Gun Monkeys [Paperback]

Victor Gischler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2001

Charlie Swift is an old school kind of guy. Runs a tight ship. Respects his boss. Takes care of his mom and kid brother. And, he's a stone cold killer. When a fancy new-wave hood, hungry for the primo Orlando territory Charlie enforces, offs most of Charlie's boys in a bloody mob takeover, our man steps in to make things right. But when word gets out that his boss has gone missing and there's a traitor among his crew of gun monkeys, Charlie knows payback ain't gonna be easy. Shot up, boozed up, and beaten up, Charlie finds the toughest challenge he's ever had to face isn't snuffing out life, but preserving it.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Unusual protagonists, a bantering tone, and dark humor characterize this hard-boiled mystery by first novelist Gischler. Narrator Charlie "the Hook" Swift is primary enforcer/hit man for crime boss Stan, but a crew from Miami tries to "squeeze" them out of business. When Stan's targets at a strip club turn out to have been policemen, things begin to go haywire: the rivals move in, killing Stan's guys, and Charlie winds up with a sought-after set of crooked ledgers. Violent action and murder continue, with money laundering, an understanding mom, and the FBI thrown in for good measure. For collections of noir crime fiction.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher

2001 Edgar Award Nominee for "Best First Novel by an American Author"

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Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Uglytown Productions; 1st edition (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966347366
• ISBN-13: 978-0966347364
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,240,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gruesome great read, July 16, 2002

By 

A Vandermeer "van55" (Virginia Beach, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gun Monkeys (Paperback)

Charlie Swift is one of old Stan's gun monkeys. He is killer, protector, enforcer for Stan, the head of the Orlando crime syndicate. When Miami crime boss, Beggar Johnson, decides that Stan has grown too old to milk Orlando crime for all its worth, a territorial battle begins. When Stan disappears and the rest of the gun monkeys are killed off or turned to the dark[er] side, Swift has to go it alone to fend off Beggar's goons, renegade FBI agents and others. The body count mounts chapter by chapter, and as ruthless a killer as Swift is, the reader begins to root for him due to his loyalty to his boss, family and new girl friend, as well as his sheer skill as a "detective" and vengeful killer.

This is indeed a noir novel of the first ilk. It's a fast, exciting, easy read and holds the reader's interest until the inevitable showdown between Swift and Mercury (his counterpart as Beggar Johnson's head gun monkey).

If you are squeamish about descriptions of bloody violence or about raw language, stay away from this one. Otherwise, it's a really entertaining romp of a pulp novel.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tough as shoe leather with powder burns, September 17, 2003

By 

LGwriter "SharpWitGuy" (Astoria, N.Y. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gun Monkeys (Paperback)

This guy Vic Gischler knows how to write prose that makes you keep reading, even when his main character's a professional killer. Let's say instead, especially when he's a professional killer. Charlie Swift is loyal to his boss, Stan, his mother, and his younger brother Danny and, as well, to his taxidermist girlfriend Marcie who also happens to be the widow of a guy Charlie had to put on ice.

Seems like Charlie's boss goes missing. Seems like other guys in Charlie's crew are getting wasted, as in permanently. Seems like another guy, Beggar Johnson, wants to take over Stan's turf. Charlie manages to miss getting wiped out himself and goes after the guys who killed his compadre Bob. He's got friends--Lou the New Guy and Jimmy the Fix principally. And he's got his wits. Which are pretty sharp judging by the story here.

OK, here's some sacrilege. Gischler claims to have read a lot of John McDonald and been heavily influenced by him, but for my money, he writes better than McDonald who in my opinion a lot of the time is hard to get through--clunky prose that's dated now. But VG's writing is smooth as silk and tough as shoe leather with powder burns.

Nice job.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gun Monkey Speaking, January 21, 2003

By 

Doris Lane (Jersey Shore, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gun Monkeys (Paperback)

Gischler hasn't written detective fiction here, but criminal fiction. This is the kind of book neo-noir fans like, with its muscular prose, language of the day, and unadulterated violence. Charlie Swift is so tough he's not ashamed to take care of his mother or be loyal to his boss. So he lives out of a suitcase and works out of a tin box trailer called the Monkey Cage, Charlie's got a bulging safe deposit box and he owes it all to one man: Stan the Man.

The opening sentence: "I turned the Chrysler onto the Florida Turnpike with Rollo Kramer's headless body in the trunk, and all the time I'm thinking I should've put some plastic down."

Charlie Swift, gun monkey, speaking.