Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Don Bruns, a Mysterious Review.

Review: James Lessor and Skip Moore are newly and fully licensed by the State of Florida as private investigators — they cut only a corner or two to get approved — and are on their first assignment as professionals in Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, the fourth mystery in this series by Don Bruns.

The two best friends actually get the job in a round-about way. Moe Bradley runs a traveling carnival show, setting up booths and rides in parking lots of small shopping centers around Florida. After a series of accidents that killed one person and injured several others, James is hired as Moe's new marketing director to improve the company's image. (How he got that job is another story!) But when Moe learns James and Skip are PIs, he hires them to look into whether or not the "accidents" may, in fact, be anything but. When a carnie is killed, shot through the head, James and Skip's first real case is suddenly looking far more dangerous than any of the rides in the carnival.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff is told from the perspective of Skip, the more reserved of the two. While James is always looking on the positive side of things — especially where money is concerned … the more the better — Skip observes that they're being generously paid for their services, and that raises a red flag with him. As he says to James, "If you can get a pro to come in here and investigate this case for a thousand, why would anyone pay the two of us two thousand plus a bonus?" The carnival setting with its cast of unusual characters creates both a colorful and mysterious background for their investigation, which has more than its fair share of red herrings and plot twists. This is a solid entry in this mystery series, one that will satisfy existing fans and draw in new readers.

Acknowledgment: Oceanview Publishing provided a copy of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for this review.

Stuff to Spy For
Oceanview Publishing (Hardcover), November 2009
ISBN-13: 9781933515229; ISBN-10: 1933515228

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

A James Lessor and Skip Moore Mystery by Don Bruns