Whiplash River: A Novel

With lots of dangerous people after him and his restaurant in flames, Charles "Shake" Bouchon, who thought he had left his life of crime behind for good, agrees to follow a mysterious man to Mexico and help pull off a big score.
With freelance assassins, the FBI and a couple of thugs fast on his tail, and his restaurant in flames, Charles “Shake” Bouchon, who thought he had left his life of crime behind for good, agrees to follow a mysterious man to Mexico where he must pull off a big score. Original. 25,000 first printing.
“Like Carl Hiaasen, Berney delights in the cartoonish. Like Elmore Leonard, he can drive a plot. What sets him apart is how well he evokes love, making the romance…as compelling as the mystery.”—Boston GlobeLou Berney immediately earned a seat of honor at the mystery masters’ table with his crackling caper novel,Gutshot Straight—a lightning-fast, fiendishly clever suspenser that screamed for a sequel. And here it is. Former professional wheel man Charles “Shake” Bouchon is back, living in the Caribbean paradise of Belize with his lawless past far behind him—until a gunshot tears through his beachside restaurant and he’s on the run again. A twisting tale filled with lawmen, con men, and  hit men; a beautiful but deadly FBI agent; and a murderous thug named Baby Jesus,Whiplash River recalls the best of the off-the-wall crime fiction impresarios—Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, James W. Hall, Robert Ferrigno, Tim Dorsey—while establishing its own unique orbit in the noir universe.