Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

October 4, 2010
Roommates Skip Moore and James Lessor of More or Less Investigations receive PI licenses from the Florida Department of Agriculture ("Don't ask why.... This is Florida. They just do things a little differently here") in Bruns's diverting if predictable fourth mystery to feature the bumbling sleuths (after 2009's Stuff to Spy For). When Moe Bradley, owner of the Moe Show carnival, hires James to be his new marketing director, he also asks them to find out who's been sabotaging the rides. A faulty safety bar on one ride has resulted in a 32-year-old woman being thrown to her death. After Kevin Cross, who knows too much about the carny for his own good, turns up shot to death in his trailer, the action, leavened with plenty of laid-back dialogue, picks up steam and concludes on a cool cliffhanger. Skip's girlfriend, Emily, and their PI pal, Jody Stacy, who supplies the pair with spy toys, add to the fun.

November 1, 2010
This is the fourth outing for Bruns stumblebum heroes, Lessor and Moore. This time theyre asked to investigate murderous happenings at a carnival. The reader is invited to tangle with a wildly uneven book by a talented author who needs a stern lecture (perhaps from his editor). Some of the set pieces are wonderful, like the account of a wild trip on a fiendish carnival ride or a menacing walk through a dark house of horrors. Also, there are thoughtful disquisitions on detecting methods that would impress Holmes, and there are numerous striking turns of phrase. But some scenes, like the opening one, at a lunch counter, are so poorly worked as to be nearly incomprehensible. This is guy lit, but unfortuately guy often translates to dumb and proud of it: for example, after Moore is introduced to a woman who is called his paramour, he spends a paragraph boasting that he doesnt know what the word means. Recommended for series followers but with caveats to fans of the comical, hard-boiled style.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)