Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues [Paperback]

Robert Fate (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2007

Number two in the popular Baby Shark series. Now 21, Baby Shark, Kristin Van Dur, has accepted Otis Millett’s invitation to join his firm and learn to be a PI. Busy rounding up a runaway teenage oil heiress, and Kristen finds bodies piling up and that some bad boys want her dead. Add a romantic police detective trying to win her heart, and the knife fight, the murder of two gangsters. Then she steals $100,000 by mistake, gets involved with three hardcore gangsters, trades blackmail photography for information, and, understandably, goes on the run. There are a dozen ways her life can turn unholy awful, but Kristin’s instinct to survive keeps her alive as a gang of Beaumont mobsters hunts her down.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Texas noir anyone? In Fate's violent second novel featuring Kristin Van Dijk (after 2006's Baby Shark), the newly licensed PI and her obstreperous partner, Otis Millett, investigate the disappearance of a Texas oil heiress. No sooner do they settle down to business than nasty gangsters get aggressive and the bodies begin piling up with tedious rapidity. Combine countless baddies being blown away, young women beaten up, a routine mystery plot and questionable sociological implications (cops can't be trusted), and the agglutination of seedy detail winds up being depressing rather than unsettling. The carnage may titillate some, but other readers may detect the warmed-over smell of Rambo and The Terminator. (May)
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Review

"Fate's witty dialog, colorful characters, and nonstop action make this pulp-style piece sparkle. Let's hope for more in this series. Highly recommended." -- Library Journal, February 2007

Product Details

• Paperback: 269 pages
• Publisher: Capital Crime Press (May 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977627624
• ISBN-13: 978-0977627622
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,917,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed by Barb Radmore, March 21, 2007

By 

Front Street Reviews www.frontstreetreviews.com - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues (Paperback)

Oh Baby, Baby. She is back, all rough, tough and soft around the edges. Kristin Van Dijk, who we met in Baby Shark, has returned to her crime fighting, but now she is Otis' partner in his PI business.

Kristin and Otis are hired to locate and rescue a kidnapped girl, who ends up more difficult to find and keep than they expected. What seemed like a simple rescue mission becomes convoluted case of deception, greed and dishonor.

In this installment of Kristen's adventures it is the characters that take center stage. Baby Shark introduced us to the main characters but that book was driven by the action, the violence. Beaumont Blues has taken the promise of the first one and given the characters a chance to grow. It is no less exciting, no less blood stained than the first one, but it also shows a maturity in development. It would have be easy for Robert Fate to rest on the momentum of Baby Shark, to recreate the "little lost girl fights back" theme but he was able to step back and let her mature. Otis has a bigger role this time as the friendly boss and father figure, and he fills it well. The assorted other characters that blast their way through the action are well drawn with Fate's usual tongue in cheek spin on motive and morality.

But, of course, it is also the action driven plot that makes this a one sitting book. As the action progresses faster than a bullet, or is that as fast as the numerous bullets, it maintains the velocity of non stop suspense and thrills. It still can have scenes such as "It looked as if we were in the middle of a Popeye comic strip with all the bodies strewn about. But it was no cartoon, it was a slaughterhouse. Blood everywhere." Kristin has matured, not mellowed. The ending is satisfyingly unexpected, with the humor that makes these books so creative and welcomed.

Next up is Baby Shark's Panhandle Caravan (name change Mr. Fate? What happened to Sooner Weekends?). It will be interesting to see what Robert Fate has planned next for Kristin and Otis.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than Baby Shark, March 10, 2007

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues (Paperback)

Kristin Van Dijk has been a PI and partner with Otis Millett for almost two years now. They are hired to return a runaway heiress as it is critical she reach her 18th birthday and be present at the reading of her father's will. They have rescued the heiress before, but this time it turns bad and Kristin ends up with two dead gangsters, the heiress, and the bag full of ransom money. And that's only the beginning as Kristin and Otis try to figure out what is really going on while keeping the heiress safe, although she disappears on them again, and themselves alive.

For me, this was a much better book than the first. The story had more balance to it, even with a higher body count than the first. But here, they are working with the law--at least as much as it is possible for them to do. The partnership of Otis and Kristin is wonderfully done and it's interesting to see Kristin's character develop through the story. Seeing men be dismissive of Kristin and, therefore, underestimate her, is an interesting reflection of that time. There is a secondary story of Virginia which dimension to the story. The sense of place is effective and the dialogue even more so. There are scenes of palpable suspense but it is balanced within the story, and a wonderful ending. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am very glad I was persuaded to give it a chance.

5.0 out of 5 stars Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues, July 13, 2008

By 

Helen Ginger - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues (Paperback)

Kristin Van Dijk may be a teenager, but she's grown into a full fighter in this, the second in Fate's Baby Shark series. She owns her moniker. She's now a PI with her mentor/teacher. The two of them work well together, figuring out what's going on, who's doing what, and how they can survive.

Baby Shark holds her own, doing as much and sometimes most of the fighting and stopping the bad guys. She's not only fun to read, she's an interesting and complex character. She has her own tragic past and in Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues she's beginning to recover from it and is becoming a strong woman and definitely a force to be reckoned with.