Lemuel Gunn, former police officer and former CIA operative, is living in an old house trailer in Hatch, NM, working as a private investigator. He is hired by the beautiful Ornella Neppi, a bail bondsman, to help her track down Emilio Gava who seems to be skipping bail leaving Ornella $125,000 poorer. Taking the job, and taking Ornella as well, Gunn is unable to find any concrete evidence that Gava even exists. He was reportedly arrested in a drug deal but there is no record of the arrest or mug shots. Someone is working very hard to keep Gava out of sight and out of the papers. Gava's trail leads Gunn and Ornella to Nevada where a feud between rival mobs, who own casinos on opposite sides of the same highway, threatens to explode in violence. A desert showdown may be the end of Gunn and Ornella.

Lemuel Gunn is a man who does not belong in present-day America. He seems like a throwback to the 50's (think Raymond Chandler characters) and that is fairly enjoyable, up to a point. He talks like an old black and white movie starring Humphrey Bogart and has no clue about cell phones, computers or what the heck a 'Google locomotive' does. The mystery was pretty good, some of the scenarios are quite graphic, but the ending was so full of convenient circumstances it was a bit hard to swallow. Not bad ---- but not great. ( )

Robert Littell, the great US spy novelist, channels Marlowe and Crumley and possibly a few others for this exercise in wry PI desert noir. Our tarnished hero who drives down these mean highways and traverses these mean dunes and mean motels and mean casinos and mean romance, is Lemuel Gunn, ex homicide detective, ex-CIA adoptive father to an Afghan orphan and struggling with rage issues. Hired to track down a bail jumper whose photographs and files mysteriously vanish and who seems to have given the tipp-off that lead to his own arrest, Gunn sets out with admirable tenacity and ingenuity to find his man, uncovering a mess of rival mobsters and FBI witness protection gone wrong. While he's at it, he's falling for his vulnerable and slightly dippy client.

It's witty, laconic, twisty and sad, everything you need from a wry PI desert noir. Littel's a fairly high-powered thriller writer, and he keeps this tight and small and tense, and doesn't appear to break a sweat doing it. ( )

A good book to start the new year. Robert Littell is a writer of excellent espionage novels and has turned to crime with A Nasty Piece of Work. He takes on the private detective novel and manages to make it fresh.

Lemuel Gunn has been a homicide detective in New Jersey – which lends him a certain credibility by itself: not New York, but not Kansas either - and a CIA agent in Afghanistan. Now he’s a low budget private detective based in a trailer – an historic one though: it was used by Douglas Fairbanks Jr. - in the New Mexico desert. Ornella Neppi, who helps her uncle in his bail bond business, hires Gunn to help her track down Emilio Gava, who she thinks is about to skip, leaving her uncle in the lurch for his $125,000 bond.

To tell more would give too much away. I’ll say that not much is at it seems and this is a sophisticated and intelligent crime novel. The characters are extremely well drawn and Littell can pack the intrigue and plot twists into a story – and still keep it coherent – like few writers. ( )

Nominated for L'Express Magazine's Readers' Grand Prix, and the Grand Prix of Detective Fiction, A Nasty Piece of Work by Robert Littell is a pleasure to read as Littell switch from his usual spy themed story into the realm of crime fiction. What is most exciting about Littell is his mastery of the subtle art of storytelling

In this page-turning, delightful and suspenseful new detective novel by the master of espionage, we are introduced to a retired CIA Agent, Lemuel Gunn, a tough guy who was once tasked with defusing bombs in Afghanistan and lived to tell his tale. Putting his past life behind him, Lemuel lives and works out of his mobile home, moving from one desert to another, working as a wise-cracking private detective. And then he meets this strikingly beautiful woman who comes bare-footed.

Ornella Neppi is no ordinary woman. Her reckless and irresponsible decisions are tearing apart the bail bonds business owned by her uncle. When Emilio Gava was sent to jail for buying drugs in large quantities, Ornella provides surety and Gava was released on bail. But when Gava jumped bail, it is up to Ornella to either track him down or pay the bail off. But she is incapable of either one on her own. She approaches Lemuel who takes the job, and begins the search for the absconding criminal.

The task is easier said than done. Gava seems to have vanished into thin air. Faceless, there is no photograph. Unknown, no one seems to know him. It's a strange case, no leads and no nothing. Lemuel finds himself in a hole where he's never been before. Is strikingly beautiful but manipulative Ornella telling him everything he needs to know about Emilio Gava? Or is Gava a much bigger fish than he has been made out to be? What appears to be an ordinary case of a man jumping bail turns out to be nothing of the ordinary kind. Lemuel finds himself stranded in the middle of nowhere, and must retrace his steps if he is to bring the case to its conclusive end.

A Nasty Piece of Work is an irresistible piece of work by Robert Littell proving that he is as much a master of crime fiction as he is of espionage. The vivacious characters supporting the main cast are wonderfully conceived. The story is mishmash of organized crime, kidnapping, romance, suspense, and murder. It is superbly paced and wonderfully written. It is a book to be read in one sitting. ( )