Book Review – Shotgun Opera

Author: Victor Gischler
Publisher: Bantam
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: April 2006

With a name like Shotgun Opera how can it not be entertaining. Action, guns, revenge and humor Shot Gun Opera has it all.

So, putting aside all of the obvious allusions to Emerson LaSalle, especially during his so called “Rubicon” period, specifically his massive epic social allegory from the early 1970′s Drag Racing Drag Queens from Downtown Detroit, I think that Victor Gischlers Shotgun Opera is most comparable to the great 70′s & 80′s action film director Walter Hill. Yes, Walter Hill was a great director who made great movies and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise.

We have Mike Foley, who back in the day was a successful trigger man with his brother. Then something happens and he pulls himself out of the life and retreats to Oklahoma to run a vineyard. Now we all know that he can’t stay hidden forever. Something’s gonna make this Froggy jump; we all know it’s just a matter of when. The catalyst for Mike’s reemergence is his nephew that he’s never met, Andrew. His now dead father, Mike’s brother, told Andrew “if your ever in trouble, real trouble, call this number” and hands him and old photograph of the two brothers with the number on the back. Seems old Andrew was witness to something he shouldn’t have seen. So, after getting a tip that someone is gunning for him he calls his long lost uncle and heads to

D
R
U
M

R
O
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Oklahoma.

So then the world’s greatest assassin is hired to kill Andrew and his friends. But first, she heads home to New Orleans to recuperate from her last job, visit with her senile ex-assassin mother and grapple with the memories of her dead assassin father. She eventually calls in her older sister, a retired assassin that has settled into a normal life and her younger sister, current resident of a mental hospital and also an assassin, to assist her in hunting down Andrew. Throw in a freelance hitter, whose day job is a circus geek and his wife the world’s largest woman, who was assigned to take out the world’s greatest assassin. Add a dollop of sibling rivalry. A pinch of assorted other side players and add one functioning Tommy gun and you’ve got the makings of a great action story. The story is actually presented with so many wild cards that you don’t know where its going to end up only that there’s gonna be a large body count. With a name like Shotgun Opera how can it not be entertaining. Action, guns, revenge and humor Shot Gun Opera has it all.

I’ll leave you with a scene from the book:

Mike Foley after spending hours driving in a car is having horrific pains due to his age. He is able to massage Ben-Gay into all of his muscles except his lower back. So he calls an escort service and orders a hooker. She comes to his motel and undresses, Mike looks at her like she’s crazy and pays her to massage the Ben-Gay into his lower back. Problem Solved.

And a quote:

“All I want, Dr. Bryant, is to eat Lay’s Jalapeno Kettle chips and to kill you.”

Forget big budget CGI movies like The Poseidon Adventure, I want this made into a movie.

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