The Wild Life

Joe the Bouncer seeks a killer on the darkest sides of New York City in this captivating hard-boiled mystery from David Gordon.

Joe Brody, ex-Special Forces operative with post-traumatic stress syndrome so severe it drove him to drug abuse and almost ruined him, is getting his life back together. Living with his grandmother in Queens, Joe has taken a simple job as a strip club bouncer, a role where he can spend his nights reading the classics. The only catch is that his childhood friend Gio Caprisi, now head of New York's Italian Mafia, relies on Joe's extra-legal expertise when things get particularly nasty on the streets.

Recently, New York's criminal underworld has been shaken by the disappearance of its most successful call girls. As a pattern emerges, the women's sudden departures come to resemble something deeply concerning - the work of a serial kidnapper.

When a woman turns up dead, the hunt for the predator behind it all becomes even more urgent. To find the killer, Joe will have to plunge into the seediest fringes of Manhattan and its surrounding boroughs on another wild ride.

Reviews for David Gordon

'David Gordon brings an outstanding new voice to the contemporary crime novel' Robert Crais
'A unique and worthwhile series' CrimeReads
'Gordon knows how to write a potboiler' LA Times