Customer Reviews

Big Numbers

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the basic rules of story telling is that everybody loves the good guy and hates the bad guy. This provides conflict, moves the story, and tells us who to cheer for. But there is a grey area in between the good guys and the bad guys where some characters thrive. We watch them choose between good and evil and wonder if they will ultimately be redeemed or slip away completely. Getze chose to make one of those middle ground guys, Austin Carr, the main character in his first book, Big Numbers.

Austin Carr is a man whose life has changed drastically in a short period of time. His marriage has fallen apart, his income as a stock broker has fallen off sharply, he has been evicted from his apartment and is now living in a truck camper, he is drinking too much, and he has been banned from seeing his kids until he pays his back child support. And it is the last thing that is killing him - he is desperate to see his children. So when he is presented with the opportunity to do something shady to get $58,000 to pay off his ex-wife and see his kids again... you get the idea.

Big Numbers is both a caper and a mystery story. And it starts off with a bang as Carr is about to be killed by an unknown man in an unusual fashion - by being dragged off a fishing boat and down to a watery grave by a giant bluefin. The story then rewinds three weeks as Carr tells the reader how he got into this predicament. We spend the book trying to guess the identity of the unknown man on the fishing boat as Carr's scam becomes more complicated and he manages to alienate just about everyone he knows.

Big Numbers is a gritty, sexy, violent, and funny book. And yes, you end up cheering for the bad guy because there is a whole lot of grey in this book filled with outrageous characters and situations.

Favorite character? I could tell you, but that might give away the ending. Did I guess it? No. Will I read another? Yes.

This novel perfectly balances light and darkness; it is gripping and funny. Just when the main character Austin Carr thinks he's caught a break, a way out of his troubles, well things aren't what they seem. He's got to navigate his way around the curves, which are never-ending. Everyone I've recommended this book to has loved it. If you like humorous mysteries with a dark edge, this story is for you.

The ups and downs of the stock market are nothing compared to the downs of stock broker, Austin Carr in Jack Getze's Big Numbers. Austin's life is ready for a takeover and his biggest client's wife is prepared to use all her assets to get her to invest everything, including his life, in her future. Getze invested just the right words to keep the reader entertained in this fun, action filled read.

Austin Carr is the kind of character it takes nerve to write: morally imperfect, struggling with self-inflicted troubles, often choosing the low ground.

That's why Austin Carr feels real.

And he's on the ride of his life. He's squeezed, under pressure, chased, seduced, beat up, even strapped to a giant bluefin tuna. And we are with him all the way.

Served up with an edginess reminiscent of good noir, sprinkled with a salty dash of pulp fiction plot twists, and delivered in a sardonic voice that bites like the afterburner of a Herradura Gold shooter, Jack Getze hands us a new series it's impossible to ignore.

I can't wait to read the next one.

I haven't read the book yet and I love it. It is the best book, so far, that I haven't read. It may also be as good his BIG MONEY, that I also haven't read yet. I cannot wait until he writes more books that I haven't read yet. I will read them, after Amazon delivers them.

This book is flat out hilarious! It follows in the footsteps of (highly accredited) Stephen Freys* stock market and financial intrigues but in a much lighter tone. I'm ordering his other book Big Money today!

If you haven't already enjoyed Stephen Freys' excellent book check him out too!

Actually, he's having a bad day, week, month and year. I liked the premise of this book alot - we know someone is trying to kill Austin Carr, the question is who? The book then takes place over the previous few weeks during which we meet many, many people who are actively trying to kill Austin and a few more who might like to. The book is fast paced and fun, and I finished it in a couple sessions. I was taken by pleasant surprise in learning whodunit, and look forward to reading Getze's next book.

This book is a gem. Tightly written with a smartmouth stockbroker/protagonist, it begs to be read in one sitting. The beginning sets up the end and you are guessing the whole time. Could it be Psycho the wrestler? Could it be the sales manager? What about the host of other thugs and sinister personalities? I ain't telling.

Austin Carr lives in a camper. It's not what you call glamorous, especially when you have to wear a football helmet to keep your head from getting banged on the ceiling. He cleans up well, though, enough to sell stocks and securities during the day at a brokerage firm and at night to date what looks like a beautiful rich woman. How does he pull this off? It helps to be disarmingly honest, brazenly confident, and clever. It doesn't help when other people want you dead. My own personal rule for mysteries is that the Bad Person is always the one you least suspect. I won't say if my rule held, but don't read this book if you have to be somewhere. Getze is a find. Can't wait for the next one.

Austin Carr is an interesting character, a stockbroker on the downhill slide, and the first person voice for him is solid. The overall story is fairly entertaining, but the problem I have with this book is that I kept wondering why an editor never stepped in and said 'tone Austin's voice down a little, he doesn't need to always be in the vernacular when it comes to thinking about sex.' If I had edited this book I would also have recommended that the author lend some strength to Carr's motivation which supposedly was to pay his child support so he could see his kids. To that end, while Carr was bumping his head in his camper maybe he could have been looking at last year's school photos taped to the roof of the camper (his ex would have been holding current photos hostage until he paid up his child support). And if Carr wanted his kids so badly maybe he should have foregone all those doubles at the bar, that kind of behavior left me a bit less sympathetic toward him. That's an example of the kinds of things that were missing from this story, that would have fleshed it out and made Carr not merely cartoonishly memorable, but three-dimensional. I think this author is on to a good thing, his work is confident and interesting, but there is a strong need for an editor with a backbone, one willing to move past flattery and expose the weak points and insist on polish.