Book Review: Deadbomb Bingo Ray by Jeff Johnson

Posted on December 3, 2020 at 11:33 am by Gene Ambaum

Deadbomb Bingo Ray by Jeff Johnson. Turner, 2017. 9781683367246. 277pp.

Deadbomb Bingo Ray is part of Philadelphia’s criminal underworld, a man with a reputation for creative problem solving and getting revenge on those who try to cross him. And yet someone is trying to take him out. There are folks on his tail, a woman who says she’s trying to hire him (he knows she has other motives), and a hit squad or two. Ray is clearly going to survive the adventure — he over prepares and over thinks every aspect of his safety as if it’s his superpower — but the question is will everyone else in his life make it through unscathed? Specifically the physicist he unexpectedly finds himself falling in love with, and his sweet little dog? Ray also has a hilarious secretary, and his buddy / partner Skuggy, a sometimes dapper dude who demands his favorite meal before he’ll get to work with Ray.

This is dark, violent entertainment with a bit of a love story. It’s worth reading for the moment Ray kills someone with a sharpened bicycle spoke. And yes, you do find out how he got the nickname.