The Hard Bounce [Book Review]

If you have seen the multiple quotes that I have posted over the past several days, (over on Google+) then you can pretty much guess that I thoroughly enjoyed this book! If you enjoy Pulpy-Noir style Crime Fiction, then I highly recommend this book. (Though I will warn you that some of the subject matter can be intense and there is a ton of foul language!)

My wife is the one who actually came across this book, at a Library Sale, and she read it before me. The amazing thing is that she enjoyed it just as much as I did! (While she was reading it, she kept telling me it was right up my alley... this is definitely my favorite book that she has recommended to me.)

Here is the book's synopsis:

Boo Malone lost everything when he was sent to St. Gabriel's Home for Boys. There, he picked up a few key survival skills; a wee bit of an anger management problem; and his best friend for life, Junior. Now adults, Boo and Junior have a combined weight of 470 pounds (mostly Boo's), about ten grand in tattoos (mostly Junior's), and a talent for wisecracking banter. Together, they provide security for The Cellar, a Boston nightclub where the bartender Audrey doles out hugs and scoldings for her favorite misfits, and the night porter, Luke, expects them to watch their language. At last Boo has found a family.

But when Boo and Junior are hired to find Cassandra, a well-to-do runaway slumming among the authority-shy street kids, Boo sees in the girl his own long-lost younger sister. And as the case deepens with evidence that Cassie is being sexually exploited, Boo's blind desire for justice begins to push his surrogate family's loyalty to the breaking point. Cassie's life depends on Boo's determination to see the case through, but that same determination just might finally drive him and Junior apart. What's looking like an easy payday is turning into a hard bounce--for everyone.

I am also including the author's information as I had never even heard of ThugLit magazine. (the back of the book states, in big-bold letters, "the debut novel from the Creator of Thuglit")

Todd Robinson is the creator and chief editor of the multiaward-winning crime fiction magazine THUGLIT. His short fiction has appeared in Blood & Tacos; Plots with Guns; Needle Magazine; Shotgun Honey; Strange, Weird, and Wonderful Magazine; Out of the Gutter; Pulp Pusher; Grift; Demolition Magazine; and CrimeFactory. His writing has been nominated for a Derringer Award, short-listed for Best American Mystery Stories, selected for Writer's Digest's Year's Best Writing 2003, and won the inaugural Bullet Award in June 2011.

I was super excited to find out, as I was posting this review on Amazon, that there is another book after this one. Ordered! 😃