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    Gutshot Straight: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Gutshot Straight: A Novel
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    Gutshot Straight: A Novel
    Ebook354 pages5 hours

    Gutshot Straight: A Novel

    By Lou Berney

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “Lou Berney’s novel is so energetic, so droll, and so wheezingly funny that it accomplished what no book ever has before: it made me forget to eat lunch.”
    —Stephen Harrigan, New York Times bestselling author of Challenger Park

    A fast and funny caper in the tradition of Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, and the Coen Brothers, Gutshot Straight brings a fresh new talent into the crime fiction fold: Louis Berney. He’s already won raves for his short fiction collection The Road to Bobby Joe and Other Stories (“Rivals the work of contemporary hotshots T.C. Boyle and Ralph Lombreglia” —Chicago Tribune). With Gutshot Straight, Berney is “all in”—sure to win a fervent following with the story of “Shake” Bouchon, fresh out of prison and on the straight and narrow path…after maybe just one last job.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJan 5, 2010
    ISBN9780061963469
    Unavailable
    Gutshot Straight: A Novel
    Author

    Lou Berney

    Lou Berney is the multiple award-winning author of Dark Ride, November Road, and The Long and Faraway Gone, as well as Gutshot Straight and Whiplash River. His short fiction has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. He lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and teaches in the MFA program at Oklahoma City University.

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    Reviews for Gutshot Straight

    4/5

    79 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is the first of a series featuring professional wheelman Shake Bouchon. Within hours of his release from jail - and solemn vows to stay out of trouble - he is propositioned, knowing full well that although it sounds innocent, it is definitely not. Through this job he meets Gina, who appears to be wholesome and demure, then turns out to have a talent for lying. The action takes them to Panama where Shake would just like to fulfill a dream of owning a restaurant and cooking his specialty: good simple food with local ingredients.This was an enjoyable story (warning: there is an "ick" factor) with excellent characters. I hope Berney continues with this series, it was all fun.
    • 5/5
      Blurb.........

      Professional wheel man Charles "Shake" Bouchon is too nice a guy for the life he's led and not nice enough for any other. Fresh out of prison, he's supposed to deliver a package to Vegas strip-club owner Dick "the Whale" Moby and pick up a briefcase for Shake's former boss and lover, Alexandra Ilandryan, pakhan of L.A.'s Armenian mob. But when the "package" turns out to be Gina, a wholesome young housewife, Shake decides to set her free—a move as noble as it is boneheaded.

      Now Shake and Gina are on the run in Panama—looking to unload the briefcase's unusual contents while outmaneuvering two angry crime bosses, a heartbroken ex-linebacker, and a sadistic thug plagued by erectile superfunction. And Shake's learning that Gina is less wholesome and more complicated than he initially imagined.

