GUNS WILL KEEP US TOGETHER

Author: Leslie Langtry ISBN: 0843960361 2/2008 CONTEMP/SUSPENSE Publisher: MAKING IT (DORCHESTER)

Dakota Bombay prided himself on his blond Bond image—bad-guy killer by day, lady-killer by night. Then his life gets both shaken and stirred by an irate grandmother demanding a marketing plan for the family assassination business, a precocious six-year-old son Dak never knew he had, and a mysterious redhead who’s erased his decades-old preference for blondes. Suddenly the perennial playboy is knee deep in pie charts and thinking he may have found the perfect mom for his boy. She’s smart, funny, and directs a funeral home no less—what could be better? Now if he can just take out a team of rival assassins without getting killed himself, they can all live trigger-happily ever after.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Don't let the title put you into a heightened sense of anxiety. Leslie Langtry's latest, GUNS WILL KEEP US TOGETHER, isn't as dark and foreboding as the title suggests. Rather, this novel is uproariously funny and will have you chuckling until the last page is turned.

Dakota Bombay is a smooth talking, good looking playboy who doesn't take life all that seriously. Oh, and he's also an assassin to boot! The Bombay family has been in the business of killing since 2000 BCE. Mostly hired out by government agencies and the like, they only kill terrorists and the really, really bad scum of the earth. With the added perks of only having to work a few times per year, having no evaluation process and being independently wealthy, Dak's life is smooth sailing. That is, until his mother, Carolina, calls him during a job to fix him up.once again. When that date goes bad and he has trouble performing, it adds a kink into his otherwise perfect life. But things are only about to get better (really worse) from there. Dak is soon faced with having to take in and care for a young son, Louis, who he didn't even know existed. Then, the family asks him and his cousin Paris to come up with ideas for marketing the family business—as if that is easy— that has seen a drop in the number of jobs. And then he meets the woman of his dreams, a mortician named Leonie Doubtfire (I kid you not), who is the opposite of his usual blond conquests but lights his fire anyway. Before long, Dak has more problems than he knows what to do with, and solving them doesn't prove to be as easy as offing someone does.

GUNS WILL KEEP US TOGETHER proves to be a definite keeper novel as it one of the funniest romances I have read in a long, long time. The whole Bombay family is a riot as they are deadly killers, and deadly serious about it, too, but handle it with such a casualness that you might mistake them for your everyday, next door neighbor who works 9 to 5. Louis is exceptionally bright and proves to be more a delight than detriment to Dakota as he learns to bond with his new son. And meeting Leonie Doubtfire (yes, I think of Mrs. Doubtfire every time I read her name!) serves to throw Dak's love life off kilter, as he has never cared for a woman the way he begins to care for her. In short, this coming-of-age tale for a thirty-odd something year-old male is made all the more enjoyable because of the wit and sarcasm with which Langtry writes the novel. Not only is it a keeper, but I will definitely be on the lookout for the first novel in this series, 'SCUSE ME WHILE I KILL THIS GUY, which features Dakota's sister, Gin.

So, do not hesitate to pick up your own copy of Leslie Langtry's latest novel, GUNS WILL KEEP US TOGETHER, as it will provide hours of side-splitting laughter intermixed with a family-oriented romance.

Maame Kanbi