Customer Reviews

Fender Benders: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Mississippi's Eddie Long feels one day he will take Nashville by storm. Eddie is currently doing the Southern bars and college route, but feels he is just paying his dues before the big break occurs. However, while on the road, Eddie learns that his wife has died. Grieving, he pours his soul into a eulogy-song that stuns the music world and makes him a hot prospect.

Writer Jimmy Rogers sees honky tonk performer turn superstar Eddie as the perfect vehicle for a biography. His research soon leads him to believe that Eddie may have arranged his spouse's demise via food poisoning and the deaths of several other people while the musician toured the south. Jimmy, already jealous of Eddie stealing his girl, plans to prove that Eddie is more talented as a serial killer than a country western musician.

FENDER BENDER is an amusing satirical look at the music industry and indirectly at serial killer novels. The story line skews any icon that falls in its path, but does so through not so subtle references to movies and books and a strong cast whose eccentricities and personal agendas add humor to a very funny mix. If novels like CROSS DRESSING and PEST CONTROL have not already introduced the reader to the sharp barbs of Bill Fitzhugh; FENDER BENDER is the right tale for those who relish laughing at idols crumbling from the pedestals inside a dark facetious mystery.

Harriet Klausner

This is my first Fitzhugh novel and it won't be my last.

I was expecting a murder mystery. It sure starts out that way with the gruesome poisoning death of a pick-up driving Cajun in Louisiana. But, the scene swiftly changes to an up-and-coming country music sensation and an up-and-coming writer and his beautiful radio station DJ girlfriend. Then, we're introduced to a couple of nearly down and out Nashville record producers and talent agents, Big Bill Herron and Franklin Peavey. The scene shifts to the crazy machinations of the Nashville recording industry (and the endless awards ceremonies -they are mentioned in passing, but new awards ceremonies with ever-more whacky titles and awards come up nearly
every chapter).

Somewhere along the way, amidst the glitz and confusion the original murder mystery re-surfaces, amdist another murder plot and criminal record deals.

Old grudges mix with new ones and after finishing this book this reader was left wondering how any of his favorite musicians in the real world live a halfway 'normal' life!

Fitzhugh's strength is building interesting characters. Some are developed very well and others are intentionally left as shadowy and mysterious. All are well done. The book was a hoot!

"Fender Benders" is a murder mystery surrounding the rise of country western guitarist singer/songwriter Eddie Long. The story is rich with colorful characters including the main man, Long, his smart and cunning girlfriend Megan Taylor, his managers Big Bill Herron and Franklin Peavy, his friend and biographer, Jimmy Rogers and a host of others. There is enough intrigue, backstabbing, twists, humor and schemes to fill two books. Fitzhugh brings several issues in the book to a definite conclusion while leaving some to the reader's imagination. Overall, it's a fun read and one that will definitely hold your attention.

Bill Fitzhugh's "Fender Benders" is a slight departure from his previous novels. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you!) It is a delightful read with some great characters and criss-crossing storylines. It's just a little dry in areas, whereas I was expecting something more along the lines of his earlier works. "Fender Benders" is missing a lot of the 'ha-ha' factor. But that's a minor nitpick.

While this novel is clearly the tale of new country music sensation Eddie Long's rise to glory... it's also a novel packed with a fantastic supporting cast and several interesting sub-stories. I personally liked the character of Jimmy, who is Eddie's friend at the beginning and volunteers to write his biography. If there are decent lines to be had in this novel... Jimmy gets most of them.

The character of Meagan (Jimmy's ex girlfriend, gasp!!) becomes Eddie's "Yoko Ono" or "Courtney Love" and is continually giving Eddie's management team conniption fits. Her vision is to insert herself as far into Eddie's life/career as possible and get all that she can. It makes for some interesting tension.

Bill Fitzhugh certainly did a great job researching this novel. There is a distinct "feel" to the novel when all the characters are in the studio trying to bring together all the elements for Eddie's first record. It just works.

Music, murder, money, cover-ups, backhanded dealings, investigations, sex and some of the best fried shrimp in Nashville. All these things await you as you read "Fender Benders."

I liked it a lot, but not as much as his other novels. That having been said, it certainly won't stop me from picking up Bill Fitzhugh's next novel. I recommend this one with no reservations. A good read all in all.

Read it!

This was my first Fitzhugh book... and I couldn't put it down. (I know, skip the cliches!) But this one should be read in as close to one sitting as possible.

Really, Fitzhugh is funny... in the same vein as Carl Hiassen and Christopher Moore. "Fender Benders" characters are well-conceived... the story flows well... and the conclusion is mysterious enough. No, it's not a mystery... it's a darkly comic novel. Be sure to read "Heart Seizure", too.

Finally, a book about Nashville and the music business that is right on target. I have lived in and around Nashville all my life, and Mr. Fitzhugh nailed it! One of my favorite authors, he is a master of putting his readers into a scene, and he dosen't let us down with this one.

