Suicide Squeeze

Suicide Squeeze by Victor Gischler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


In 1954, Teddy Folger had a Joe DiMaggio baseball card autographed by Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn Monroe, and Billy Wilder. It was supposedly destroyed in a fire but it seems that it survived. Loser Conner Samson is hired to repossess Folger's boat and gets caught in a web of deceit and murder. Will Conner survive long enough to collect his fee?

First off, this wasn't the type of book I was expecting. My first exposure to Victor Gishler, or The Gisch as I am now referring to him, was The Deputy. This book has little in common with The Deputy. It feels more like a comedic Donald Westlake caper or something by Carl Hiassen.

The story is pretty good. A Japanese businessman gets wind that Folger's card may not have perished in flames and sends his people to America to find it. Complicating matters are Conner Samson trying to repo Teddy's boat, Teddy's ex-wife, former NSA agent, and gamblers Teddy owes money to. Throw in Conner's nympho pseudo-girlfriend named Tyranny and there you go.

Twists and turns abound. Every time I thought I knew who would end up with the card, they'd wind up dead. For a story with a lot of laughs, there was also a lot of bloodshed, especially in the last fifty or sixty pages.

There's not a lot else to say. It's a funny story with plenty of action but not what I was expecting from The Gisch. If you've never read Victor Gischler before, I'd go with The Deputy before this one. Still, Suicide Squeeze will probably go over well with fans of Westlake or Hiassen.



View all my reviews