Review: The Best Lousy Choice: An Ed Earl Burch Novel by Jim Nesbitt

The Best Lousy Choice: An Ed Earl Burch Novel begins with Ed Earl Burch hurting in more ways than one. Demons haunt his dreams and are a specter barely unseen during his waking hours. Narcotics and lots of whisky keep things a little bit at bay, though working is what works best for the private investigator that was once many years ago, a Dallas Homicide Detective, who believed in the law and that justice would rule the day. Burch knows better now and has the many physical and mental scars to show for it.

The year is 1989 and the legendary Dallas Cowboys barely exist in name only thanks to that shyster owner out of Arkansas. The Oklahoma Sooners suck and will always suck, as any true Texan knows, and Louie’s Bar is the best place for booze and Campisi’s on Mockingbird is the best for pizza. One often finds Ed Earl Burch in one place or the other, more often Louie’s, and that means those that know Burch know where to find him. One such person is Fat Willie Nofzinger, his lawyer, and a man that can’t be ignored. Nofzinger holds the note on Burch’s business and has the cards that, for now, have kept Burch out of the county jail. So, Burch has to listen to Nofzinger and do what he wants, but he doesn’t have to like it or make it easy on him

The last thing Burch wants to do is to go out to West Texas. He barely survived events out there last time and some folks would love it if he came back so they could settle scores. The fact that it is a divorce case, the type of case Burch absolutely hates, does not improve the situation.

Fat Willie Nozfinger has a rich female client by the name of Nita Rodriguez Wyatt. The very wealthy woman has heard of Burch, wants him hired, and knows enough to go through Nozfinger to get him on the case. A case from a while back and a talkative former client who was very grateful for the help means Wyatt wants him and won’t take no for an answer. Not that Nozfinger is going to allow Burch to say no as Nozfinger also stands to make buck off of Burch working the case. Refusal to take the job means severe consequences for Burch and ones he can’t accept.

Hating every second of it, all Burch can do is pack up and head out to West Texas. Plan is to do his five days of supposedly easy money and pocket his cash, while also separately slashing a bit of his debt to Nozfinger, and get back to Dallas without anyone being the wiser. That was before the gun play, public and not so public carnage, a possibly bent sheriff, an obvious and very bitter family feud, and more come into play. Ed Earl Burch is in a world of trouble before he hits the sun baked wilds of West Texas and things are only going to go downhill in an escalating violent way.

The Best Lousy Choice: An Ed Earl Burch Novel is the third in the series that began with The Last Second Chance followed by The Right Wrong Number. One expects before one opens the book that there will be plenty of action, carnal adventures, frequent carnage, along with plenty of observations about Texas history and some sarcastic comments about life in the great state of Texas. Things will be graphic and detailed in terms of settings, language, and violence. Author Jim Nesbitt meets and exceeds those expectations in The Best Lousy Choice: An Ed Earl Burch Novel.

This review is a mere West Texas mirage glimpsed on the distant horizon down a crooked two lane macadam roadway. The review just does not do the book justice and the read is an intense and a violent crime fiction read. A book that, like the series itself, is highly recommended. It would be best to read in order, but do what you will.

The Best Lousy Choice: An Ed Earl Burch Novel

Jim Nesbitt

https://jimnesbittbooks.com

Spotted Mule Press

July 2019

ISBN# 0-9983294-2-8

Trade Paperback (also available as an eBook)

347 Pages

$16.99

Material in the form of an ARC was provided with no expectation of a review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2019