OK. I admit it. I love all of Fitzhugh's books. Notwithstanding that admission, however, this one is clearly his best. Opry-land proves to be a wonderfully fat target for Fitzhugh's keen eye and rapier wit. Reading "Fender Benders" was like watching a humourous strip tease of the portly country music industry...In this case, the tables are turned, and the Fat Cats who are accustomed to pulling the strings that dictate who becomes a Star in Nashville are exposed by Fitzhugh's rib ticklin' humour for the underhanded, stab-each-other-in-the-back-bums they really are. All aspects of the country music scene are heartily lampooned, with 'nary a rhinestone G-string left intact to shield the industry's loins.

Fitzhugh's characters seem to wander down the wrong country lanes...drawn like moths to the bright lights that beckon. But success for one seems to entail death for another. And therein lies the mystery that the reader is required by book's end to resolve - which of the several possible candidates is actually responsible for the murders?

Fitzhugh's signature blend of fast humour, real life situations and paradoxes, and uncompromising one-liners leave you limp with laughter. This book is a "must-read" for anyone with a sense of humour and even a mild curiosity about what makes Nashville tick.

If you understand the statement "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture," then you'll know some of why I have such a hard time describing the extreme pleasure I had reading FENDER BENDERS.

Eddie Long had a plan. He wanted to become a country music star, so he set about making it happen. He practiced his guitar, took some classes at night school, and started playing at dives and bars, paying his dues. When his wife Tammy died suddenly, a deep and profound song found its way from his soul. Not a dry eye remained in the house the night he debuted "It Wasn't Supposed to End That Way." Eddie knew he had a hit, so he moved on to Nashville.

Now Jimmy Rogers followed Eddie's career from the very beginning. He figured there was a book in this story somewhere, depending on whether Eddie made it big or not. Jimmy's girl Megan had eyes for Eddie, too, but with something very different than a book in mind.

About the time Eddie met up with the artist management firm of Herron & Peavy in Nashville and struck the most unique contract known to country music, Jimmy was frantically working on Eddie's biography and discovering that Eddie's wife didn't die naturally. Neither did three other people who had headaches one night. Seems like a serial killer might be on the loose.

Add to that the fact that Herron and Peavy weren't exactly choir boys. Twisted legal contracts and complicated money schemes bring some disgruntled clients to this scenario. Take all these ingredients, mix, and you have the wild romp that ensues in FENDER BENDERS.

It takes an ingenious and wacky mind to take all these varied storylines and have them flow so incredibly smoothly. I'm amazed at just how well all the clues tumbled together and fell over each other. Coincidence? No way. Kind of like writing a song where all the elements must gel just right. Poetry to music. Understated hilarity is what Bill Fitzhugh brings with his writing.

Not knowing much about the country music business detracted nothing from my enjoyment of this inspired frenzy. Expert details were scattered liberally throughout the story. I never knew what the differences between, say, digital and analog recording sessions were, but I have a pretty good inkling about it now. Was this explanation just a way to show off Fitzhugh's research? Nope. A well calculated clue, just as every detail included was. Turns out that the explanation was integral to the story, I just didn't know it until later.

It bewildered me how what should have been such a simple story could become so incredibly elaborate yet could also be so very subtle as to have me doubting my own senses. I'm not quite sure which direction is up, but I am sure that this was a highly satisfying tale that left me breathless and smiling. Be sure to treat yourself with this refreshingly different view of reality.


Disclaimer: Any similarities between my husband "Bill Herron" and the character "Big Bill Herron" are completely imagined, except for the name.

While most surreal authors such as Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry base their novels in Florida it is refreshing to see someone such as Bill Fitzhugh prepared to make fun of other US states. This time in Fender Benders Fitzhugh gives us a surreal look into the American country music scene and although to be honest this novel isn't quite up to the quality of Cross Dressing and his previous work it is still a great and very enjoyable light read.

In Fender Benders Eddie Long is a talented writer and singer whose wife is pestering him to take a job in her dad's two dollar store as she has got sick of waiting for years for his career to begin. After taking a couple of headache tablets from a box tampered by a serial killer Eddie learns of her death while playing the casinos in Mississippi. In his grief he writes the best country song for years which attracts the attention of a couple of corrupt and self absorbed producers in Nashville who careers are on their last legs but see Eddie's song as a way to put themselves back on top. They try to take Eddie for a ride but he isn't as stupid as they think and has grand plans for marketing his song and himself. Throw in Jimmy, a disgruntled and jealous autobiographer who feels betrayed by Eddie, Jimmy's sugar daddy looking ex girlfriend Meagan who sees Eddie as her ticket to the good life, corrupt publishers, a 'swimp' cook who could have been huge if he hadn't had bad luck years before and you've got a great tale. After the first chapter it does start off a bit slow but once the main story gets going you can't put it down.

If you enjoy surreal novels check out Carl Hiassen, Dave Barry, C.J. Box and Max Barry as well.

Fitzhugh has expanded his talent, this may be his best. I love them all, this one has much more mystery, it goes fast. Every Fitzhugh book is well researched, this one gets into the Nashville music scene in a fun way.