by Lou Berney (Author)

"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.

Front Jacket

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.

Back Jacket

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.

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