Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
A James Lessor and Skip Moore Mystery by Don Bruns
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.
Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Selected reviews of other mysteries by this author …
Barbados Heat
Minotaur Books (Hardcover), November 2003
ISBN-13: 9780312304928; ISBN-10: 0312304927
Bahama Burnout
Oceanview Publishing (Hardcover), March 2009
ISBN-13: 9781933515205; ISBN-10: 1933515201
Location(s) referenced in Don't Sweat the Small Stuff: Miami, Florida
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Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Don Bruns
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 1-933515-79-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-933515-79-3
Publication Date: December 2010
List Price: $25.95
Synopsis (from the publisher): It's official: stumbling, bumbling James Lessor and Skip Moore are licensed private investigators. Now, that's some scary stuff.
It could take time to get Moore or Less investigations off the ground, so James takes a job with a traveling carnival show. But this show has a dubious reputation, having had a string of accidents and at least one death in the past year.
When they're hired to investigate what's caused the carnival chaos, James and Skip set into motion a dizzying, roller coaster chain of events.
After a terrifying trip on the Dragon Tail ride, a not-so-fun dust-up in Freddy's Fun House, and a host of threats, James and Skip realize they'll get anything but cooperation from this cantankerous cast of carnies.
But when a carnival worker is murdered, James and Skip will have to act fast -- because they might be next in line.
For James and Skip, the only thing sweeter than the smell of corndogs and fried dough will be the sweet smell of success -- but in this case, "success" means getting out alive.
This investigation is going completely off the rails.