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44th out of 115 books
—
68 voters
Gun Monkeys
Charlie Swift just pumped three .38-caliber bullets into a dead polar bear in his taxidermist girlfriend’s garage. But he’s a gun monkey, and no one can blame him for having an itchy trigger finger. Ever since he drove down the Florida Turnpike with a headless body in the trunk of a Chrysler, then took down four cops, Charlie’s been running hard through the sprawling sleaz...more
Paperback, 274 pages
Published
November 4th 2003
by Dell
(first published December 1st 2001)
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Nota ecologica: per scrivere questo libro non è stato abbattuto neppure un albero poiché è stato utilizzato esclusivamente materiale riciclato al 100%
Ingredienti: 45% di Tarantino, 25% di Lansdale, 15% di Elmore Leonard, 15% aromi vari…
Trama: pleonastica, non ce n’è bisogno, giacché non mi si venga a parlare di trama quando i vari capitoli sono scanditi da: strage in un bar, strage in uno chalet, strage in un appartamento, strage in un motel e chissà quante altre me ne dimentico.
Il protagoni...more
Ingredienti: 45% di Tarantino, 25% di Lansdale, 15% di Elmore Leonard, 15% aromi vari…
Trama: pleonastica, non ce n’è bisogno, giacché non mi si venga a parlare di trama quando i vari capitoli sono scanditi da: strage in un bar, strage in uno chalet, strage in un appartamento, strage in un motel e chissà quante altre me ne dimentico.
Il protagoni...more
There’s a rich sub-genre of Florida comic crime capers by the likes of Carl Hiaasen, Tim Dorsey, Laurence Shames, James Hall, Elmore Leonard, Randy Wade White, John MacDonald and Charles Willeford. Breaking into that set is a tough ask. Gischler makes a pretty good stab at it. The real strength of the book is the pace and action. It never lets up, rattling along a terrific speed. And the writing, characterization and plotting is solid. The book has a great opening, with some nice comic touches....more
Hired Mob muscle. That's all Charlie Swift was good for. He worked in Florida, solving problems for his boss, Stan. Problems were sometimes solved with threats and sometimes with dead bodies.
Stan asks Charlie to pay careful attention when he mets with another mob boss. Charlie is sub-contracted out to go and find a briefcase and then gets in a huge shootout. From there, all goes downhill for Charlie as he finds himself caught in a mess involving the F.B.I. and a rival syndicate group.
This is a...more
Stan asks Charlie to pay careful attention when he mets with another mob boss. Charlie is sub-contracted out to go and find a briefcase and then gets in a huge shootout. From there, all goes downhill for Charlie as he finds himself caught in a mess involving the F.B.I. and a rival syndicate group.
This is a...more
Extremely violent noir novel but it never alienates you as even though lead character, Charlie Swift, is muscle for the local mob in Orlando with all that entails he still comes across as a likeable character as he wants to find his boss who's disappeared, get his kid brother to go to university rather than follow home into a life of crime, protect his mother and new girlfriend - all this while avoiding the FBI, corrupt ex-FBI agents and the muscle sent in by the big mob boss in Florida to clean...more
Charlie Swift is a gun monkey, hired muscle for an old mobster named Stan who runs Orlando. Charlie knows he’s a bad guy and just accepts it as his lot in life because of his skills with his fists and a gun. He lives by a strict code of honor: when you throw your lot in with a guy, you stick; otherwise you’re just an animal. That’s why when things suddenly go bad, Stan disappears, and Charlie’s friends are murdered, Charlie, a guy who’d trained himself to unquestioningly take orders, suddenly do...more
As a noir novel this book was OK. I saw where this was going and that didn't help the so-so writing skills of the author. I wasn't surprised that the author also writes comic books. I think he was hoping to emulate Elmore Leonard or some such, but misses that by a few lightyears. The characters are pretty typical and lack significant depth, much like in the comic books. In the comics, the artist makes up for much of the narrative.
