I Love My Smith & Wesson
David Bowker
St. Martin's, August 2004, $12.95, 240 pp.
ISBN 0312328257

The night before horror author Billy Dye's wedding to Nikki, the mother of his child, hired killer Rawhide comes back into his life. Billy thinks Rawhide is going to kill him but even though Rawhide knows his childhood friend tried to murder him, he has other plans for Billy just as he has for The Priesthood, a mob that controls all the illegal activities that goes on in Manchester. He once killed the head of the organization,
Malcolm Priest and his lieutenants, an action that weakened the gang considerably.

The new leader Chef has made the organization stronger than ever. Little Malc, Priest's son, believes that Rawhide killed his father Malcolm Priest and has offered a reward for his capture or his death. Little Malc hires Rawhide, who he has never seen, as a bouncer for his club and the killer arranges it so that he saves Little Malc from an assassination attempt. This wins him Little Malc's trust and puts him in a position to pit him against Chef. Meanwhile, Rawhides plans for Billy don't go as planned because the author accidentally kills his wife and a sympathetic nerve in the killer's heart is touched. While helping Billy he meets his female counterpart and the two killers form a partnership based on love and murder.

David Bowker has written a unique crime thriller that will strike a chord with the audience. I Love My Smith & Wesson is a satire on mobs and crime lords and is not to be taken seriously. The situations that Rawhide manipulates verge on the slapstick but Mr. Bowker stops short of having them cross that line. He has a fresh unique voice that readers will appreciate for his dry wit and cutting edge humor.

Harriet Klausner