Gutshot Straight: A Novel Paperback – February 1, 2011

Half the time I wasn't even sure what was happening with the plot. I was enjoying the rapid fire, tongue in cheek dialogue so much. You created some very colorful characters and played them off each other wonderfully. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a light, get away from your troubles fun read. Looking forward to more of your books.John ganster

This is a wonderful caper novel. It introduces us to Charles “Shake” Bouchon, a skilled wheelman and frustrated cook. The past lover of the head of the Armenian mob in L.A., he is released from prison (for GTA) and immediately invited to take on a simple task—to drive a package to Las Vegas. The package is a woman in the trunk of the car he is provided; her name is Gina Clement and she is a real handful. Gina has robbed an evil, disgusting criminal named Dick “The Whale” Moby, who uses his Las Vegas strip club to launder money from his multiple sleazy enterprises. Moby has contracted with Lexy the Armenian to find and transport Gina (who was on the lam) back to Vegas, where he will kill her, slowly. In return, Lexy will receive what reviewers are calling the greatest McGuffin in crime fiction history, a case containing, shall we say, ‘religious relics’ that have probably been faked.Needless to say, Shake and Gina short-circuit Lexy and Moby’s plans and form an alliance in which neither can resist, nor trust the other. Their hurried peregrinations take them to Panama, where the potential purchaser of the ‘relics’ resides. A nasty and conniving bit of business himself, he is aided by a local antiquities dealer; Moby is aided by an enforcer with a pure heart and Lexy is aided by an enforcer who is completely heartless. All of these individuals chase one another, chase the McGuffin and, in general, provide the reader with about 6-7 hours of exceptional fun.This is a fast and enjoyable read, evoking the skills of Carl Hiassen, Norman Partridge, Elmore Leonard, Dave Barry, et al. In short, this is prime crime fiction with beaucoup humor and (non-explicit) sex, horrific villains and flawed but loveable protagonists. The plot is marvelous, the settings neat, the characters memorable.Highly recommended.Note that there is a sequel, Whiplash River, an Edgar-winning standalone (The Long and Faraway Gone) and a new Shake Bouchon novel (Double Barrel Bluff) coming next month (October 11, 2017). If you have not yet encountered Lou Berney’s fiction, prepare yourself for a major treat. LB is a major new voice in the world of crime fiction.

This fast paced crime story opens with an attention grabbing Texas Hold-em card game inside a prison rec room. "Shake" Bouchon wins the final hand with a heart flush causing Vader, the prison bad guy,to go ballistic. He accuses Shake of cheating and issues a death threat. Shake is due to get out in 48 hours on Tuesday. He counters Vader's death threat by dropping a Clark County phone book in Vader's presence repeating Vader's brother's street address along with the warning that if his friend doesn't hear from him before Tuesday he will have to visit Vader's brother in Henderson, NV and that will be unfortunate.Shake leaves prison and takes the bus to Los Angeles where he is met by Lexy, his ex-lover, boss of the Armenian mob. She has an errand for him which will earn him a cool $20, 000. All he has to do is drive a car to Vegas and fly back with a brief case.Shake makes it to the Vegas city limits when he hears thumping and thinks he has a flat tire. But when he opens the trunk he finds a woman gagged and trussed up. He checks into a motel and let's her loose to clean up. Gina cons him with a story that she is a Mormon house wife, drugs him, cuffs him to the plumbing and runs off with the briefcase that he was supposed to deliver to Lexy.Now the story takes off like wildfire. Not only must he chase after the girl but now he has Jasper the giant enforcer for Moby the whale after him. Did I forget to Mention Dirkan, the bald Ukranian assassin, Lexy's mean man who is in the mix?The characters are so well described that each one is a story on their own. Gina, the beautiful but devious stripper, Moby the Whale, a fat, heartless mobster, Jasper, the Whale's gentle giant enforcer, Dirkan (see above), Lexy, Shake's ex-lover and.Armenian mob boss.They are all after a brief case that contains rare religious relics estimated value of $6 to $8 million, The chase goes from Vegas to Panama with so many twists and turns until it ends in in a carousel of armed players pointing guns at each other.This was a very entertaining yarn. Good way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.Reviewed by Roger Shepherd

I'd give this a five for pure pleasure, but to be fair it is not Moby Dick, or Huckleberry Finn, it's just one of the best crime novels written in recent years.The book is a bit of a genre novel, but I'm not exactly sure just what genre. I see the comparisons to Hiaasen and Leonard, and that's fair enough. Problem is, Hiaasen is great when he's good, but darned inconsistant. Leonard, well frankly I've always found Leonard to be very overrated--simply making all of your characters flawed does not make a great novel.The author here manages to avoid cliches and kept me guessing. There was a lot of humor and the two main characters remained a match for each other which in and by itself was cool to read.It's a caper, a getaway, a romance,misdirection, action and humor. The reason that I'm writing this review is that I came back to check if he'd written anything else. Alas, no, and not likely too either. The author is a highly successful screenwriter which I understand is easy money if you have the knack. He wrote this during the strike to make the payments on his Porsche or whatever. Even if this is the only one, the book is still very worth reading.

Good read, good dialogues and good story. What more would you want ?

This is a propulsive thriller about a jailbird and a lap dancer, in an adventure that takes them from the seedy side of Vegas to Panama, with many twists and turns in between… Getaway driver Shake is let out of jail and given a simple mission, to drive a car to a Vegas gangster. But its cargo proves, well, problematic… and before long events spiral out of control. There is something filmic about Gutshot Straight and the romance that develops between Shake and Gina, an exotic dancer who hatches a plan for a better life. It will appeal to Elmore Leonard fans. The style is uncluttered and fast. It’s a high-speed read. But it’s not a patch on Berney’s November Road, or The Long and Faraway Gone. But Gutshot is a clever novel - and won’t disappoint…

Once again, I find myself praising the writing skills of Lou Berney. I had previously been blown away by his excellent novel, The Long and Faraway Gone - which while laced with humour, was essentially a serious, compelling, psychological tale, with tension aplenty. In comparison, Gutshot Straight is more of a tongue-in-cheek crime caper. Charles 'Shake' Bouchon is fresh out of prison, and has been asked by his previous boss to drive from LA to Las Vegas, to deliver a 'package' to Dick Moby (aka 'the Whale). During the trip he encounters the attractive, albeit dangerous, Gina. These two central characters leap off the page, and are forever double-guessing each other's motives, they're also continually indulging in smart dialogue, and exchanging humorous one-liners. As befits a tale of this nature, not everything goes to plan, and it's the chaos that erupts that makes this novel such an exciting, surprising, and joyful reading experience. Highly recommended.

A 42 year old no-hoper recidivist get away driver, miraculously transforms into a criminal master mind with deadly allure for an equally implausible stripper come Mata Hari of the underworld. Berney tries so herd to be flip and witty that you you cringe. The dialogue is flip-flap-flop. I neither believed in, nor cared about, a single character and if you don't give a xxxx where is the thrill in a 'thriller'??

Compared to all sorts of authors in the Amazon blurb but do not believe a word of it. Illogical and unbelievably facile this is a helter-skelter farrago full silly cardboard characters who act without thinking and then wallow in self pity until someone or something comes out of the woodwork. It ends with the two “lovebirds” riding off on a motorbike with a huge sum of money with no idea what they are going to do with it all tolerated by the mysterious Queen of Crime back in LA who seemingly was pulling the strings all along. Not fun and not funny.