Umbrella Man (Jack Flippo Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Doug Swanson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 5, 1999 | Series: Jack Flippo Mysteries

The fourth in the Edgar Award-nominated and Golden Dagger Award-winning "Jack Flippo" series, pulls the sod back from the Grassy Knoll to uncover the truth about the Kennedy assassination.

Jack Flippo stumbles upon Marty Dufrain, the owner of a few frames of black-and-white film that just might show a second gunman firing at President Kennedy on that famous November day.

In the lee of the triple overpass, overshadowed by the schoolbook depository, squats the Grassy Knoll. It stood at the center of the Kennedy assassination as surely as it serves as the focus for all manner of crackpots and conspiracy theorists today. In his latest mess, Jack Flippo seems to have found his share of them. From Jack's friends--a homicidal con artist making a buck off assassination re-creations in the "You-are-there JFK deathmobile"--to his enemies--an oxygen-dependent ex-killer and his cognitively challenged sons-in-law--Umbrella Man keeps Jack wondering which group he dreads most.

"Doug Swanson does Dallas the way Robert Parker does Boston--from the bottom up." --Carl Hiaasen

"You definitely want to be in Dallas when Jack Flippo's on a case." --The New York Times

Reminding readers and critics alike of Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard, Swanson is "the John Travolta of the comic caper: he makes it all look light and easy and seems to be having a great time too" (Kirkus Reviews).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jack Flippo has what might be called an anti-Midas touch: everything he puts his hands on turns to crap. Jack used to be an assistant district attorney in Dallas, but he screwed up so badly (as chronicled in three funny, creepy books--Big Town, Dreamboat, and 96 Tears) that he's been forced to earn his living working as a downscale private detective. At the start of this fourth adventure, Jack is temporarily back in the legal profession--working for a decidedly boring law firm. We know it's only a matter of time though before he'll be back on the meaner streets of Dallas, digging up dirt for a weird assortment of clients.

This time, the action involves the grubby cottage industries that have sprung up in the decades following the JFK assassination. There's the Conspiracy Institute, which "took up a small corner of a forgotten brick eight-story near the Greyhound Station"; and the Grassy Knoll Experience, a tour of the area in a 1963 Lincoln convertible limo driven by an increasingly desperate ex-cop named Eddie Nickles. Jack is thrust into this world after hearing about a legendary 30-second piece of movie film that supposedly shows there was a second gunman. His mission is to prove the existence of the film. He is helped by his supremely strange, artist ladyfriend Lola. They struggle with several stumbling but definitely dangerous villains along the way. And, as usual, journalist Doug Swanson manages to shine a light on the seedy parts of Dallas that are rarely written about. --Dick Adler

From Publishers Weekly

In the small but distinct subgenre of the private eye as likable loser, Swanson's Jack Flippo looms large. The first three books in the series (Big Town, Dreamboat and 96 Tears) won awards and attention; this latest entry isn't up to snuff. The former Dallas assistant district attorney and PI is once again holding down a straight job in a respectable law firm, but he quickly messes up and so returns to working as a snoop, for a seedy collection of clients trying to trace a piece of film that may prove there was a second shooter in the JFK assassination. In a moment of self-revelation, Jack muses that "he knew himself well enough to see he was a guy who had found out plenty and never knew what to do with it. Made money but couldn't save it, got jobs but couldn't hold them.... had pulled stupid, almost suicidal stunts for sex, while driving away every woman, including two wives, who loved him." The trouble is that this time Jack is the only interesting character in a book peopled with types too familiar from other mysteries: a ritual pair of dumb thugs who are dangerous mostly to themselves; a dying master criminal who breathes attached to an oxygen bottle; a crooked ex-cop who turns nasty. Even Jack's weird artist girlfriend, Lola, seems to have wandered in from Elmore Leonard's pages. The liveliest moments come when Jack plunges into the touristy cesspool spawned by JFK-assassination-mania (a tour in a 1963 Lincoln called the Grassy Knoll Experience, for example). But even these highlights, and Swanson's vaunted talent for capturing the seamy underbelly of Dallas, aren't enough to satisfy the discriminating fan. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 273 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First edition. edition (July 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399145036
• ISBN-13: 978-0399145032
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,230,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you like Kinky Friedman, you'll love Doug Swanson, February 26, 2000

By 

KBell (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Umbrella Man (Jack Flippo Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Jack Flippo has seen better days, but he seems on his way back up when former cop Eddie "Bent" Nickles sends him in search of a missing piece of film. A film shot November 22, 1963 in Dallas. Soon Flippo is bounced from his new job with a tony law firm, leaving behind its plush carpets and mahogany credenzas.

Sylvan Dufrain, the film's photographer was shot and then burned in his Cadillac a month after the Kennedy assassination...or was he? Dufrain's wife and brother are now operating a shop that specializes in whoopie cushions and fake vomit.

Lola (aka Jennifer), Jack Flippos "artistician" girlfriend is putting together a show using blowup dolls from the local porn shop. Her plans are deflated by bullets shot through the living room window of the home she shares with Flippo.

Weldon Chaney is a disabled hitman saddled with the sons-in-law from hell. His efforts to make competent criminals of them are doomed to failure.

Treena Watts is a bail agent with a heart of gold. She is searching for answers about the death of her brother Mineola. She is leery of Jack Flippo's help since it was Jack who sent Mineola to prison.

This loopy cast of characters collide in a wickedly funny morality tale. Swanson expertly juggles the subplots that come together to a satifying ending that leaves Jack back in his linoleum-floored office with its metal desk.

Watch out Kinky Friedman, Doug Swanson's breathing down your neck!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast and funny., July 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Umbrella Man (Jack Flippo Mysteries) (Hardcover)

This one kept me up late, laughing and turning pages. It's full of dead-on dialog, and plenty of twists, turns and surprises. I hadn't read Swanson before, but now I'm a fan.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Humorous Flippo tale, June 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Umbrella Man (Jack Flippo Mysteries) (Hardcover)

All Dallas private investigator Jack Flippo wants is a chance to return to practicing law. However, as is his norm, when the opportunity arises for the former Assistant district Attorney to return to law, he fumbles it and soon is back working as a sleuth for a bunch of losers.

Frustrated with life and himself as a screw-up, Jack accepts a mangy client interested in attaining the DuFrain film. Rumor has it that the black and white film proves that a second person, THE UMBRELLA MAN, was an active player in the Kennedy assassination. To obtain the film, Jack must confront a homicidal friend who will kill to make a buck and a dying retired killer who will gladly come out of retirement to kill for a buck.

Anyone who enjoys an antihero loser as their sleuth will flip over Jack Flippo, who has flopped more than Fosbury. In his fourth outing, Jack remains a dreamboat of a dud who cannot do anything right. Though the support case never quite grips the audience, the story line of UMBRELLA MAN is entertaining and fun to read due to Jack who was burned when he jumped the candlestick. Doug Swanson continues to write humorous tales that fans will fully enjoy.

Harriet Klausner