10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding, off-beat private eye, October 26, 1999
So many private-eye books, so little originality. But Steve Brewer has invented a character and provided a sense-of-place that puts his Bubba Maybry books well above most of the others. Bubba is a none too bright but engaging private investigator whose meager earnings barely buy him booze and a cheap motel room on Route 66 in Albuquerque. Brewer's fast paced style and Bubba's wry observations make this book (and others in the series) well worth ordering.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If only it weren't out of print I would have ranked it a 10!, May 13, 1998
By A Customer
I'm Wiccan and a feminist to boot. I actually borrowed this book from my library, intending to read it on the bus on the way to work. I was hoping it would be just as ill informed and disrespectful of my religion and my gender as it could possibly be. I wanted it to get my ire up and my blood boiling so I could give up caffeine and still arrive at the office wide awake.
So why am I wandering around amazon.com looking to buy it? Because it was great! Sure, Brewer (via Bubba) pokes fun at the women of WOMB. Sure he shows entirely too much sympathy for the deprogrammer, and gives way too much credence to the guy's incorrect information about what he thinks is going on at WOMB.
Who care?!? It was a great story. It's a rare murder mystery that I can't figure out ahead of the detective in the story. (Exempting, of course, the ones where we know the ending up front, which annoys the hell out of me.) But I had absolutely no clue who had killed the second victim until about three words after Bubba figured it out. And this wasn't for lack of clues, but due to good writing. And you want to talk about funny? I was laughing hard enough to give up coffee for two whole days!
And I never felt the author was seriously contemptable of the women or their beliefs, particularly in view of the way they treat both Bubba and his girlfriend. (Whose name I have forgotten but was hoping to remember when I got my own copy of the book, dang it!)
If this ever comes back into print, I'll be there with my grubby little dollar bills in hand. In the meantime, just know that it was really enjoyable.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Bubba Mabry tracks a missing heiress, January 27, 2012
Bubba Mabry is a down-on-his-luck PI who uses a cheap motel for his office. Felicia, his significant other, is a feisty reporter for an Albuquerque newspaper owned by Mrs. Ogletroop, a delicate, reclusive woman dubbed "The Goddess" by Felicia.
Paths cross when The Goddess hires Bubba to spirit her granddaughter Margaret away from a feminist cult known as WOMB (Women Overcoming the Masculine Burden). The cult is tucked away in the wilds of Taos. Bubba's partner will be Reasons, a fussy guy who's a cult deprogrammer. Bubba's a loner but takes on a partner because of the retainer -- $1,000 cash from The Goddess.
Bubba and Reasons are captured by two cultists before they know what hit them and the local sheriff has no sympathy for trespassers. Despite the sheriff's warning, they try again, this time hoping to approach WOMB through an adjacent farm owned by Jeronimo Valdez, who claims the cult has mutilated his cows.
Valdez is agreeable, even telling them about a trail that will lead them to WOMB without being seen. Bubba and Reasons follow his instructions and come upon a group of naked women splashing in a pool. Their prey, the beautiful blonde Margaret Ogletroop, is engaged in a sexual tryst with Luna, the leader of the group. Stunned, Bubba and Reasons backtrack in a hurry.
Small warnings follow Bubba. Someone in a big truck tries to run him down. Someone breaks into his hotel room and leaves a rubber snake in his bed. Bubba brushes them off as annoyances until a deputy sheriff rousts him out of bed and hauls him down to the sheriff's office. Margaret has been murdered. Bubba and Reasons are accounted for but they are still suspects, along with a slew of cult members.
When Felicia shows up in search of a story and infiltrates the cult as a new recruit, things get hairy. There's another murder and the story takes off at a gallop.
Bubba is a colorful protagonist, a cynic in training who never quite pulls it off. Brewer builds his story with care. Bubba's final confrontation with a couple of bad guys is a bloody surprise on both accounts.
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