cover image Buffalo Job: A Wilson Mystery

Buffalo Job: A Wilson Mystery

Mike Knowles. ECW Press (Legato Publishers Group, U.S. dist.; Jaguar Book Group, Canadian dist.), $12.95 trade paper (312p) ISBN 978-1-77041-171-5

Mob-enforcer turned freelance fixer Wilson returns for his fifth brutal adventure. Bored as a mere planner, Wilson agrees to steal a painting from the Art Gallery of Ontario. Success is its own punishment; Wilson's ability to plan and carry out the theft on little notice convinces Albanian crime lord Pyrros Vogli that Wilson is the man to assign the task of stealing a 288-year old Stradivarius violin during a very narrow window of opportunity and nobody says no to Pyrros. Wilson and his team%E2%80%94conman Miles, driver Carl and Pyrros' nephew Ilir%E2%80%94head across the border where they discover that not only is there a second gang working to steal the violin, there are angles to the job of which even Pyrros has no inkling. Four men go to Buffalo; not all of them will be coming home. In a world where cunning and planning can run aground on the shoals of avarice and betrayal, Wilson is a survivor because he has shed any delusions of decency that might make him hesitate at a crucial moment. Merciless but honest about being monstrous, Wilson is worthy to stand next to Loren Estleman's Peter Macklin and Donald Westlake's Parker. (June)