Gun Work (Hard Case Crime)

When his wife is kidnapped by a Mexican cartel, Carl Ledbetter, unable to come up with the ransom, calls in a favor from one of his old army buddies and gets more than he bargains for when the rescue mission doesn't go exactly as planned. Original.

Genre hopping seems to suit horror writer Schow (Havoc Swims Jaded) as he lets out all the stops in this high-caliber action story. It's no exaggeration to say that Barney has a more intimate relationship with guns than he does with any human, living or dead. That's why Mexicans call him el hombre de las armas, the gunman. It's also why old army buddy Carl Ledbetter drags him into a messy situation when Carl's fiancée, Erica, is kidnapped in Mexico City. At the prearranged money drop things start to go awry, and eventually a badly beaten, mutilated, shotup and half-starved Barney emerges, determined to get revenge on the kidnappers and anyone else who gets in his way. This is a gory, fast-paced pulp tour de force in the classic style. (Nov.)
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Barney, a gunman, moves “between the spaces of the ordinary world of people,” limiting his physical and emotional exposure. But when Carl, an Iraq war buddy, calls him for help—Carl’s fiancée has been kidnapped in Mexico City—Barney ignores his better judgment to go play hero. Events turn ass-over-teakettle wrong, and Barney wants revenge. Fortunately, it’s nothing a little surgical modification, highly modified weaponry, and a few bullet-happy buddies can’t fix. Schow, a versatile novelist (Havoc Swims Jaded, 2006) and screenwriter (The Crow, 1994), eschews his usual splatterpunk for a pulpy bulletfest that, while not horror, still features plenty of splatter. A double-crossing dame haunts the book, but this is really all about the guys and their guns. Barney leads his crew on a revenge mission that is one part Peckinpah, one part A-Team, and two barrels of triple-aught buckshot. But Barney is no Mack Bolan. Schow’s craftsmanlike prose propels a plot that follows its own peculiar rhythms. Readers who like the smell of cordite in the morning will want to pull the trigger on this purchase. --Keir Graff