Trouble Comes Back (Hardcover)

by Keith Snyder (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Hip and witty, the third Jason Keltner mystery (after Show Control, etc.) finds the young Southern California musician/composer helping his friend Martin. Martin's mom has taken up with yet another unworthy boyfriend, a drug dealer named Ed. Joined by a third pal, aspiring actor Robert, Jason and Martin manage to scare Ed off. Through a series of unlikely coincidences, this bit of do-gooding leads to a meeting with one of Ed's clients, rock legend Dwight Cooper (aka Uncle Trouble). Dwight shoots dope to escape the stress of life on the road and the threats of his ex-wife, supermodel Lissa Court, who wants custody of their daughter, Donna. Little Donna takes an instant liking to tall and tender Robert, so Dwight hires the guys to provide security for the tyke. When Lissa shows up, they leap into action, scaring her off, but they sense that something's not quite right, for Lissa acts less like a kidnapper than a loving mother who longs to see her child. Then Donna is snatched, a band member is shot, Dwight almost kills himself on his motorcycle and it is Lissa who comes through with the money for the ransom. Further complications ensue, but Jason won't let go of the case until he resolves the trouble, all the while fending off a lustful ex-wife. Snyder's dialogue mercifully forgoes macho posturing clich?s; his heroes' conversations are often eclectically erudite. The plot line slips along at a pleasant clip with a number of twists and turns. Few of these truly startle, but, then, neither does much else in this enjoyable but lightweight mystery. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Jason, Robert, and Martin, three nonconformist Long Beach, CA, buddies, agree to watch over a wasted-by-drugs rock star's threatened daughter. A ponytailed techno-music composer, an extra-tall, Jewish part-time actor, and a short, dark-skinned former drug addict, the three nevertheless share a laid-back, off-the-wall lifestyle, a strong sense of ethics, a wicked sense of humor, and mutual loyalty. As the "boys" play baby-sitter but fail to foil murder and kidnapping, they get grief at the hands of the child's noncustodial mother and others. Snyder's (Coffin's Got the Dead Guy on the Inside) latest Jason Keltner mystery is a riot to read, with clever, sometimes graphic remarks. Strongly recommended.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 318 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company; First Printing edition (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802733387
• ISBN-13: 978-0802733382
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,392,623 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Snyder rewards readers who pay attention to what they read, September 3, 2000

By	William Peschel (Hershey, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Trouble Comes Back" in different disguises in the third installment of the life of Jason Keltner, a young electronic musician living in Southern California.

Keltner spends little time behind his keyboards and computers this go-round, as an attempt to rescue his roommates mother from an abusive boyfriend leads him on an expedition to a crack house, where they discover and help rescue former rock star Dwight Cooper, a.k.a. Uncle Trouble. Cooper returns the favor by hiring them to babysit his daughter and protect her from his ex-wife, now working as a model in New York City.

Keith Snyder has a way of capturing contemporary speech that's free-flowing and sometimes confusing or obscure. His characters trade barbs and jokes, sometimes in the same paragraph, they fight and make up or not. A story arc may go in one direction, hang a right turn at the last moment and head into uncharted territory. While the fun is more muted this time around, when it shows up it's all the more amusing from trenchent observations about New York (my favorite: "Brooklyn is like Manhatten only shorter.") to the inclusion of a bedtime story "The Little Clam that Liked to Dance Even Though It Had No Feet" and "The Wonky," a short-short story that plays a pivotal role in the conclusion. This is a book where the pain is real, the regret palatable and the consequences of even the best of intentions sometimes fatal.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wit and warmth in a lively and well-written novel, October 30, 1999

By	A. Shechter (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Okay, so I recently signed on to work for the author, Keith Snyder, to do some publicity. But I did so because I think his Jason Keltner series is one of the best things to hit the mystery field in years. His dialogue is brilliant - funny and witty and snappy, but believable and real. His characters are young, sorta edgy, but the 3 main characters are young men who truly like each other and care about each other. The story, involving a sort of loose body-guarding of a young girl who's the daughter of a messed-up rock star, gives them changes to encounter all sorts of people and try, essentially, to do good. I don't often read books that make me laugh out loud, but I was doing just that within 3 pages of Trouble Comes Back. This is one _talented_ writer and I hope to be reading his books for years to come.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Snyder just keeps getting better, January 16, 2000

By	Doris Ann Norris (Fostoria, OH USA) - See all my reviews

I didn't think I'd like "Show Control" about three young men in Southern California. Just sounded to hip for someone of my advanced age and middle western upbringing. I was very wrong. The third in the Jason Keltner series following "The Coffin's Got the Dead Guy Inside" is the best yet. Snyder grows as a writer. Jason and his friends continue to mature as characters especially in this often touching book. The humor is still there, but the tale concerns dysfunctional families and a child in jeopardy. All three of the characters make discoveries about themselves that are shared with the reader and which makes this trio so very likable as they are all good men trying to find their place in the universe in which they live. "Trouble Comes Back" is a book that clearly fulfills the promise shown in the earlier books and makes one impatient for the fourth in the series.