Bad Business

Two maverick FBI agents who have been framed for the murder of a mob informant must deal with a kooky drug addict and a deadly Manhattan car chase in the battle to prove their innocence

The fourth in Bruno's Bad series ( Bad Guys ) is the best yet: fast, intricate and funny. We know from the start that the villain is Tom Augustine, WASP assistant U.S. attorney who's made a deal with mob drug dealers--he'll shield them in exchange for the $14 million he needs to run for mayor of New York City. He establishes his bona fides by coldly strangling a Sicilian prosecutor and proceeds to cut a murderous swath that climaxes in a mad car chase in Little Italy. His nemeses are two FBI partners, crusty middle-aged Gibbons and 30-something hothead Tozzi. Foulmouthed, rash and constantly bickering, the agents are understandably unpopular with FBI brass. After Tozzi shoots his mouth off in front of a reporter, is suspended, nearly killed by thugs and harried by the kidnapping of his girlfriend's young daughter, the duo must prove their case against Augustine without official cooperation. The plot careens terrifically, like a combination of Elmore Leonard and Donald Westlake, and the characters are vivid, notably the increasingly crazed Augustine and a wily Sicilian capo who's almost charming. Major ad/promo.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A lesser outing for antic FBI team Gibbons and Tozzi finds Tozzi framed for the murder of a key witness against a Mafia dope ring. The real killer, Assistant US District Attorney (and New York mayoral hopeful) Tom Augustine, gets inspired by Tozzi's offhand remark--faithfully reported in the next day's news--that somebody oughta execute, gangland-style, all 18 defendants and their lawyers in a monster drug case (a case that prosecutor Augustine, the New York connection for the Sicilian mob, has been straining to shepherd into a mistrial). And after the smoke has cleared from the safe house Gibbons and Tozzi arranged in Jersey City, Tozzi's been suspended from the Bureau, and Gibbons, whose old romantic rival Jimmy McCleery has his eye on Gibbons's wife Lorraine, gets sucked in too. It doesn't help that Tozzi's picked this month to rediscover (mostly at night, at her place) high-school princess Lesley Halloran, who's now defending Mafioso Ugo Salamandra, or that he's just been photographed chatting with Salamandra . . . but good hunches, martial arts, and dumb luck- -arch-WASP Augustine and the mob aren't exactly natural allies-- combine to kick all the proper butts. Not as deliriously overplotted as last year's Bad Luck, but still sharp enough to make you hug yourself with anticipation as Gibbons and Tozzi sink deeper into the mud you know they'll have just enough-- well, maybe not quite enough--trouble wriggling out of. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.