ANTHONY BRUNO SERIES:

Bad Apple

Bad Apple

Anthony Bruno

Mystery & Thrillers / Nonfiction / Literature & Fiction

FBI agents Cuthbert Gibbons and Mike Tozzi are on the case in Bad Apple, the sixth book in the Gibbons and Tozzi thriller series. When an undercover agent is murdered, the mob and the bureau race to nab the triggerman. The prime suspect takes Tozzi hostage and handcuffs him to the Mafia princess they both desire. The big boss captures Gibbons, intent on seeing justice served his way. A wild gut-wrenching ride that just doesn't let up."Bruno keeps us entertained with a razzle-dazzle style that tap-dances from horror to farce without tripping." Marilyn Stasio, New York Times"Anthony Bruno is a terrific writer who makes New York seethe with the tension that exists when the underbelly of organized crime is turned to the daylight." Ocala Star-Banner
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The Iceman

The Iceman

Anthony Bruno

Mystery & Thrillers / Nonfiction / Literature & Fiction

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Michael Shannon, Winona Ryder, with Ray Liotta and Chris Evans He was smart, merciless, and deadly. And it took someone just as tough to bring him down. A mob contract killer known as "The Iceman" for hiding a body in an ice-cream truck freezer, Richard Kuklinski boasted a personal body count of more than a hundred victims. Using guns, knives, poison, ice picks, tire irons, baseball bats, and bombs, the family man from New Jersey killed for fun, for money, to cover up his own crimes, and to satisfy his inner rage. Law enforcement officials knew all about Kuklinski and had a list of his victims, but couldn't get near him--until undercover agent Dominick Polifrone posed as a mobster and began a deadly game of cat and mouse. In this harrowing true-crime account, Anthony Bruno delves into the mind of a cold-blooded killer, chronicling the Iceman's grisly crimes and probing the bizarre dynamics of...
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Devil's Food

Devil's Food

Anthony Bruno

Mystery & Thrillers / Nonfiction / Literature & Fiction

In Devil's Food, the first book in the Loretta Kovacs thriller series, it's make-it-or-break-it time for zaftig Loretta when she's assigned to the ragtag Parole Violators Search Unit, a.k.a. the Jump Squad. All her buttons are pushed when she goes undercover as a desperate dieter at a Florida fat farm in order to nab an embezzler who's a perfect size 2.
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Bad Blood

Bad Blood

Anthony Bruno

Mystery & Thrillers / Nonfiction / Literature & Fiction

In Bad Blood, the second book in the Gibbons and Tozzi thriller series, FBI agents Mike Tozzi and Cuthbert Gibbons get into deep trouble when they investigate a deadly partnership between the Mafia and the Japanese yakuza. Gibbons takes a severe beating from a deranged assassin who believes he's the reincarnation of an ancient samurai, and Tozzi vows revenge. But the sword-wielding madman is itching to turn Tozzi into sushi. The Godfather meets The Seven Samurai spiced with wasabi-strength humor."Explosive…Inspired plotting that just keeps ratcheting up the tension and the comedy!" Kirkus Reviews"Everything a suspense novel should be—a highly credible, tautly paced stunner." Publishers Weekly
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The Temptations of St. Frank

The Temptations of St. Frank

Anthony Bruno

Mystery & Thrillers / Nonfiction / Literature & Fiction

In this hilarious and biting coming-of-age novel, seventeen-year-old Frank Grimaldi wants one thing more than anything else—to have sex before he graduates. Too bad his crazy teachers, insane parents, the Catholic Church, and the Mafia are all standing in the way.Imagine Catch-22's Captain Yossarian in high school. Imagine Prep written by a guy. Imagine the narrator of Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus as a Catholic. Imagine J.P. Donleavy's The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B. set in New Jersey in 1970. Imagine The Temptations of St. Frank.
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The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer

