A Special Forces agent turned strip club bouncer with a side hustle as a fixer for the New York mob seeks the source of a new brand of heroin flooding the city streets.

Joe is an ex-Special Forces operative with a bad case of PTSD and some substance abuse issues, trying to rebuild a simple life as a strip club bouncer living with his grandmother in Queens. But this simple life is constantly complicated by the fact that, at the invitation of a childhood friend, now a Mafia boss, Joe also moonlights as a fixer for the most powerful crime families in town.

In his newest assignment, Joe is sent to take out a shadowy figure named Zahir, the faceless name behind White Angel, a powerful new brand of heroin invading the mob's territories and threatening their sales. Then Joe discovers a link between Zahir and a shady group of private military contractors, and the stakes of his mission become increasingly deadly.

Soon the Five Boroughs are on the verge of an all-out drug war, pitting Joe and the crime world's most infamous talents against a ruthless clan of professional killers. Joe's only chance to calm the violence is to intercept the newest shipment of Zahir's product—if his skills as a master thief prove up to the task.

A comic caper with heists, car chases, and shoot-outs aplenty, Against the Law is Joe the Bouncer's most exciting outing to date, as humorous as it is thrilling. Gordon's memorable characters, tight plotting, and breathless action sequences make this a standout in the pantheon of the New York crime novel, certain to appeal to fans of authors such as Donald E. Westlake and Elmore Leonard.

About The Author

David Gordon

David Gordon was born in New York City. His first novel, The Serialist, won the VCU/Cabell First Novel Award and was a finalist for an Edgar Award. It was also made into a major motion picture in Japan. His work has also appeared in The Paris Review, The New York Times, Purple, and Fence, among other publications.

Product Details

Publisher: The Mysterious Press (May 25, 2021)
Length: 336 pages
ISBN13: 9781613162262

Browse Related Books

Raves and Reviews

"This one has everything, from a car chase that makes what Steve McQueen does with that Mustang in Bullitt seem like a Sunday drive, to a showdown in a Russian bathhouse that is part Marx Brothers and part Kill Bill. For anyone with a taste for blood-spattered comic capers featuring characters who vault off the page, Against the Law is an exquisite fever dream in Technicolor."

– Booklist STARRED REVIEW

"Gordon is fashioning himself an impressive crime world niche somewhere between Donald Westlake and Elmore Leonard, with his raucous, rollicking stories of New York City crime . . . Come for the intricate, surprising crime scenarios; stay for the banter."

– CrimeReads

"Everyone involved is heavily armed, ruthless, and possessed of an irresistibly off-kilter sense of humor."

– Kirkus Reviews

"Gordon's sentences are crisp and often jarring. His plots unspool in strange, sometimes disturbing ways . . . enjoy the disorientation and to trust that you're in the hands of an earnest storyteller."

– Paris Review, on White Tiger on Snow Mountain

"Gordon has a knack for twisty story lines, nonstop action, and over-the-top sequences."

– Publishers Weekly

"Funny, with a satirical edge, and unlike some literary authors who play with genre, Gordon knows how to write a potboiler . . . An impressive debut."

– Los Angeles Times, on The Serialist

"Audacious"

– Publishers Weekly

"A brilliantly goofy caper novel in the grand tradition of Donald E. Westlake."

– The New York Times Book Review on The Bouncer

"David Gordon's The Bouncer is a treat?a hard-edged thriller that makes you feel good while you're reading it. Give it to someone. They'll thank you."

– Thomas Perry, New York Times bestselling author of The Bomb Maker

"Fast, funny and tough, David Gordon's The Bouncer will toss you over his shoulder like King Kong and carry you away."

– Max Allan Collins, author of Road to Perdition