Is there life outside the Mob without going into a witness protection program? Smoked makes the case for criminals being able to reform at least to the extent of foregoing crime (except to escape Mob killers) in favor of retirement with beautiful young women. As you can see the book's theme is really about fantasy: confronting and overcoming almost demonic killers, being able to retire young, enjoying an uncomplicated love life, and having freedom to live as you like. Those in favor of some escapist fiction will feel rewarded by Smoked.
What makes the book rise above the average is its focus on the foolishness and foibles of bad guys, a quality that will remind you of Elmore Leonard's stories about stupid crooks in Detroit. The main twist here is that the criminals are either stone killers or physically developed people who love using their size and strength against others.
On the anti-hero side, you have a few surprises too. James "Smoke" Duggan (born Wally O'Malley) is sixtyish and a cripple who needs a cane. He uses his brains and bomb-making abilities to offset his physical limitations. Smoke's twenty-five-year-old girl friend, Lola Bell, makes up for his lack of physical toughness with her martial arts which are honed to prevent a repetition of being raped as a teenager. Both are secretive . . . which accounts for why Smoke doesn't know that she almost suffered a recurrence during a "modeling" audition . . . and why Lola doesn't know that Smoke used to work for the Mob and helped kill dozens on a plane.
Into their path come the stone-cold killer, Denny Cruz, and two nasty assistants, Moss and Fingers, after Smoke is spotted and photographed on a Portland, Maine street. The Mob hunters find that life isn't quite what they expected as they trail the $2.5 million they are ordered to retrieve from Smoke.
What follows is filled with action and irony as the mobsters and rapists find that their tasks are vastly more difficult than expected.
You'll have to suspend belief quite a lot towards the end of the book. That's the book's weakness.
But if you enjoy seeing the hare run the foxes to ground, you'll enjoy Smoked.
