More about WHIPLASH RIVER from: http://www.marsh-agency.co.uk/titles/?id=16128
Charles “Shake” Boucon, former professional wheelman, is living the dream. He’s escaped the dangerous business of crime and now has his own little restaurant on a beautiful beach in Belize.
But be careful what you wish for. Running a restaurant is even more stressful than a high-speed escape from the cops, and Shake is deep in debt to Baby Jesus, a cherubically murderous local drug lord.
And then Shake’s life gets even more complicated when a masked gunman barges into his restaurant and tries to shoot one of Shake’s customers, a dapper older gentleman. Shake – not that bad of a guy for a former bad guy – intervenes, fights off the gunman, and saves the old guy’s life.
A happy ending. Except that Shake, of all people, knows no good deed ever goes unpunished. Sure enough, now Baby Jesus isn’t the only grave threat to Shake’s life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness – he’s joined by a pair of young pissed-off redneck lovebirds, a deadly professional hitman, a billionaire energy tycoon, and an attractive but ferocious female FBI agent who wants Shake to flip on his former criminal associates. Or else.
Even with enemies like that, though, Shake’s biggest headache may be his new best friend – Harrigan Quinn, the dapper fast-talking older gentleman whose life Shake saved. Quinn, a former CIA spook with a price on his head, has a foolproof scheme to save both their lives. All Shake has to do is make a quick trip to Cairo, Egypt, con a hyper-suspicious black-market dealer of “conflict antiquities,” and reunite with an ex-girlfriend, his relationship with whom did not, two years ago, end well.
In the end, after all the bluffs and bets, the twists and turns, Shake’s life comes down to the one last play on the table, the river card.
Praise
'Like Carl Hiaasen, Berney delights in the cartoonish. Like Elmore Leonard, he can drive a plot. What sets him apart is how well he evokes love, making the romance…as compelling as the mystery.'
Boston Globe
'Lou Berney immediately earned a seat of honor at the mystery masters’ table with his crackling caper novel, Gutshot Straight—a lightning-fast, fiendishly clever suspenser that screamed for a sequel. And here it is. Former professional wheel man Charles “Shake” Bouchon is back, living in the Caribbean paradise of Belize with his lawless past far behind him—until a gunshot tears through his beachside restaurant and he’s on the run again. A twisting tale filled with lawmen, con men, and hit men; a beautiful but deadly FBI agent; and a murderous thug named Baby Jesus, Whiplash River recalls the best of the off-the-wall crime fiction impresarios—Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, James W. Hall, Robert Ferrigno, Tim Dorsey—while establishing its own unique orbit in the noir universe.'
Amazon
'Slick, sleek, and wildly entertaining, WHIPLASH RIVER is pure pleasure. I'm a snob for prose, and these words sing, managing to be at once lean and evocative, confident and wry. Lou Berney is that kind of annoyingly skilled stylist who makes everything look easy.'
Marcus Sakey, best-selling crime novelist and host of the Travel Channel's 'Hidden City'
'Some writers can make me laugh and some can make me gasp, but Lou Berney can make me do both at the same time, and then get me all misty, too. WHIPLASH RIVER belongs at the very top of the best-seller list.'
Timothy Hallinan, author of 'The Queen of Patpong', 'The Fourth Watcher', and many other titles.
'Berney takes his rightful place as heir to Elmore Leonard with this witty and nimble comedic thriller, a sequel to his first novel GUTSHOT STRAIGHT (2010). The exotic locales are vibrant, the supporting cast larger than life, and the plot hums along without a wasted page.'
Publisher's Weekly.
'Lou Berney's debut thriller, Gutshot Straight, was a home run. WHIPLASH RIVER is a grand slam. I loved loved loved this book! I laughed so hard people on the subway edged away nervously. A funny, sexy, and thrilling caper, filled with characters you'd want to drink with. Read it now - you'll thank me later.'
Sean Chercover, author of THE TRINITY GAME
'This is pure breezy reading – a fun little crime novel that will pass the time as you lounge out on beaches or by pools this summer.'
Bruce Grossman, Bookgasm.com
'Once again, Shake Bouchon is determined to go straight. He’s the proud owner of a restaurant on Ambergris Cay, an island off the coast of Belize. But in short order, Shake is the target of three different hit men and a beautiful and tenacious FBI agent determined to make him rat out the L.A.-based Armenian mob featured in his first misadventure (Gutshot Straight, 2010). Most of the heat is initially aimed at Harrigan Quinn, a devil-may-care septuagenarian and possibly a former contract spook for the CIA, but by saving Quinn’s life, Shake becomes another target. Soon, his restaurant explodes. With $65 in his pocket and assassins in hot pursuit, Shake flees Belize, with Quinn in tow.
But—and there are always buts in Berney’s plots—Quinn pitches a lucrative con in Cairo designed to get both these amiable mavericks back on their financial feet. Trouble follows, of course, complete with hitters. Berney’s plot makes as many sharp turns as San Francisco’s famously curvy Lombard Street. His characters, especially the over-the-top Quinn and pretty much every female in the book, are brilliantly drawn. His portrait of Ambergris Cay suggests that he really knows that quirky, charming island, and the dialogue is crisp and often funny, or laced with irony. Gutshot Straight made Booklist’s 2010 Best Crime Novels list. WHIPLASH RIVER should be a contender for this year’s list..'
Booklist, starred review
Whiplash River
Berney takes his rightful place as heir to Elmore Leonard with this witty and nimble comedic thriller, a sequel to his first novel, Gutshot Straight (2010). Charles “Shake” Bouchon, once a getaway driver for the Armenian mafia in Southern California, wants to go straight. After a second stint in prison for grand theft auto, he’s bought a restaurant in Belize. The food’s good, but business is slow, and Shake is falling behind on his payments to Baby Jesus, the local drug lord who bankrolled this new venture. 
