I Love My Smith & Wesson : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: unique satirical crime thriller
Review: The night before horror author Billy Dye's wedding to Nikki, the mother of his child, hired killer Rawhide comes back into his life. Billy thinks Rawhide is going to kill him but even though Rawhide knows his childhood friend tried to murder him, he has other plans for Billy just as he has for The Priesthood, a mob that controls all the illegal activities that goes on in Manchester. He once killed the head of the organization,
Malcolm Priest and his lieutenants, an action that weakened the gang considerably.

The new leader Chef has made the organization stronger than ever. Little Malc, Priest's son, believes that Rawhide killed his father Malcolm Priest and has offered a reward for his capture or his death. Little Malc hires Rawhide, who he has never seen, as a bouncer for his club and the killer arranges it so that he saves Little Malc from an assassination attempt. This wins him Little Malc's trust and puts him in a position to pit him against Chef. Meanwhile, Rawhides plans for Billy don't go as planned because the author accidentally kills his wife and a sympathetic nerve in the killer's heart is touched. While helping Billy he meets his female counterpart and the two killers form a partnership based on love and murder.

David Bowker has written a unique crime thriller that will strike a chord with the audience. I Love My Smith & Wesson is a satire on mobs and crime lords and is not to be taken seriously. The situations that Rawhide manipulates verge on the slapstick but Mr. Bowker stops short of having them cross that line. He has a fresh unique voice that readers will appreciate for his dry wit and cutting edge humor.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: Should be a Guy Richie movie
Review: The previous reviewer does not know what he is talking about. This book is a great and fast read that reminds me the pacing, and dialoge of a Guy Richie movie like "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels." The story revolves around the anti-hero hitman Rawhead and his escapades into revenge, loyalty, hollywood and being a doorknob.

This book is violent and twisted at parts but it is a book. It is made up. These are not real people or real situations. It's all illusion.

Entertainment Weekly is right again.

Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: What is Entertainment Weekly thinking? This is a "Must Read"? No, to the contrary. Do not read this book. As it goes along, it steadily worsens, to the point of being a parody of itself. The character development is non-existent, the plot is lame, and the writing, which actually starts out in the first chapter with a small amount of promise, degenerates into drivel. For example, near the end of the book, the following: "They took tea together, the old woman and her guests, the two most formidable executioners in the world." And then, to end the book, this quote, about the main character of the novel and his newly found assassin lover (with whom he has had ever-so-touching sex on a pile of dead bodies): "All Rawhead knew was that he had found his woman. Now they would love and kill together. The loving had spanned many lifetimes. But the killing had barely begun." Well, how nice -- thankfully, the bad writing ends there, along with the book.

Life is too short. Don't waste your time on this.