Don't Sweat the Small Stuff [Hardcover]

Don Bruns (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 6, 2010

It's official: stumbling, bumbling James Lessor and Skip Moore are licensed private investigators. Now, that's some scary stuff.It could take time to get Moore or Less investigations off the ground, so James takes a job with a traveling carnival show.But this show has a dubious reputation, having had a string of accidents and at least one death in the past year.When they're hired to investigate what's caused the carnival chaos, James and Skip set into motion a dizzying, roller coaster chain of events.After a terrifying trip on the Dragon Tail ride, a not-so-fun dust-up in Freddy's Fun House, and a host of threats, James and Skip realize they'll get anything but cooperation from this cantankerous cast of carnies.But when a carnival worker is murdered, James and Skip will have to act fast-because they might be next in line.For James and Skip, the only thing sweeter than the smell of corndogs and fried dough will be the sweet smell of success-but in this case, "success" means getting out alive.This investigation is going completely off the rails.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Roommates Skip Moore and James Lessor of More or Less Investigations receive PI licenses from the Florida Department of Agriculture ("Don't ask why.... This is Florida. They just do things a little differently here") in Bruns's diverting if predictable fourth mystery to feature the bumbling sleuths (after 2009's Stuff to Spy For). When Moe Bradley, owner of the Moe Show carnival, hires James to be his new marketing director, he also asks them to find out who's been sabotaging the rides. A faulty safety bar on one ride has resulted in a 32-year-old woman being thrown to her death. After Kevin Cross, who knows too much about the carny for his own good, turns up shot to death in his trailer, the action, leavened with plenty of laid-back dialogue, picks up steam and concludes on a cool cliffhanger. Skip's girlfriend, Emily, and their PI pal, Jody Stacy, who supplies the pair with spy toys, add to the fun. (Dec.) (c)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

This is the fourth outing for Bruns’ stumblebum heroes, Lessor and Moore. This time they’re asked to investigate murderous happenings at a carnival. The reader is invited to tangle with a wildly uneven book by a talented author who needs a stern lecture (perhaps from his editor). Some of the set pieces are wonderful, like the account of a wild trip on a fiendish carnival ride or a menacing walk through a dark house of horrors. Also, there are thoughtful disquisitions on detecting methods that would impress Holmes, and there are numerous striking turns of phrase. But some scenes, like the opening one, at a lunch counter, are so poorly worked as to be nearly incomprehensible. This is guy lit, but unfortuately guy often translates to dumb and proud of it: for example, after Moore is introduced to a woman who is called his paramour, he spends a paragraph boasting that he doesn’t know what the word means. Recommended for series followers but with caveats to fans of the comical, hard-boiled style. --Don Crinklaw

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Oceanview Publishing (December 6, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933515791
• ISBN-13: 978-1933515793
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,014,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Don Bruns is a novelist, advertising executive, musician, songwriter, cook and painter who has no idea what he wants to do when he grows up. He's the author of nine books and was editor of the mystery/music anthology A Merry Band Of Murderers.

Don's published novels cover two series. One, a Caribbean thriller collection and two, the Stuff series, a humorous look at two twenty-four year old guys in South Florida who start their own detective agency and end up neck - deep in trouble. Skip and James from the Stuff series have often been compared to grown up versions of the Hardy Boys.

Jamaica Blue, Barbados Heat, South Beach Shakedown, St. Barts Breakdown and Bahama Burnout make up the Caribbean books. The Stuff series consists of Stuff To Die For, Stuff Dreams Are Made Of, Stuff To Spy For, and Don't Sweat The Small Stuff- which came out in December 2010. Bruns is currently working on the fifth Stuff book, Too Much Stuff.

His two series have won numerous awards, and the latest "Stuff" series has won a starred review in Booklist.

"Will remind the reader of Tim Dorsey's cast of whacked-out characters but with the narrative voice and feel of Mark Twain's Huck Finn."

Traveling the Caribbean for his Mick Sever series, or hovering around Miami for his "Stuff" series, Bruns enjoys the writing life. You can find him at http://www.donbrunsbooks.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars jocular havoc, December 12, 2010

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff (Hardcover)

Even roommates Skip Moore and James Lessor are shocked when the Florida Department of Agriculture issues them their private investigator license though each understands the Sunshine State has been out in the sun too long. The pair opens up the Moore or Less Investigations form.

