Wild Thing
By Josh Bazell
Read by Robert Petkoff & Featuring Stephanie Wolfe Hachette Audio, (2012)
An Unabridged Recording on 7 CDs
ISBN: 978-1-61113-983-9
Genre: Thriller
Reviewed by Angela Evans - April 23, 2012
It has been several years since Dr. Pietro Brnwa made his first appearance in Josh Bazell's Beat the Reaper. A former mob hitman turned physician, Dr. Brnwa makes his reappearence in Wild Thing. It has been a long wait to see what happened to Dr. Brnwa, but it was worth the wait!
In Wild Thing, Brnwa is on the run from the mob, who are not keen on anyone who quits their employment. Brnwa's only chance to stay alive is to keep ahead of those after him just long enough to figure out some way to do something to the mob, or to get something on the mob, that is big enough so that they will leave him alone forever. While he figures out what he is going to do, Brnwa takes a job as a body guard/minder for Dr. Violet Hurst. A palaeontologist who works for an eccentric private client hunting down urban legends. Hurst is sexy with a decidedly self-destructive streak.
As with Beat the Reaper, Wild Thing is a story filled with wry humor, lots of excitement, and a fairly large dose of violence and profanity. Yet Wild Thing is a totally different novel, one in which Bazell takes the reader to new heights of horror and, some could say lows, by dabbling in a little political satire that is not to be missed. Oh, and of course, there is even a lake monster in this novel, sort of a Minnesotan loch nest monster!
Wild Thing moves along at a break neck speed, and it is a lively and wild book that will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. In addition, as with Beat the Reaper, Wild Thing is read by Robert Petkoff, who ably captures the pace and nuances of Bazell's eccentric, profane, and at time a violent tale. However unlike Beat the Reaper, he shares this task with Stephanie Wolfe who does an outstanding job reading Hurst's parts in the story.
Related Reviews:
Beat the Reaper, by Josh Bazell
When ex-mob hitman, turned doctor is interning at a Manhattan hospital, all seems well, at least until a former mob associate turns up as a patient. To protect his new identity in the Witness Protection Program, this unlikely hero will have to make some hard decisions and take some drastic action...
Last Man Standing, by David Baldacci.
Part police procedural, part psychological melodrama, Last Man Standing is a fast paced thriller that follows one man's attempt to rid himself of his emotional demons while at the same time tracking down those responsible for the cold-blooded murder of six of his fellow Hostage Rescue Team members.
