard in the middle of a sunny summer afternoon. An ugly face and the face of the meanest, dumbest, most brutal man Shake had ever met. The brute who’d promised Shake he’d make him beg for death the next time they crossed paths and who could not possibly be here demanding Shake to help him find Lexy Ilandryan, his beautiful, dangerous and missing boss—except that he is.

And so it begins. Lou Berney is back in the crime caper groove and Shake Bouchon is back in the shadows trying to help a killer he doesn’t trust and who will stop at nothing to find Lexy even if that means killing Shake. The two of them fly to Cambodia to pick up the trail, Shake having no choice but to leave his dear wife behind; she’s angry at Shake’s return to the underworld, well intentioned as it may be, and even more angry at being cut out of the action, which means she doesn’t stay behind for long. This is Lou Berney hitting his crime caper stride once again, spinning a perfectly plotted and engaging noir tale of colorful characters in an exotic locale. The writing is pitch perfect, witty and sharp and the story itself is hard to step away from. If you’re fond of the witty crime caper genre as defined by Elmore Leonard you’ll love this book and hope Lou Berney doesn’t stop writing them.