American lowlifes kidnap Lexy Ilandrian, head of the Los Angeles Armenian gang, while she’s vacationing anonymously in Cambodia. They don’t know who she is, they just want a ransom. But the Armenian gangsters are so frightening that even the LA cartels steer clear of them. Shake Bouchon once was wheelman for the Armenians (and Lexy’s lover), but now he’s gone straight. This doesn’t matter when Shake’s past catches up with him: Dikran, Lexy’s hulking bodyguard, shows up and threatens to kill Shake—painfully—unless he helps him find her. Shake’s wife sees Dikran holding Shake and shoots him in the head with a nail gun, but he’s so thickheaded it barely fazes him. So, Shake and Dikran fly to Cambodia in unhappy alliance to find the kidnappers. By then, the bad guys know their mistake: should they kill Lexy now or go ahead with their plans? Babikian, Lexy’s number two, is there too—but to rescue Lexy, or eliminate her? Everything comes up roses in the end, but not without a fair amount of hugger-muggery and violence.
VERDICT Berney’s third Shake Bouchon novel (after Whiplash River) is as much fun as the others. Enthusiastically recommended for all crime fiction fans.
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