- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 1995)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0684802112
- ISBN-13: 978-0684802114
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 15.7 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 454 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
This exhilarating prequel to Drawing Dead is by turns funny and soulful and always unpredictable. Joe Crow has scraped bottom: he's lost his job as a cop for handcuffing the chief's troublesome nephew to his truck; he's got a cocaine problem; his marriage is on the rocks; his loathsome brother-in-law has just set him up as a bodyguard for Dr. Nelson Bellweather, the town liposuctionist; and it's a particularly grim winter in Minnesota. Bellweather feels threatened by the sociopathic Murphy clan, three dysfunctional generations of hunters and their matriarch who run a game preserve where, for the right price, they will procure any animal a client wants to shoot. Crow, suspecting that Bellweather himself isn't entirely innocent, finds himself entangled in a web of misunderstandings, crimes, near-crimes, lapses in judgment and inspired slapstick as each set of bumbling crooks tries to outmaneuver the others. Hautman's dialogue sparkles, his plot hums, he's got a nicely complex sense of morality and he's a virtuoso when it comes to describing what it feels like to get punched. Best of all is Joe Crow: moving among nuts and crazies; comparing Alcoholics Anonymous and Cocaine Anonymous meetings (the coke addicts are funnier); breaking heads when necessary; and bonding with Milo, his cat. May he never learn that discretion is the better part of valor.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Contemplating his dead-end job, his failed marriage, and his addiction to prescription drugs, ex-cop Joe Crow finds more trouble than he is prepared for when he takes cases involving a trophy elk's murder, a dual kidnapping, and a six-hundred pound tiger. 15,000 first printing.
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First Sentence
The open-top Hummer climbed out of the dry creekbed onto the bank, turned its blocky nose to the north, and growled up the steep side of the coulee, seeking gaps between the larger trees, rolling over the smaller saplings and herbaceous plants, flattening the mat of autumn leaves. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The open-top Hummer climbed out of the dry creekbed onto the bank, turned its blocky nose to the north, and growled up the steep side of the coulee, seeking gaps between the larger trees, rolling over the smaller saplings and herbaceous plants, flattening the mat of autumn leaves. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you like Hiaason, you'll love Hautman!,
By
This review is from: Short Money: A Novel (Hardcover)
Pete Hautman's Short Money is a delightfully charming, outrageously funny mystery along the lines of Carl Hiaason. Hartman takes us on a runaway roller coaster ride with policeman, Joe Crow. Crow's life is out of control, and he has drug problems, marriage problems and job problems. Of course, most of his problems are of his own making.Joe takes a new job that seems rather simple, and things are never as simple as they first appear. The plot is hysterically funny and without giving too much away, Joe has to deal with a sleazy brother-in-law lawyer, a runaway kid, a missing cat, two crazy brothers (one downright psychopathic), a scheming plastic surgeon, a druggie wife, a farm for canned hunts, and several wild animals. There are more than a few belly laughs, and I actually had tears rolling down my cheeks from laughing so hard in several spots. I have been told that Short Money is not Hautman's best effort. If this is the case, I can't wait to read more.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Joe Crow's a melancholy soul,
By Dave Schwinghammer "Dave Schwinghammer" (Little Falls, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Short Money (Mass Market Paperback)
The expression "short money" is a poker term relating to a professional player's reluctance to play against somebody with a small bankroll. Joe Crow is still a cop at the beginning of this one, but he's drinking a lot and doing cocaine. So is his wife, Melinda. He's also working for Sheriff Orlan Johnson, who's under the thumb of the Murphy brothers, who run a big game preserve where clients can hunt endangered species.When he's fired for being too tough on the Murphys, Crow takes a job as a bodyguard for Dr. Nelson Bellweather, one of the Murphys' best clients. The Murphys think Bellweather has sexually abused and kidnapped George Murphy's son Shawn. Bellweather is the one with the short bankroll; he's a liposuctionist who's been sued more often than Enron. And, of course, he stiffs Joe Crow. The set-up is a bit implausible as are most of the characters, but Joe Crow and old reliables Sam O'Gara and his gal pal Debrowski make up for them. Crow is such an unconventional hero, you can't help but root for him. He tries to kick cocaine and booze, and he can't get a handle on women, or himself for that matter. His best friend is a cat, who's missing for most of the book. The little town where Crow works at the beginning of the novel is called Big River. Immediately we Minnesotans are thinking "Big Lake." And like Garrison Keillor, Hautman mentions other place names, such as Clara City, Dassel, and Litchfield. The pace is quite brisk, with lots of action and suspense. There's a tiger chained to the wall at the lodge on the Murphy ranch that we know is going to enter into the story somehow. Not as good as MORTAL NUTS but a lot better than most crime fiction.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Satisfying, but you've got to stay with it.,
By
This review is from: Short Money (Mass Market Paperback)
I'd rate this 3.5 stars but no 1/2 stars available.I liked Pete Hautman's "Short Money" although it took me awhile to warm to it. The plot meanders along like a slow moving river but if you're not in too big of a hurry it's a nice ride. The story also does what so many don't, satisfies at the end. Everyone gets their's in about the proper proportions. Lost souls are found, directionless people find one, misdirected people tumble off the edge and lawyers stay true to form, thinking of the one thing they really care about---themselves. I'm looking forward to reading "Drawing Dead".
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