Stickup kid (n.): an urban gunslinger who preys on other criminals, often stealing already stolen property, using violence and intimidation.
Izzy picks a bad time to have a conscience crisis. As a stick up kid in New York's underworld, he has a good thing goingβrobbing the worst drug lords in the city and leaving no witnesses behind. It is a game of high risk and high reward. There is just one problem: Izzy is in his thirties now, and for good reason, there is no such thing as a stickup man.
When a job gets botched, leaving Izzy's psychotic partner guilty of yet another homicide, Izzy knows what he is supposed to doβkill the remaining witness or be killed himself. But a bystander named Eva seems different from others he has done before. Is she the exception to Izzy's number one rule?
Izzy has never jacked himself into a problem he could not jack himself out of. But that was before. Now, on the unforgiving streets of New York Cityβwhere the skyline stretches out like a graveyardβthere is a war on and there is no room for mistakes. His ex-partner is hellbent on revenge and is no longer acting alone. And as bodies start to fall around Izzy, he is left to take on both his enemies and his inner demons face first in a battle that has no questions, no conversation. Just bang bang.
In this explosive debut, Theo Gangi redefines the crime thriller, delivering a pulse-pounding, white-knuckle ride through gritty back rooms, where justice is sealed with gunfire, no one can be trusted, and being innocent can get you killed.
"Theo Gangi is a superb craftsman. His work displays diverse characters and wonderful dialogue that would make Elmore Leonard stand up and applaud. He is new talent that has finally arrived." βEric Jerome Dickey, New York Times bestseller author
"Theo Gangi portrays the people of the criminal world not only in a way that brings them to vivid life, but life felt at the extreme, out where suffering, pity, even tenderness and love have their own stark reality." βDavid Plante, author of Age of Terror
"Theo Gangi's first novel Bang Bang is a classic extreme thriller, with some surprising literary subtleties, and a level of Escherian interlocking that would make Tarantino's head spin." βMadison Smartt Bell, of All Soul's Rising, a National Book Award finalist
"Gritty and gripping, full of tense moments and sharp prose, Bang Bang is a debut worthy of attention. With the ear of a poet, the insight of a psychologist, and the attitude of a true New Yorker, Theo Gangi brings empathy and pathos to every gangsterfied page." βAdam Mansbach, author of Angry Black White Boy
Theo Gangi attended Goucher College, and is a recent graduate of Columbia's MFA writing program. His writing has appeared in The Greensboro Review and The Columbia Spectator. A New York native, he now lives in Harlem.