What makes this book standout for me are the Florida locations. Gi...more
What makes this book standout for me are the Florida locations. Gi...more
Here's the first sentence of the book: ""I turned the Chrysler onto the Florida Turnpike with Rollo Kramer's headless body in the trunk, and all the time I'm thinking I should've put some plastic down." That does get your attention.
Picture, if you will, Carl Hiaasen, Robert Parker, Raymond Chandler, and Jim Thompson all rolled into one and you have a fair approximation of Victor Gishler's Gun Monkeys. Caught in the middle of a war for control of Orlando's lucrative crime trade, Charlie Swift, en...more
Picture, if you will, Carl Hiaasen, Robert Parker, Raymond Chandler, and Jim Thompson all rolled into one and you have a fair approximation of Victor Gishler's Gun Monkeys. Caught in the middle of a war for control of Orlando's lucrative crime trade, Charlie Swift, en...more
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Love this author. This book was not as totally fabulastic as Go Go Girls of the Apocalypse, but it wasn't bad. I have never read this type of "pulp fiction"esqe book before, but it reminded me a lot of Pulp Fiction. In a a good way, not in a totally-stole-the-plotline way. But the funny thing is that Charlie, the protagonist, is a really bad guy. He's a thug, a wiseguy, a murderer, and yet you can't help but root for him.
I love Gischler's writing style and some of the things he writes make me gu...more
I love Gischler's writing style and some of the things he writes make me gu...more
Wow, what a great first novel. Victor has proven himself a worthy successor to Donald Westlake in his Freshman year. This book was pretty damn near perfect and very reminiscent of Westlake's more humorous novels from the 1960s such as Somebody Owes Me Money with a the body count of a Parker novel.
In fact, the character of Charlie Swift, owes a lot to the Parker novels. He's like a young Parker, though not quite as smart or experienced. He makes a lot of the kind of dumb mistakes that Parker usua...more
In fact, the character of Charlie Swift, owes a lot to the Parker novels. He's like a young Parker, though not quite as smart or experienced. He makes a lot of the kind of dumb mistakes that Parker usua...more
Quite the body count! First-person accounts of the adventures of a mob enforcer whose life is rapidly falling apart are not the sort of thing I read frequently. But I'd read some of Vic's short fiction and thought it was well done, so I decided to try a novel-length dose of his violent, gritty noir style. It helps that gun monkey Charlie Swift has an old-fashioned sense of loyalty and a wry sense of humor that were sufficient to endear him to me even as he piled up corpses at every turn.
And the...more
And the...more
My first Gischler book.
His lead character Charlie Swift is a National Geographic-loving killer, whose girlfriend is a taxidermist. ..:)
I believe one has always to start at the beginning. He proves, should anyone have any doubts, that exceptional prose can turn the merely ordinary into an extraordinary winner.
Gischler's prose is charged with kinetic energy and it’s darkly funny.
Narrated in the first person, Gischler’s writing is contextually real and simply, deliciously, hilarious. From the ope...more
His lead character Charlie Swift is a National Geographic-loving killer, whose girlfriend is a taxidermist. ..:)
I believe one has always to start at the beginning. He proves, should anyone have any doubts, that exceptional prose can turn the merely ordinary into an extraordinary winner.
Gischler's prose is charged with kinetic energy and it’s darkly funny.
Narrated in the first person, Gischler’s writing is contextually real and simply, deliciously, hilarious. From the ope...more
A Trifecta of Bullets, Blood, and Sex
Charlie Swift is a hit man for the mob, an unrepentant career criminal who views his grisly vocation with detached practicality. As a former Army Ranger, killing is simply what he was trained to do. And killing is what he does, stacking up the corpes across central Florida's seamiest strip malls and strip joints as he tries to extract himself from a rival gang's setup, dodging some less-than-scrupulous G-men while trying to find his gangster boss gone missing...more
Charlie Swift is a hit man for the mob, an unrepentant career criminal who views his grisly vocation with detached practicality. As a former Army Ranger, killing is simply what he was trained to do. And killing is what he does, stacking up the corpes across central Florida's seamiest strip malls and strip joints as he tries to extract himself from a rival gang's setup, dodging some less-than-scrupulous G-men while trying to find his gangster boss gone missing...more
http://therealjohnhood.com/bookem/pul...
