Customer Reviews

Bang Bang

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Now thirty eight and in the business for years with his psychotic partner Malik "Mal" Dumont, half Jewish half black Ezekiel "Izzy" Levin wonders why his job is titled Stickup Kid and never Stickup man; he ponders whether life expectancy in his line of work is so short that one can never be a man. Still while he muses about his profession of robbing criminals and leaving no witness behind, he relishes the subway World Series as his passion is baseball and his two favorite teams are playing for the championship. However, to even his shock at a bar to watch the game, he becomes more interested in a woman who is also there. He persuades Eva to go out with him in a couple of nights.

Mal and Izzy head to Queens accompanied by their client's "agent" Benny. As Mal cleans house, Izzy fails for the first time to make the closer save (like Mariano Rivera always does) by killing her. The witness is Eva whose cousin is lying dead from a knife wound. Understanding the rules of kill all or be a victim, Izzy saves Eva's life, but now Mal is after them to finish the job.

As this reviewer read this fascinating crime thriller, I kept thinking of Nova Swing (Harrison): "It starts with a dame" combined with paraphrasing the best man's comment at the wedding of my nephew Marc the cop as his "vocation is the dreams of a Jewish mother". Izzy grips the audience as he is obviously intelligent yet his profession as a criminal closer is not what one would expect of someone with his intellect. On the other hand the over the top of the Empire State Building Mal is crazy enough to be a closer. This is one tour of the Big Apple that will grip readers who, like the police, will follow the corpses as High Noon comes to New York City when a woman coming between two former partners.

Harriet Klausner

When I heard Gangi reviewed as a "hip-hop Elmore Leonard," I knew this was a book I had to pick up.

Following a really bad day in the life of Izzy Levin, a thief who preys on drug dealers, the novel is a furious run, peopled with well-drawn characters and delivered with street-smart panache. Gangi's language is especially compelling, with some terrific turns of noirish phrase ("Watching a woman cry was like watching a glass of red wine spill on a white linen suit in slow motion.")

A hell of a debut -- I'm eager to see where Gangi goes next.

Izzy is a 38-year-old stick-up kid in New York that robs the city's worst drug dealers and leaves no witnesses. Izzy has a good run doing this but now his conscience is getting the best of him and he starts to question his life choices. When a job goes wrong and Izzy's partner is responsible for another homicide, Izzy is supposed to kill all of the witnesses before he gets killed himself. But Izzy's plans are derailed when a beautiful bystander named Eva is the lone survivor of this latest job. Will she be the exception to his rule? Time is running out for Izzy as his ex-partner and others are seeking revenge and won't stop at nothing until Izzy is gone for good.

Bang Bang is an explosive debut by Theo Gangi. Gangi crafted an urban crime thriller that is anything but ordinary. The characters are interesting and complex. When reading this novel, you get the feeling that on one hand Izzy likes his life of crime, but on the other hand he wants some semblance of a normal life. Readers are also introduced to the harsh life of Eva who has a number of issues of her own. Gangi does a great job of tying in Izzy with a host of other secondary characters in this story. Readers need to pay close attention when reading this story or you will miss how these characters intertwine with one another. Bang Bang is gritty and action packed, making for a marvelous start to Theo Gangi's writing career.

Reviewed by Radiah Hubbert
for Urban Reviews

This book is a great thriller with brilliance tucked under its NYC grit and grime. The philosophies addressed are bold and beautiful. Gangi has a knack for portraying the street scene with a realistic flair. The story delivers. You will empathize for these characters. A must read for anyone with connections to New York City.

Theo Gangi blew away all of my preconceptions of how a crime thriller might read. Bang bang has exquisite insight in human psychology, a nuanced plot, and original, breathtaking metaphors. It also has all the great standbys of the genre--fast moving, lots of action, entertaining characters.
I can't recommend this book highly enough--for veteran readers of the genre or newbies like me.

I don't usually read thrillers, but after I picked this book up, I honestly couldn't put it down. The author's quick-paced sense of timing and quirky characters are addictive. It's a little violent at times, but the story pulls you in, and you find that you can't wait to discover what will happen next. I'll definitely buy the sequel.

What do you call a stick up kid when he becomes a grown man? This is the question Izzy is confronted with as Theo Gangi's novel BANG BANG opens. Izzy has made a living out of robbing people, mostly drug dealers, with his partner Mal. Unfortunately, his days of being a stick up kid are about to come to an end when he breaks the number one rule-You kill one, we kill them all.

Everything is going as planned when Izzy, Mal, and Benny rob an apartment owned by a drug dealer until a woman walks onto the scene. When all is said and done there are multiple dead bodies and Izzy is on the run. His partner Mal does not want to go to jail and is willing to go through any means necessary to make sure that all witnesses die. Enlisting the help of Huna and his thugs, Mal attempts to track Izzy down leaving even more dead bodies along the way.

Eva has just had one of the worst days of her life. She saw her first dead body, her drug-addicted cousin has stolen her money and all Eva wants to do is unwind. While at the bar Eva meets a man who strikes up a conversation with her only to be cut short when she gets a call that her cousin needs to be rescued by her again. What Eva doesn't know is that this phone call will change her life forever; and this time around, she may have to save more than just her cousin.

Theo Gangi's debut novel explores what happens when a bond is broken between two stick up kids. The story moves along slowly picking up in pace towards the end. While the pacing prevented the novel from being a page-turner, Gangi's connection of the characters and moments of suspense help push the novel along. Outside of the pacing Gangi's novel is well-written, but fails to step out from other urban fiction novels. It is filled with murder and violence and at times is predictable. However, if you enjoy street literature pick BANG BANG up and give it a try.

Reviewed by Criss Coles
for The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers