Deadly Pleasures to Read and Watch

If you feel you are trapped in a nightmare, may I suggest a little literary escapism? Something with a finely honed sense of the absurd, a far-flung setting, flashes of mayhem, and characters drawn with a rainbow of Sharpies? Then you might want to try Lou Berney’s Double Barrel Bluff, the third book in his Shake Bouchon series. Berney is a descendant of Elmore Leonard, but his sensibility and deadpan style are all his own.

Berney’s hero, Charles “Shake” Bouchon, is a former driver for the Armenian Mob in Southern California who’s gone straight after doing prison time. He’s happily settled down with his new wife in Bloomington, Indiana, where he’s put his automotive skills to good use teaching college kids how to drive.