To keep from becoming starving sleuths James obtains a position as marketing director of the Moe Show traveling carnival; owner Moe Bradley must have worked for the state. Moe also orders James to investigate who is causing the accidents on the rides culminating with the death of a thirtyish woman when the safety bar on a ride failed. Skip joins James, but most of the carny employees provide Lessor cooperation as they learn first hand on the Dragon Tail and Moore insult in Freddy's Fun House. When worker Kevin Cross is murdered in his trailer, the two new official sleuths bring in the big guns, Skip's girlfriend Emily, and P.I. Jody Stacy.

Over the top of Tallahassee, the enjoyable Moore or Lessor tale (see Stuff to Spy For) has the Dumb Dicks (they are humorous unlike the 1930s movie) legal while causing the same jocular havoc with terrific asides that skewer the state. The story line is faster than the Dragon Tail ride as the duo seems to land constantly in excrement that only a fly would appreciate. With a fabulous cliffhanging finish, Don Bruns' fans will welcome the return of the zany pair and their more effective female buddies while wanting the next Moore and Lessor thriller immediately.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars stuff and nonsense, March 19, 2011

By 

Tom Bruce (East Moriches, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff (Hardcover)

There's a lot to like in the pages of this book. No, it is not literature by any stretch of the imagination. But it is a fast-paced, convoluted mystery that takes place in a traveling carnival show. Two less than qualified detectives stumble, mumble, and bumble through their first case trying to learn if there is evil afoot or just bad accidents. The fast pace is helped by the fact that this all takes place over three days, there are 50 chapters in the book averaging less than 6 pages each and most of the chapters end in cliffhangers, demanding that the reader keep going. A dozen or more interesting characters people the book, and you won't come across any word that needs to be looked up in a dictionary. And the mystery is kept unsolved until the final pages. What's not to like? It could have been a little bit smarter with not so many obvious red herrings. But, it took less than two days to read, so not a great waste of time. Would I read any of the other three books in the "stuff" series by Bruns? Yeah, I think I might. I might even go out of my way to look for one.

5.0 out of 5 stars An exceedingly compelling read - riveting until the final chapter and page, April 11, 2011

By 

Literary Media's "Reviews" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff (Hardcover)

This is a must for an Easter read. Take this book with you on holiday. Share it with family and friends - you'll have them saying, 'I couldn't put the book down even for a breather...'

If you like a murder, mystery and suspense thriller, this is one which ranks along a Miss Marple's (an Agatha Christie character) 'case solved and dusted' episode.

From the moment Skip and James get their PI's (Private Investigator's) license from the DOA of Florida (Department of Agriculture), they were onto a case of such complexity, you began imagining the popcorn seller at the carnival was a suspect - that thrilling.

Along with the usual suspects of the embittered small time zoo keeper, Winston Pugh and two cocky rides operators, Bo and Charlie, we get glimpses of other characters such as Agent Angie Hotpants, a beautiful blond who works for Moe Bradley, owner of the Moe Show Inc. and Moe's sisters who throw in a spanner or two which really gets the readers wondering of the 'whodunnit' conumdrum.

Skip and James are ideal characters in the plot - who we sympathise with but can't see how they are going to solve the mystery of the mechanical errors in the fatal accident leading to the death of a young female rider on the Cat's Pajamas carnival ride, plus a couple of other near fatal accidents on the rides.

'Who did it?' is the question on the readers' minds as the plot thickens and we get no where near to solving the murder/mystery/suspense until Chapter 18, almost half way into the novel when Skip gets the spy gadgets from Jody Stacy, a specialist in all things investigative.

The drama intensifies with Skip and James, threatened a few times but undeterred, they staunch on regardless and nearly getting killed themselves in the bid to find the killer before they're caught up more in the mechanics of the chilling drama.

It is a thriller, with light hearted relief from such characters as Emily. Skip's on/off girlfriend and shop owner Jody Stacy, not to mention the operating duo, Bo and Charlie. In some ways, this action-packed thriller reminds me of the escapades of the Die Hard Bruce Willis character and a must-read for the Easter Holidays.