Gone Bamboo by Anthony Bourdain (2000, Paperback)

Anthony Bourdain's second novel "Gone Bamboo " serves up a fast food narrative in which the main character- a good-hearted hit man and former Vietnam war hero- finds himself caught between the New York City mob and the United States government. With two all-beef patties and special sauce Bourdain establishes himself as an executive chef of the wise-ass crime comedy.

Henry Denard is recruited by Jimmy "Pazz" Calabrese- an ambitious cross-dressing, Lane-Bryant-loving, blond-wig-wearing mafioso- to eliminate his two immediate superiors. While Henry successfully kills one of his marks, he only manages to wound the other. After returning to his adopted home of Saint Martin, he learns that his wounded target has become his next-door neighbor and turned informant. The elderly outlaw, for whom Henry has worked in the past, accepts life in organized crime for what it is and lets bygones be bygones. After a disasterous raid on the former don's compound in which the mob tries to eliminate him, Henry agrees to assist the American authorities, who have been cheated out of a trial, by assassinating the kinky Calabrese and his top lieutenants with a light anti-tank weapon on a New Jersey construction site.

Anyone who has read Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" or "A Cook's Tour" knows that he can write well. His prose comes to the table like a fine multi-course meal. "Gone Bamboo" serves up a delectable concoction sure to appeal. Just know this: You'll be having dirty-water hotdogs, not filet mignon.

His characters are like those we've known in life - and love/hate relationships with. Bourdaine seems to enjoy living on the edge of trouble but seems also to be able to laugh at the situations he comes up with.