GUN WORK

GUN WORK
By David J. Schow
Hard Case Crime
249 pages

Barney is a gunman. He makes his living as a firearms expert. There is very little, outside a few close friends that he values in this world except his skill and knowledge as a shooter. When an old Army pal from his days in Iraq calls to say his wife has been kidnapped in Mexico City and is going die, Barney’s sense of loyalty propels him into a deadly nightmare mission to save her. What Barney doesn’t realize, until it is too late, is that he is merely a pawn in a larger operation. He’s been duped right from the start. His noble efforts leave him a prisoner in a Mexican hellhole where he is tortured repeatedly by men who enjoy their work.

Through a strength of raw will, Barney manages to survive his ordeal and escape, but not before being horribly mutilated. By the time he returns to his home base in Los Angeles, he is consumed with an all encompassing hatred and need for revenge. He recruits three shooting buddies, men who understand guns and know how to use them, to help him obtain that bloody vengeance. As this book charges into its final chapters, the action explodes across the pages with a riveting, all too realistic battle royal. Bullets fly and bodies fall!

GUN WORK is not for the squeamish and reminded me a great deal of those classic 1950s Men’s Sweat magazine adventures. It’s a story about a man who thought he had nothing to live for until he comes within a breath of dying and then hate becomes his motivating obsession. David J. Schow writes pulp like nobody’s business. This one is the real McCoy!