A special forces agent-turned-strip club bouncer with a side hustle as a hitman for the New York mob seeks out a deadly drug lord in the poppy fields of Afghanistan.

A special forces agent-turned-strip club bouncer with a side hustle as a hitman for the New York mob seeks out a deadly drug lord in the poppy fields of Afghanistan.

Joe Brody is just your average retired Special Ops, Dostoevsky-reading, Harvard-expelled, PTSD-suffering strip club bouncer living with his grandma in Queens. It would be a simple life, but for his childhood friend the Mafia boss, his other job as fixer for the most powerful crime families in town, and his cloying drug habit.

In his newest assignment, Joe is sent to take out a shadowy figure named Zahir. Zahir has found his way onto Joe's hitlist by hijacking heroin shipments bound for U.S. dealers and funneling the money to terror cells. So Joe finds himself back in the one place in the world he doesn't want to revisit: the poppy fields of Afghanistan – a country that left permanent scars on his body as well as his psyche. If he were alone, his past demons might be too much to bear – but luckily, his occasional partner Yelena, a master thief whose skills have found her wanted from Brighton Beach to Moscow, is by his side.

Soon the Five Boroughs are on the verge of an all-out drug war, pitting Joe and the crime world's most infamous talents against a ruthless clan of professional killers. Joe's only chance to calm the violence is to intercept the newest shipment of Zahir's product – if his skills as a master thief prove up to the task.

Acclaimed author David Gordon paints a devious tapestry of connections between the warlords of Afghanistan and the crime syndicates of the Five Boroughs in this globetrotting thriller with a tough-but-tender protagonist. Fans of capers that balance intense action and suspense with raucous entertainment in the style of Elmore Leonard or Donald E. Westlake are sure to find a friend in Joe the Bouncer.