Painless [Paperback]

Bill Poje (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 2008

Painless follows the story of Augustus "Aug" Valentine, an undeniably attractive tall and slender man with hazel green eyes and a mischievous yet gorgeous smile. Aug is the President of the Trove Import Export Company in Fort Lauderdale. These aspects make him a ladies man. Aug apparently has it all.

What Aug lacks is a tragedy free past. The Valentine family is riddled with death and deceit from 1980 Detroit.

Moving on from his painful family history, Aug started operating Trove. The Import Company, along with the White Sands Bank and Destin Dreams Realty, were started in 1990 with "family" money. Normal business activity for Aug at Trove involves the occasional smuggling of goods into and out of the USA.

Aug's romantic life has been similarly complicated. His marriage to Laurie ended and now he wants to propose to Jocelyn, his seductive and very liberated Jaguar saleswoman.

Everything seems to be going so well with Aug's professional and personal life until $40 million worth of smuggled gemstones are stolen from him. Now he must recover the jewels or die.

Painless's plot is well-crafted and packed with action, crimes, violence, love, comedy, greed, wit and irreverence. This entertaining novel is a metaphor for the natural and financial hurricanes slamming America. Painless is designed to entertain you with realistic characters that live in today's world.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

KIRKUS DISCOVERIES REVIEW
A crooked businessman's tragic past comes back to haunt him, resulting in lost -and found- love and a multimillion-dollar jewel heist.

Augustus "Aug" Valentine thought he had escaped his past. With the help of his friends and extended family, he survived the coldblooded murder of his parents as well as the death of his wife, and has gone on to start successful import-export and real estate businesses in South Florida. However, the underworld connections that led to his parents' death have kept a hold on him. In return for seed money for his Trove import company, he's been helping to smuggle a variety of items in and out of the country. But Aug has little reason to complain. He's even started a new romance with the seductive Jocelyn, a car dealer who is even sleeker than the Jaguars she moves. However, when $40 million in jewels is stolen before he can deliver them, his life, Jocelyn's and those of all his friends and associates are put at risk. Unable to go to the law, he must unravel the complicated web of underworld family and friends as a giant storm bears down on what should have been a tropical paradise. Poje has packed this adventure-thriller full. The intricate plot, which jumps back and forth in time to explore both the roots of the heist and the convoluted family relationships that may have made it inevitable, is further complicated by Poje's wordplay. The author is fond of puns and cultural references, jumping back and forth from song lyrics to internal monologue as the sexy characters drive and listen to music. But this wordplay works against him. Not only does it occasionally obscure the plot -which is further convoluted by multiple viewpoints- it draws the reader out of the story by calling too much attention to itself.

An action-packed heist frequently bogged down by excessive verbiage.

AUTHOR COMMENT ON KIRKUS REVIEW
Would Casino be the same without internal monologue, music, cultural reference ...and characters with intricate\convoluted lives? Potent potables provide pleasure past homogenized milk!

The path through the forest is lined with trees. Seeing the forest from the path requires imagination. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Bill Poje recently resided and commuted between the Grand Cayman and the Bahamas. He is a hurricane magnet, having endured or evacuated from nine hurricanes. He now lives in Jacksonville. Uh oh...Look out First Coast! Hurricane Bill is coming!

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris (September 23, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1436370485
• ISBN-13: 978-1436370486
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,628,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun adventure of the underworld written in a noir style, recommended, June 10, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Painless (Hardcover)

Sometimes, the rich don't get rich by following the law to the letter. "Painless" follows tycoon Augustus Valentine as his latest shady venture goes sour. The smuggling operation goes wrong as a his cargo is heisted, and very powerful people are displeased with him. Specifically, they are 'take his life' displeased with him. "Painless" is a fun adventure of the underworld written in a noir style, recommended.