The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer

Anthony Bruno

Mystery & Thrillers / Nonfiction / Literature & Fiction

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Michael Shannon, Winona Ryder, with Ray Liotta and Chris Evans He was smart, merciless, and deadly. And it took someone just as tough to bring him down.A mob contract killer known as “The Iceman” for hiding a body in an ice-cream truck freezer, Richard Kuklinski boasted a personal body count of more than a hundred victims. Using guns, knives, poison, ice picks, tire irons, baseball bats, and bombs, the family man from New Jersey killed for fun, for money, to cover up his own crimes, and to satisfy his inner rage. Law enforcement officials knew all about Kuklinski and had a list of his victims, but couldn’t get near him—until undercover agent Dominick Polifrone posed as a mobster and began a deadly game of cat and mouse.In this harrowing true-crime account, Anthony Bruno delves into the mind of a cold-blooded killer, chronicling the Iceman’s grisly crimes and probing the bizarre dynamics of Agent Polifrone’s dangerous liaison with him. For as Polifrone carefully built up a case against Kuklinksi, he knew he was running out of time—because the Iceman was planning to kill him too.“Bruno puts his writing talents to white-knuckle use with a tight focus on a killer with no human feelings.”—*Kirkus Reviews “Excellent . . . [re-creates] the tension and stress Polifrone experienced in fulfilling his risky undercover assignment.”—*Publishers WeeklyFrom the Trade Paperback edition.From Publishers WeeklyRichard Kuklinsky, son of a brutal, alcoholic father who came home only infrequently and a mother who vented her resentment on her children, grew up to be an efficient mass murderer. By the time of his trial in 1988 at age 53 he had killed upwards of 100 men by shooting, stabbing, choking or poisoning them. Kuklinsky, a New Jersey family man with two daughters and a son, was finally brought to justice through the efforts of Special Agent Dominick Polifrone of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, working with the New Jersey Attorney General's Office and the New Jersey State Police. The "Ice Man" will not be eligible for parole until he is 111 years old. Bruno ( Bad Blood ) has done an excellent job of re-creating the tension and stress Polifrone experienced in fulfilling his risky undercover assignment. Photos not seen by PW. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsSmoothly written bio of a lone-wolf executioner for the mob. In his first nonfiction book, mystery author Bruno (Bad Moon, 1992, etc.) puts his writing talents to white-knuckle use with a tight focus on a killer with no human feelings except toward his wife and three sons. Kuklinski--who'd used derringers, shotguns, baseball bats, tire irons, knives, ice picks, and his bare hands to kill--had been dubbed The Ice Man'' by the New Jersey Police after it was discovered that the body of one of his victims had been stashed for two years in an ice-cream truck owned by a friend of the killer's known asMr. Softee.'' A genius at assassination when he wasn't serving kids popsicles, Mr. Softee had schooled the Ice Man in the use of cyanide, a car- bomb invention called the ``seat of death,'' and other exotic methods of murder. Cyanide proved to be Kuklinski's first love: It was quiet and discreet--you could walk by your victim, spray his face with the poison while pretending to sneeze, and he'd be dying even as he crumpled to the sidewalk. Bruno details how Dominick Polifrone, a cop who grew up with the wiseguys in Hackensack, goes undercover and gets in with the cagey Kuklinski. The hit man wants cyanide and a rich Jewish kid to sell coke to, and Polifrone wants to record Kuklinski proposing murders. As cop and killer play cat and mouse, and the bartering goes bad, the danger of Polifrone being shot at any moment is torqued tighter and tighter by Bruno. Finally, Kuklinski is caught and tried: It's determined that he's committed approximately one hundred murders, including that of Roy DeMeo, a killer so dangerous that he intimidated even John Gotti. A fast-paced, suspenseful re-creation of how a vicious killer was run to ground. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Bad Luck

Bad Luck

Anthony Bruno

Mystery & Thrillers / Nonfiction / Literature & Fiction

Bad Luck, the third book in the Gibbons and Tozzi thriller series, takes FBI agents Mike Tozzi and Cuthbert Gibbons to Atlantic City to investigate shady dealings between the mob and a celebrity real-estate mogul. Add an oversexed trophy wife, a Mafia boss who pretends to be a mental patient, his sister the nun, a championship prizefight, and Gibbons' reluctant wedding preparations, and Bad Luck serves up a hilarious killer cocktail.
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Bad Guys

Bad Guys

Anthony Bruno

Mystery & Thrillers / Nonfiction / Literature & Fiction

Bad Guys, the first book in the Gibbons and Tozzi thriller series, introduces FBI agents Mike Tozzi and Cuthbert Gibbons, odd-couple partners and dedicated mob-busters. Hot-headed Tozzi goes renegade, and Gibbons is pulled out of retirement to stop him. Together they uncover a secret crime family headed by Richie Varga, a convicted mobster pulling the strings from the safety of the witness protection program. When Tozzi gets involved with Varga's sexy ex, the fur really starts to fly."Grisly…tense…good stuff!" Washington Post"This series dazzles with fast, intricate plotting, terrific characters and humor…" Publishers Weekly
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Bleeders

Bleeders

Anthony Bruno

Mystery & Thrillers / Nonfiction / Literature & Fiction

The acclaimed author of Seven, The Iceman, and the Gibbons and Tozzi series pens a chilling standalone thriller In the tradition of classics like The Silence of the Lambs.FBI profiler Trisha McCleery has been on a twenty-year personal search for the person who brutally murdered her mother. At the same time serial killer Gene Lassiter has been on an obsessive twenty-year search for the daughter of his first kill. If she finds him, justice can at last be served. If he finds her, one man's reign of terror can continue unabated.  In a stunning life-or-death final act, the hunter and the hunted go head-to-head, with a shocking ending that bleeds justice dry.
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Bad Business

Bad Business

Anthony Bruno

Mystery & Thrillers / Nonfiction / Literature & Fiction

In Bad Business, the fourth book in the Gibbons and Tozzi thriller series, FBI Special Agents Cuthbert Gibbons and Mike Tozzi get into hot water when the turncoat mobster they were assigned to protect is found murdered and Tozzi is the prime suspect. A dirty Assistant United States Attorney has been ordered to throw a major drug case to pay off a debt to a Sicilian gangster, but Gibbons and Tozzi are determined to bring order to the court. Enough lethally wacky characters to fill a courtroom."The best fictional cop duo around. Bruno's novels have been total pleasure." People"A cross, double-cross, cross-again thriller…intricately plotted and written with hard-edged violence." Houston Chronicle
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