Pulp In A Hard Place
Picture, if you will, a good bad guy. Not just a guy who's good at being bad, but an honest to goodness bad guy, a bad guy who retains, through all his badness, a certain set of good principles. A Lone Ranger in a black hat.
Charlie Swift is that bad guy. Damn good at being very bad (some would even say evil, but to me that's in the eye of the beholder), he also has a few scruples. In other words, through murder and mayhem and then-some,...more
Pulp In A Hard Place
Picture, if you will, a good bad guy. Not just a guy who's good at being bad, but an honest to goodness bad guy, a bad guy who retains, through all his badness, a certain set of good principles. A Lone Ranger in a black hat.
Charlie Swift is that bad guy. Damn good at being very bad (some would even say evil, but to me that's in the eye of the beholder), he also has a few scruples. In other words, through murder and mayhem and then-some,...more
I was a new author. Fresh, young, innocent and, yes, a bit naive. Then I picked up Gun Monkeys and, well, Victor Gischler showed me just how great it could be. Picture Hunter S. Thompson on a good acid trip writing hysterical noir. Nope, doesn't come close to Victor. We've both moved on, but I'll always be grateful to him for showing me what really great crime fiction can be in the hands of a master. Read him. He's delightful, dark, and different. And oh-so gentle.
great book, Victor Gischler hammers out the prose like a mac 10. Charlie is stuck at the cross roads, the ending of one generation of crime with the still-born birth of another. Once content to just follow orders, now he has to think, and think fast. This was a fun read, if you like noir fiction then pick it up.
Vic (can I call him Vic? I've read enough of his books, I think it's okay) hits a home run in this first novel. I am coming to this after reading the most recent three novels he wrote, but found this to be a great hard boiled old school gangster tale. Fast paced, a definite one-sitting read.
A great debut novel chronicling the (mis-)adventures of a mob gunman. Charlie Swift tries to protect his boss and figure out what is going on with some paperwork that is wanted by a rival mob leader, the FBI, and corrupt FBI. The violence becomes unrealistic quickly, but the book is an enjoyable read and there is something exceedingly likeable about its narrator Charlie. Reminiscent of the ICE HARVEST with its dark humor.
Great read. Plenty of action and written in a very lean, engaging style. The action slows a bit in the middle while the main character searches for someone, but the book goes out with a bang. I'll definitely have to check out more Gischler.
Criminal Fiction done right. I picked this book up after reading Dennis Lehane and was kinda blown away by how good it was. It pulled me in like a Tarantino or a Guy Ritchie Movie. Good fun and a good read.
Gischler does a wonderful job of telling 3-4 different stories all at once from different perspectives. Suspense and hilarity are what drive this book all the way to the final page.
A very standard piece of Noir fiction with a few flashes of humour....not a send-up of Noir...Gischler plays it too straight in this book for that. Okay...but nothing special.
I knew this guy in college so I'm a bit biased. Great book and a fast read! It had a lot of elements I craze in stories: murder, mayhem, Florida.
This is one of those authors I just pick up without looking at the subject matter. Whatever the book is about I know I am going to like it.
This is my favorite of all the books of Mr. Gischler. He's fond of unique personalities and his titles are always awesome.
A wild,hilarious romp through Florida. Non-stop action & laughs. Edgar nominee for first novel.
Pretty cool book. May not make my list of favorites but it's a cool stab you in the back mobster mystery. I have many more Victor Gischler books on my to-read shelf, one of which I already own. I look forward to reading them all.
Wonderfully fun read.
RATING: 3.5
not bad.
Funny
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