Shoveling Smoke [Hardcover]

Austin Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2003

Reveling in outrageous shenanigans and hilariously off-kilter characters, Shoveling Smoke does for East Texas what Carl Hiaasen's novels do for South Florida. Burned-out corporate lawyer Clay Parker chucks it all and moves from Houston to a tiny firm in a dusty small town, searching for his lost integrity and a simpler life. Instead, he lands in the middle of a bungled fraud case defending the disreputable and downright nasty Bevo Rasmussen, accused of torching the stables housing his overinsured thoroughbreds. Immediately confronted with corrupt officials, crazed survivalists, an incompetent hit man, an emu, and a naked county clerk, along with an assortment of vengeful wives and great barbecue, Clay discovers that nothing is what it seems to be. By the end, our hero gets way more than he bargained for, justice (Texas-style) gets served, and the reader gets a laugh-out-loud first novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A Houston lawyer's attempt to escape the rat race backfires with hilarious results in Davis's thoroughly enjoyable debut crime novel. Sardonic Clay Parker's new job in the tiny East Texas town of Jenks gets off to a bumpy start when he has to fetch one of his two bosses, Gill Stroud, from jail (where he's been sleeping off a whopping bender) and help him sober up in time to win a murder trial. His next assignment is even tougher: defending sleazy Bevo Rasmussen (Parker calls him a "shady little buccaneer," but takes note of the razor hidden in his sock), who's accused of setting fire to a barn full of prized thoroughbreds for the insurance money. Romance enters the picture when Parker falls for a powerful, sexy court clerk named Sally Dean, whose father happens to be a horse-trading kingpin with links to Rasmussen and tentacles extending into virtually every major criminal enterprise in the county. As Parker works feverishly to prepare for trial, his efforts are hindered by his rambunctious, bumbling partners: Stroud can't lay off the juice, and his partner, Hardwick Chandler, shows an equal passion for womanizing. Davis uses his quirky characters to capture the seat-of-the-pants flavor of law in a Texas backwater, and the charming but somewhat kinky romance between Parker and Dean works as a nice counterpoint to the legal shenanigans. The going's a little rough in spots, but Parker is an engaging protagonist whose humor and savvy easily carry the inaugural volume of this promising series.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...hilarious...thoroughly enjoyable.... Parker is an engaging protagonist whose humor and savvy easily carry the inaugural volume of this promising series." -Publishers Weekly

"If you think lawyers can't possibly be funny, read Shoveling Smoke, which is fast, well-plotted, and hilarious besides." -Ed McBain

"A fast-moving story, a fascinating book." -Richard "Racehorse" Haynes Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; First Printing edition (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811841529
• ISBN-13: 978-0811841528
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,744,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lawyers spend their professional careers shoveling smoke, February 9, 2012

By 

Miss Kitty "Timid Observer" (The lone star state) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Shoveling Smoke (Paperback)

Shoveling Smoke is about Clay Parker, a burned out Houston lawyer who moves to a small town/small firm to practice a bit of everything. He doesn't anticipate that his small town life would include a crazed alcoholic partner or that his small town cases would involve murder and insurance fraud. Every single character is lively and well thought out, and it is packed with lots of Texas-isms. You have to love Austin Davis, you can tell he is a good 'ole Texas boy. The book had me laughing out loud. I look forward to reading more, hopefully it will be another Clay Parker book.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In short? Blow-snot funny., January 12, 2005

By 

Shelley S. Rees "drshells" (Edmond, OK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shoveling Smoke (Hardcover)

"Shoveling Smoke" is Texan Austin Davis's first novel, and it is a doozy. As a Texan myself, I'm always leery of books (and films) set in Texas, because all too often they devolve into a rousing game of "laugh at the silly hicks." Fear not in this case, as Davis's novel, I'm thrilled to say, brings the laughs while refusing to reduce characters to caricatures.

The plot is deceptively simple: Big-city (Houston) tax attorney decides to move to a firm in the backwoods and escape the rat race; cue wacky rural hijinks. So how does Davis take this overdone stranger-in-a-strange-land storyline to another level? With good old-fashioned whip-smart writing, that's how. The dialogue crackles with cleverness, and it's an authentic clever, not some contrived ain't-they-a-hoot nonsense. Hilarious rural-speak flows from these characters so naturally you can hear the voices in your head, and Davis presents that speech almost reverently, as evidence of wit and command of language, never as ignorance. The pacing is spot on throughout. And as far as the plot goes, Davis doesn't simply walk the line between the hysterically unexpected and the ridiculously unbelievable, he redraws it. As wild as some of the circumstances get in this novel, I never felt the tightrope of verisimilitude wobble beneath me; I believed every word.

In addition, I was surprised, nasty old cynic that I am, to catch myself grinning on more than one occasion while reading this book. Sure, there were moments when I laughed out loud, but even a crappy book can get a zinger in here and there, so that's not necessarily a high compliment. But to discover yourself smiling with no knowledge of how long you've been doing it? That is something special. I am not just impressed by Davis but grateful to him, for I was having a bit of a downer week and reading his book was like having someone snatch a handful of sunshine and toss it to me.

Get this book and catch some of that sunshine for yourself.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Quirky characters, bizarre twists and outrageously funny", August 31, 2004

By 

William T. Keith "Portico Magazine" (Birmingham, Alabama) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shoveling Smoke (Hardcover)

This debut crime novel just came out, and the title is from Oliver Wendell Holmes: "Lawyers spend a great deal of time shoveling smoke." The cover picture gives you a good idea of the kind of humor this book is full of. It's the story of a burnt-out Houston tax lawyer who heads to small town Jenks, Texas, to escape the rat race. Quirky Southern characters, bizarre plot twists and outrageously funny situations abound in Austin Davis' first novel.