Customer Reviews

Lonely Street

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

 

 

I'm not sure anyone would want to emulate private eye Bubba Mabry's investigative style, but journalist Steve Brewer takes a delightful look at Albuquerque, New Mexico's beauty and dark side in this thriller. Brewer throws in a bit of the unrealistic by bringing Elvis Presley back to life -- although he shows readers a pretty good depiction of what the King would be like were he still alive. Several murders add enough blood for the morbid-at-heart, and the language makes up for a somewhat shaky plot. The characters, other than Elvis, are pretty ordinary -- the tired private eye looking for some dough, tabloid reporters out for the story of the century, a curvaceous Marilyn Monroe-type blonde who will either sleep with a man -- or threaten to shoot him -- in order to get information, and a couple of hulky thugs. But the combination of all the elements makes for a fast-read full of laughs, even in the face of horrible death.

I enjoy listening to audio books when I am in my car or when I am doing chores at home. I especially enjoy them when I am sewing. I am very critical of the readers and many times I will take a book back to the library based on the fact that I do not like listening to a certain reader. Gene Eugene, who is Bubba Mabry in this story, has a very cool Southern drawl and exceptional timing that makes him come alive as Bubba Mabry. Mr. Brewer gives him a wealth of hilarious one liners to make it very humorous. I really think this book would make a great movie, based on the easy going layed back character of Bubba. Finding an actor to play Bubba as well as Mr Eugene plays him would be the catch.

I really got a kick out of this mystery. It's like a hard-boiled detective story, but the toughness is just a shell. Underneath, there's humor, raunchy at times, but always a hoot. And the premise, that Elvis is alive and well and living incognito, is very well handled I thought, without unnecessary romanticism.

I got the movie based on the book (it's older and dropped in price) and Patrick Dennis is a GREAT aged Elvis.

I did enjoy this book, but I was frequently thrown out of the story by errors (typos, incorrect words,etc.) that a copy editor would have caught.

Bubba got lucky when Felicia offered to help him write the book, but she should not have depended on herself to do the proofing. I think that hiring a copy editor is always worth it.

Bubba may be the world's most inept successful detectives. I just wonder how long it is before his wife's mouth gets him killed. A great read.In fact, I like all of Steve Brewer's stuff.

I am an admitted private eye novel addict. To me, finding a new Spenser novel has been like an special gift (alas, no more). So in first delving into Steve Brewer's Bubba Mabry series, I had mixed feelings of "he's not Spenser" and "I need another PI to love."

There were many things about Bubba that set him far apart from Spenser...he's a bumbler for one, he's not nearly as attractive (in my mind) and much of his success is blind luck. But...there was this growing appeal...Bubba has a quick wit and smart mouth and Brewer uses those traits beautifully. Then you add the smart, driven Felicia Quattlebaum to the mix and things get hoppin'. By the time I was done with "Lonely Street," I knew I needed more Bubba in my life.

I enjoy Brewer's writing style and his sense of the ridiculous as normal. Bubba's whole upbringing comes in to making him into the "man he is today" and you can't help but shake your head and smile about the growing pains created by his "Jesus sighting" mama.

It's just fun to be along for the ride.

Two things I especially love about this first in the series of Bubba Mabry mysteries: The story of how Bubba's befuddled mother welcomed Jesus Christ into her home. And Felicia Quattlebaum, the newspaper reporter who becomes Bubba's hard-driving, sardonic co-star in this and all subsequent Bubba volumes.

Brewer supplies lots of action, lots of humor (Bubba is something of a bumbler.)

Someday soon, there will be "Bubba tours" of the seedy Old Route 66 motel strip and other highlights of Albuquerque, just as there are now "Tony Hillerman tours" of Navajo country.

I love Steve Brewer's books. Bubba just creeps into your heart, makes you laugh, and then just solves the oddest problems, despite all odds. Brewer is simply a master story teller and very funny. All his books are great reads. If you haven't read him, start now.

I've read and reread all the Bubba series. Nobody knows Bubba better than I do. He's a bumbler, a fumbler and a mumbler, but at heart he's a great guy with a wild and colorful take on life. I love Bubba, his momma, his Felicia and his misadventures. Never mind the family connection; I might actually be the toughest critic, and I truly believe everybody else will love Bubba too.

I've never been a big fan of the crime mystery genre. Heck, I've never been a big fan of the mystery genre as a whole. But, Steve Brewer moved into our northern California community several years ago, and I discovered him through his weekly newspaper column. (His columns are the meat of his book "Trophy Husband: A Survival Guide to Working at Home.") I became a fan of his funny observations about family life and his career as writer and stay-at-home dad. After meeting him a couple of times, and learning that his first Bubba Mabry book had been made into a movie, I read this book, the first in the Bubba Mabry series.

Bubba is a fun protagonist. He's gullible, seldom the sharpest tool in the shed, and he gets beat up regularly. He's sort of an antithesis of the remarkably perceptive, borderline-superhero private eye to which we're accustomed. Still, despite his lapses of self-discipline, he's doggedly determined. I identify with Bubba a lot. Maybe I should be concerned.

I soon devoured the entire Bubba Mabry series. Steve Brewer was a journalist for twenty years before becoming a novelist, and that's telling in the way he writes. Journalists turned novelists seem to divide into two groups: There are those who maintain a spare, cut-to-the-chase style, and those who take too many liberties with their creative freedom and produce writing best described as bloated. Steve Brewer belongs to the former group. His writing is tight, and his character development economical without being skimpy. Steve Brewer strikes me as a fine writer, but really, I lack the background to judge the craft of writing. But I sure recognize great storytelling when I see it, and Mr. Brewer, in my estimation, is a damn fine storyteller.