sbunyan's review
3.0
I enjoyed the book, liked the characters but had some issues with the ending. Suddenly it's all tied up with a bow but I felt lots of things were left out. This was a free Kindle book and it succeeded it getting me interested enough to check out the series. I like the New Orleans background and I like the lawyer, Tubby.
lraven13's review
3.0
I feel like I missed something but the truth is there was not a full explanation of what really happened....
audreyintheheadphones's review
3.0
"I'm going for the death penalty," Assistant District Attorney Clayton Snedley said cheerfully.
He was an ex-priest and he loved his job, it being easier to punish the guilty than it had been to forgive them.
Synopsis: When down but not out New Orleans lawyer Tubby Dubbonet agrees to take over an old, troubled friend's defense of a university janitor, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that the defendant was found holding a severed head, which is good press any way you slice it (ha!). The bad news? The defendant was found holding a severed head...
Tubby Dubonnet's got problems.
His ex-wife's dating a guy he sued and has decided they should all be good friends together, his oldest daughter's pregnant, his no-account brother-in-law has blown back into town and blown out again with all his kids' valuables, and clients are few and far between.
Which is probably why he agrees to bail friend and fellow lawyer Mickey O'Rourke out when he tearfully reveals he can't stop drinking long enough to defend Cletus Busters, the guy with the severed head.
Luckily, Tubby has some excellent support: his secretary cum paralegal, Cherylynn; ex-FBI hunk turned PI, Sanre "Flowers" Fueres, and a couple friends down at the NOPD. Unluckily, he has no idea who he's really up against. And then there's the lady boxer with the abusive trainer and the deed to half her daddy's oil company, which her uncle would love to get his hands on.
It was a fun, short read. There's a lot of New Orleans placeporn of the specifically restaurant variety and Tubby himself is confused, flawed, determined and immensely likeable. And while I suspect there might have been quite a few New Orleans in-jokes that totally passed me by, I was perfectly content to just enjoy the ride.
A couple other notable things: I liked that Tubby was trying to cut down on his drinking, which made a nice change from the last 17 book I've read about PIs and detectives, and that he fails sort of spectacularly, halfway through. I also really liked that basically none of the ongoing plotlines are entirely resolved by the end of the book, but are done in such a way that you really, really want to know what happens next.
Whoops, another series to finish....
More...