Dirty Pool

by Steve Brewer

Book Overview

Usually, Albuquerque P.I. Bubba Mabry has trouble finding enough cases to keep his agency afloat. Hell, Bubba has trouble with just about everything. Then he's hired for a case that seems tailor-made... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312202032
• ISBN13: 9780312202033
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Fast paced entertainment.

Dirty Pool has it all. It is funny, suspenseful, with great characters and a believable plot. Bubba, a private investigator, must search for the son of a millionaire. The rebel kid has turned into a skinhead and hangs around people so scary you may think about putting down the novel because you want to forget them. During his journey into the dark world of the skinheads, Bubba must come to terms with his father, who abandoned him when he was only nine, and is now driving him crazy with his irrational behavior. Dirty Pool is a very entertaining novel. Steve Brewer accomplished a lot with a novel that has less than 300 pages. Evidence that you don't need to bore readers with long descriptions and lots of information to create a classic.

A raw, real, murderously enjoyable novel

Dirty Pool by Steve Brewer is a gritty, two-fisted mystery in the tradition of Mike Hammer and Mickey Spillane. Hard-boiled and street savvy private eye Bubba Mabry gets a seemingly slick and easy moneymaker case - drop of a ransom for the kidnaping of the pampered, rebellious, skinhead son of a multimillionaire. But when both the money and the kidnaped individual disappear, Bubba is stiffed his tip - unless he can locate the boy, meaning that he's earned the claim to the ransom himself. Imminent family problems in the form of his own pain-in-the-neck father coming to visit won't stop Bubba from pursuing the prize in this raw, real, murderously enjoyable novel.

An excellent mystery wrapped up in a great sense of humor.

Bubba Mabry should have been a member of the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight. He has a penchant for getting into trouble, yet somehow always gets his guy. Steve Brewer has a knack for developing a fine mystery, all the while exposing his protagonist's weaknesses and fumblings. And he does it with a refreshing sense of humor. Brewer can also turn a phrase so that the reader remembers excerpts from his books long after finishing them. Dirty Pool is the fifth in the Bubba Mabry series and makes the reader call for more, more, more. This latest book brings new dimension to Bubba with the addition of the investigator's long-lost father, Dub, and Bubba's continuing relationship with Felicia, the hard-edged newspaperwoman. As I read Dirty Pool, I began to think that Bubba was growing---in sophistication, in compassion, in competence. But, in the end, it was actually the people around him who grew. Bubba is an incorrigible plodder, who somehow gets the job done. And does so in an endearing way. Unlike a lot of writers whose characters and plots become diluted with subsequent editions, Brewer seems to get better as he goes along. And so do his characters. If you like a good mystery and want a good laugh along the way, pick up Dirty Pool---or any other of Brewer's works, for that matter.

Humorous mystery starring an anti-hero

Albuquerque private investigator Bubba Mabry desperately wants to tell his nemesis private detective William J. Pool to go to hell when his unscrupulous rival asks for help. However, Bubba needs the cash, sees a chance to obtain a needed boost to his own agency, and also has an opportunity to finally trump William. He agrees to join in on the investigation of locating Richie, the teenage son of Texas millionaire Dick Johnson. The circumstantial evidence points towards an abduction especially since the kidnapper sent Dick a ransom note. However, Dick feels his crazy son set up the entire affair, including authoring the note. Bubba delivers the ransom, which Richie collects. Dick informs his two detectives that the one who brings his son home keeps the ransom money. Amoral William sets bungling Bubba up to fail as they contend for $200,000. DIRTY POOL is a different type of private detective story because the hero is more human than most investigators found in mystery tales. Bubba has at best average intelligence and makes the cowardly lion seem heroically intrepid. However, this leaves readers with divergent feelings towards him. At times, one wants to help him as he muddles his way through a case. At other times the audience will want to slap him silly and shut the book. Stephen Brewer demonstrates he has the ability to write an entertaining novel starring a less humorous Couseau-like boob.Harriet Klausner