      Once in a while you come across a book that just reinforces all you love about reading and ticks every box that needs ticking at that particular moment in time .........humour, action, violence, sex, character, dialogue, pace, plot, curveballs.
      I absolutely loved this from first page to last, which was sometime the same day, albeit late in the evening.
      Berney's first novel and it's a peach. It's been likened to Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen which I won't disagree with having read plenty of both and enjoyed them too.
      If you fancy a caper-heist type romp, you could do a lot worse than trying this for kicks.
      He has a second book - Whiplash River which has been added to the Keane wishlist.
      5 from 5 and very probably book of the month.
      This was purchased for me from Amazon, and was one of my favourite Christmas presents by my better half.
    • 5/5
      Charles "Shake" Bouchon, professional wheel man, does not take long to get back into trouble after he is released from prison. Soon we have a snare of thieves trying to outwit thieves. But this is the most lovable bad guy imaginable and he was created by a great story teller. And so it is with great joy that I discovered Shake is a series character and his second adventure is already out. Yeah!
    • 4/5
      Entertaining story of the relationship between two people immersed in the criminal society. Fast paced story with characters you will enjoy and come to like.
    • 4/5
      very fun, and very entertaining. Will definitely search for other books by this author
    • 3/5
      Gutshot Straight is a straightforward American action book that takes some unexpected twists. Written by a screenwriter, it's perhaps not surprising that the plot structure is excellent, with unexpected locales, very few character 'duds' and leaves room for a sequel. Perhaps writing dialogue for a living makes for less experience with prose, and the prose, where it exists, is workmanlike at best. The book begins with a main character finishing his stint in prison, and except for quickly running into the worst-developed, cliche, disheartening character of the book, a female Armenian mob boss, the book proceeds apace, is 'taut' and we soon catch a glimpse of a whirlwind of an accomplice with a story full of betrayal, mystery, and global drama. While it has a consistent string of brilliant moments, the lack of decent prose and a wishy washy main character make this a fun, solid book but nothing particularly memorable.
    • 5/5
      Shake just is out of jail and is asked to perform a task by an old girlfriend for some quick cash. All he wants is to open his own restaraunt and serve his specialties. It's been a life long dream. He takes the job to run a car to Vegas and finds a girl in the trunk. Faced with giving "the sweet sounding lady" over to the bad thugs he chooses to help her. Gina is more than a nice little lady and has her own con going. The two are at odds at times and loving at others. Anyway, sparks do fly. The plot flies from CA to Vegas to Panana and then ? Fun read. First Mystery Pick for Lou.
    • 5/5
      This is my type of book, a fun caper novel. Not since Robert Fate's Baby Shark have I read a book that has larger than life characters, big enough to demand to be on the big screen. It's no wonder that Lou Berney is a screenwriter. His debut novel, Gutshot Straight is a fast-paced, now you see it, now you don't, novel. This novel should go straight to the movies. And, even then, it's going to be hard to keep up with the switches in this comical caper novel. Anyone who is a fan of Stephen Cannell's King Con, Jeffrey Archer's Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, or the classic film, The Sting, needs to read this story.Nothing is what it appears to be in this book. Just before he's released from prison, Charles "Shake" Bouchon seems to be just a mild-mannered wheel man capable of stealing or driving a car. But, at forty-two, Shake has a few surprises for the tough con who wants to take him out. And, Shake's thoughts of going straight last only until he gets off the bus in L.A., when Alexandra Illandryan, the boss, the pakhan, of the Armenian mob, picks him up, and offers him a simple job. Drive a car to Las Vegas for her, turn it over to someone in a parking lot, pick up a briefcase, and bring it back to her. Just a $20,000 simple job, right?As much as Shake wants to cooperate, he didn't count on finding a young woman named Gina in the trunk of that car. An associate once told Shake "He was too nice for this business but not nice enough for any other." So, the poor sucker instinctively wants to protect Gina from the Whale, Dick Moby, the man who ordered her to be picked up. Shake believes Gina when she tells him she's just a Morman wife and mother with a husband with gambling debts, and she must have been kidnapped to be killed because of her husband. Poor Shake. He's going to learn quickly to NEVER, EVER believe anything Gina tells him.But, Gina has a charming way of working her wiles on men and women alike. Everyone from strippers to businessmen, escaped felons to Shake, trusts Gina to play fair. And, suddenly, Gina and Shake are on the run, first in Las Vegas, and then in Panama, as they scheme for their own share of a pot of money. It's an unlikely treasure that takes them to Panama, and, it's equally unlikely that this pair will ever succeed. There are thugs on their trail from the moment Shake decides not to turn Gina over to the Whale.Anyone who enjoys fun characters, and a caper novel in which thieves con other thieves, will enjoy Gutshot Straight. Shake and Gina are charming thieves, and you can't help but root for them against the scummy thugs who are after them. But, just a warning. NEVER, EVER believe anything Gina says. Now, we just need to see who will play Shake and Gina in the movies. Lou Berney's Gutshot Straight deserves to be seen as well as read.