The Hard Word: "BIG SELLERS AND SONG TITLES YOU CAN HAVE FUN WITH": BAT OUT OF HELL'S DON BRUNS

 The Hard Word: "BIG SELLERS AND SONG TITLES YOU CAN HAVE FUN WITH": BAT OUT OF HELL'S DON BRUNS

FFB Review: Stuff To Die For by Don Bruns

Back in September 2007, I told you about Stuff To Die For by Don Bruns. I thought it could easily be the start of a very good series. It was. Like any good series, you really need to start with this one. Make sure you check out the full list of reading suggestions over at Patti’s blog.

James Lessor and Skip Moore have been friends since childhood. James has always been scheming on ways for the two to make a fortune in business and Skip has followed along into each venture. Some schemes had gotten them into trouble, some hadn’t, but none of them had really worked. The latest plan James has hatched has them going into the moving business. “Have Truck Will Haul” says their new business card and according to James, who has purchased the Chevy one ton box truck by using the monies he recently inherited, this idea will lead to a financial hauling empire. Not only should he have used the monies to pay on his student loans, Skip also thinks that James should have noticed the fact that the truck drinks oil like it is water. James is obvious secure in his belief that the only way to make real money is to spend the money he has and this time, he is going to spend it on his hauling stuff business idea.

Skip’s girlfriend, Emily isn’t thrilled with James or how he manages to lure her mid twenties boyfriend into one dream after another as Skip sort of drifts through life. Sure, he sells a security system now and then on commission, but he really isn’t going anywhere and she believes he could do so much more. One possibility is that Skip could go work for her Dad’s construction firm but Skip knows, for a number of reasons that all aren’t under his control, why that idea would never work.

As it soon happens Emily leads the guys to their first client, Jackie Fuentes. A wealthy and sexy woman living behind the gates of a nearby exclusive community, she needs some stuff hauled away as quickly as possible and is willing to pay well. Her husband Rick has taken off with a far younger woman and she wants his things out of her house.

It should be a simple job for a few hours of work. It would have been a simple job if James, while backing up the truck at the storage facility, hadn’t hit the building. If, the load which includes mail for Rick, hadn't shifted and spilled. If they hadn’t noticed the fact that one of the envelopes was leaking. Or, if having noticed it was leaking, tossed it back with the rest of the mail and had never opened it.

But, they did notice and did decide to open the envelope. From there, things go from bad to worse at breakneck speed. James and Skip find themselves getting deeper in a mess with every move they make while agents of the CIA, Cubans bent on arms smuggling, and a host of other shady characters with multiple motivations, keep among other things, shooting at them. All that and Emily really needs to talk to James about the future of their relationship.

Part humor, part mystery, part thriller and definitely all suspenseful, this novel takes off and just keeps going barely letting the reader catch a breath on the way. Author Don Bruns brings all the characters vividly to life and yanks readers directly into the maelstrom that is their chaotic world. What could easily have gone the way of caricature and been the typical buddy style novel instead is a very good tension filled read packed with twists and turns guaranteed to keep readers guessing to the very end. The result is excellent stuff on every level and hopes that this just might be the start of a new series.

Stuff To Die For
By Don Bruns
http://www.donbrunsbooks.com/
Oceanview Publishing
http://www.oceanviewpublishing.com/
September 2007
ISBN #978-1-933515-10-6
Hardback (also available in paperback, audio, and eBook formats)
283 Pages



Kevin R. Tipple © 2007, 2016

Review: "REEL STUFF: A LESSOR AND MOORE MYSTERY" by Don Bruns

The guys James Lessor and Skip Moore have come a long way from their moving truck days of Stuff To Die For (reviewed here among other places) in a highly entertaining series of books. The jobs are better, but money is still a huge issue. In this seventh and most recent book in the series published last December, REEL STUFF: A LESSOR AND MOORE MYSTERY, they continue to run a private investigation company and Skip sells security systems. The guys they still have the knack for being in the wrong place at the right time.

The job should be relatively easy. They are providing additional private security on the set of a television series called Deadline Miami. Famous actor Jason Londell is doing a guest appearance for one episode before going back to work on two movies out in California. He likes to do his own stunts and at least one is planned for the television show. This particular stunt calls for Jason run along a narrow platform and then jump off and land on the tethered inflated airbag fifty feet below.

Unfortunately, something goes tragically wrong this hot Miami morning and Jason Londell dies under the watchful eyes of the production crew, a few bystanders, and Skip Moore. Skip knows what he saw and is convinced it was a horrible accident. But, Jason's actress girlfriend, Ashley Amber, is convinced he was murdered. Not only was Jason worried about the stunt according to Ashley he was also getting threatening emails. She wants Skip and James to investigate and is willing to pay the bucks as she believes Jason's agent was behind it all. James insists they take the case as, like always, they seriously need the money. Before too long it becomes clear that it was no simple accident in a case that will lead them back and forth across country to ferret out those responsible in this twisted read.

Occasionally funny and always moving forward at a steady pace, REEL STUFF: A LESSOR AND MOORE MYSTERY puts Skip and James as well as the smart and beautiful Em in the thick of it as they try to put the pieces in a shifting case together. While the trio makes mistakes they also do a lot of things right in a tale that ends in a showdown with their very lives at stake. One knows going in that the trio will survive to investigate again another day. The real question is how they will do that and the answer results in a very entertaining read from start to finish.

REEL STUFF: A LESSOR AND MOORE MYSTERY

Don Bruns

http://www.donbrunsbooks.com

Oceanview Publishing

http://www.oceanviewpub.com

ISBN# 978-1-60809-096-9

December 2013

ARC (hardback and e-book available)

295 Pages

$26.95

Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014