Tom Davin's business is a bit unusual—he finds stolen art and sells it back to its owners for a good penny—until he uncovers a devious plot and finds himself on the run from a vicious Russian assassin
Tom Davin is a Brooklyn insurance investigator in a jam. He arranged an art theft to cover a debt—only somebody swiped the paintings from his crew. Now the insurance company wants him to investigate his own art theft; the local bookie wants his money; his crew in the neighborhood is targeted by a sniper; both the mob and the cops think he's the shooter; and his girlfriend split and stuck him with four cats that are redecorating his apartment. Six-foot-six Tommy nimbly navigates his troubles and Brooklyn with the help of tantric yoga, his father's aphorisms, and a comely masseuse. But the question remains: do good things happen to good people? The answer lurks in a fiery Brooklyn scrap yard.
Tommy Davin recovers stolen art for insurance companies, but his ill-advised love for a Las Vegas chorus girl has left him owing a dangerous Brooklyn loan shark more money than he can repay. So he commissions an art theft that goes wrong, and the insurer hires him to recover the missing paintings. Soon, the people he approaches in his investigation are being killed by a sniper, and Tommy may be next—if the loan shark doesn’t get him first. Like Wiprud’s excellent Feelers (2009), the setting is Brooklyn. Countless writers have used the borough as a locale, but few invest it with the kind of flaky denizens Wiprud creates. Tommy is a giant who worries about his karma, uses tantric yoga exercises to manage stress, and fancies Latin bands led by Xavier Cugat and Perez Prado. His barber is an ancient Italian who reminisces about slitting customers’ throats for the Black Hand. His masseuse, Delilah, dispenses common-sense psychotherapy and preaches the “power of possibility.” His assailant is a lovelorn Russian assassin. Buy Back is a strange, entertaining, comic brew. --Thomas Gaughan
Description:
Tom Davin's business is a bit unusual—he finds stolen art and sells it back to its owners for a good penny—until he uncovers a devious plot and finds himself on the run from a vicious Russian assassin
Tom Davin is a Brooklyn insurance investigator in a jam. He arranged an art theft to cover a debt—only somebody swiped the paintings from his crew. Now the insurance company wants him to investigate his own art theft; the local bookie wants his money; his crew in the neighborhood is targeted by a sniper; both the mob and the cops think he's the shooter; and his girlfriend split and stuck him with four cats that are redecorating his apartment. Six-foot-six Tommy nimbly navigates his troubles and Brooklyn with the help of tantric yoga, his father's aphorisms, and a comely masseuse. But the question remains: do good things happen to good people? The answer lurks in a fiery Brooklyn scrap yard.
**
From Publishers Weekly
Set in the New York City art world, this well-paced caper novel from Wiprud (Feelers) will likely appeal to Elmore Leonard fans. Brooklynite Tom Davin works in the morally ambiguous field of what he terms corporate recovery, returning stolen paintings, documents, and collectibles to their owners via their insurance companies for a finder's fee without getting the law involved. Tom locates those who took the valuables, then negotiates a price with the insurers. When Tom crosses the line into criminality by arranging for the theft of three paintings from Brooklyn's Whitbread Museum in order to sell them back to the insurance company, the scheme goes awry—his thieves lose the paintings to some other crooks. As Tom tries to figure out who ripped off his crew, he narrowly avoids getting killed several times. The baffling abduction of four cats that Tom's ex-girlfriend abandoned raises the stakes. Readers will want to see more of the captivating Tom Davin. (June)
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From Booklist
Tommy Davin recovers stolen art for insurance companies, but his ill-advised love for a Las Vegas chorus girl has left him owing a dangerous Brooklyn loan shark more money than he can repay. So he commissions an art theft that goes wrong, and the insurer hires him to recover the missing paintings. Soon, the people he approaches in his investigation are being killed by a sniper, and Tommy may be next—if the loan shark doesn’t get him first. Like Wiprud’s excellent Feelers (2009), the setting is Brooklyn. Countless writers have used the borough as a locale, but few invest it with the kind of flaky denizens Wiprud creates. Tommy is a giant who worries about his karma, uses tantric yoga exercises to manage stress, and fancies Latin bands led by Xavier Cugat and Perez Prado. His barber is an ancient Italian who reminisces about slitting customers’ throats for the Black Hand. His masseuse, Delilah, dispenses common-sense psychotherapy and preaches the “power of possibility.” His assailant is a lovelorn Russian assassin. Buy Back is a strange, entertaining, comic brew. --Thomas Gaughan