Review by Booklist Review
Has it really been a dozen years since we saw Shake Bouchon, the former getaway driver and current restaurateur, and his once-enemy, now-love-of-his-life, Gina? They're now living happily in Bloomington, Indiana, where nobody knows who they used to be and everybody seems real friendly. Until a guy from the Armenian mob shows up and, using threats to emphasize his point, insists Shake locate the guy's boss, who has disappeared. The guy's boss also happens to be Shake's former girlfriend, and he feels an obligation to make sure she's safe, so off he goes to Cambodia to pick up her trail. Mayhem ensues. Berney might have taken a break from Shake's story for longer than fans would have liked (in the interim he wrote the Edgar Award--winning The Long and Faraway Gone [2015] and the Hammett Award--winning November Road [2018], among other fine books), but he picks it up as though he never left. It's a great book, full of nifty characters, with a story that builds the suspense until we're unable to stop reading. Nice to have you back, Shake.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Berney's outstanding third Shake Bouchon thriller (after Dark Ride) sees the former getaway car driver's retirement interrupted when an Armenian mobster pays him a visit. Dikran Ghazarian is the bodyguard for L.A. mob boss Alexandra Ilandryan, who's gone missing during her annual trip to Cambodia. Because of his close bond with Alexandra, Dikran sets aside his vow to kill Shake, her former lover, to ask for his help finding her. Shake's wife, Gina, is less than pleased to see her husband run off in search of his ex, but that doesn't stop him from uneasily joining forces with the dim-witted Dikran ("He had the cognitive skills of the fence post lying broken next to them"). Meanwhile, in Siem Reap, Cambodia, a disgraced professor and an ex-con are holding Alexandra hostage, believing her to be a rich American tourist, with no clue what retribution awaits them. Shake remains a lovable, wise-cracking hero, and Berney does him justice with a cast of memorable supporting characters and a gorgeously rendered Southeast Asian locale. This sterling neo-noir series continues to deliver. Agent: Shane Salerno, The Story Factory. (Nov.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An erstwhile accomplice of the Armenian mob gets drawn into a kidnapping plot in Cambodia. Hijinks and double-crosses ensue. From a distance, Charles Samuel "Shake" Bouchon seems to live a pretty boring life in Bloomington, Indiana. He's a driving instructor, mostly for older international students, and he's settled into domestic bliss in a quiet, dog friendly neighborhood. He's lived this "legitimate" life for a little over a year, but he's determined to keep it up, until circumstances beyond his control--most directly represented by a huge, purple-track-suit-wearing, skull-tattoo-sporting Armenian--pull him back into the criminal underworld. Dikran Ghazarian wants Shake to help him find his pakhan, Lexy Ilandryan, the L.A. boss of the Armenian mob. She seems to have disappeared while on vacation in Cambodia, so, soon, the mismatched Dikran and Shake trek halfway across the globe, where they discover that Lexy has been kidnapped by a pair of criminals-for-hire who have no idea who she is. With the help of a Cambodian hippie who reads auras and may experience prophetic dreams; a local honcho--and onetime CIA contact--named Ouch; and, eventually, Shake's wife, Gina, also reformed from the wrong side of the law, Dikran and Shake go head-to-head with a fashionista kingpin named Bjorn and then Lexy's second-in-command, who has "more teeth than seemed possible for a single human mouth" and may or may not be on their side. There is no shortage of action, clever jibes, rough-and-tumble fights, casual murders, or double-crosses in the novel; it moves smoothly and quickly, with Shake as the thoughtful, sympathetic, knowledgeable linchpin who keeps everything grounded just enough in logic and reality. The prose lacks some of Berney's usual flair, but his characters, always on the edges of polite society, continue to plumb its gray areas and find the compromises with which they can--and sometimes must--live. Deft, well-crafted fun: irreverent, darkly humorous, and multilayered. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
