- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Signed edition (Oct 14 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0684847183
- ISBN-13: 978-0684847184
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 16.3 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 522 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Axel Speeter, Pete Hautman's hilarious creation, returns for another delirious round of mayhem when his girlfriend's daughter Carmen becomes engaged to a con man named Hyatt Hilton. Before long, Axel has convinced his pal Joe Crow to investigate Hilton, which, in turn, embroils everyone in a misfired plot to scam some bogus preachers. Soon gamblers, bodybuilders, religious charlatans, and elderly fishermen are popping out of the midwestern landscape with loony abandon. All the craziness makes the mystery a little hard to follow, but it's all so endearing that you probably won't mind.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
The Amaranthine Church of the One, which promises immortality if one believes enough, is flourishing. Hyatt Hilton, a former member of the church, is planning to expose the Amaranthines as charlatans. To do this, he concocts a wedding, a kidnapping of the bride, and a bid to put the event on the news. Hautman's (The Mortal Nuts, LJ 5/1/96) plot is so convoluted that it is almost impossible to follow. The characters are not amusing or even engaging, his motivation remains obscure, and the narrative moves so slowly it will lose most readers. Not recommended.?Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
Carmen Roman was pissed off. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Carmen Roman was pissed off. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Neither poker nor mystery: a farcical caper novel,
By Mr. Ed in Toronto (Toronto, Ont) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ring Game (Mass Market Paperback)
Having enjoyed Hautman's 2005 poker mystery, The Prop, I was looking forward to this. But it turned out to have neither poker (ok, the protagonist Joe Crow does talk about having played in a few places) nor mystery. Unlike some reviewers, I didn't find the overloaded plot confusing: it's in the nature of farce, which is what this is. The back-cover blurb of my edition compares the book to fiction by Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiassen but really this is a comic caper novel in the Donald Eastlake tradition. Hautman's a skilled wordsmith but this is not his best work.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not the best Joe Crow novel,
By
This review is from: Ring Game (Mass Market Paperback)
This is my third Joe Crow novel by Pete Hautman. I thought "Short Money" and "Drawing Dead" were hilarious and I would give them both five stars. This one borders on the cloyingly stupid, while "Drawing Dead" and "Short Money" are over the top in "funny stupid". There is a difference (if you know what I mean <G>). In other words there are times when this crazed plot simply isn't funny. The plot is basically a plan of revenge by an idiot former coke dealer and now counterfeit Evian distributor to destroy a silly Aramanthine religious cult whose leaders are playing a con on innocent believers/contributors that you can live forever. This revenge plan, concocted by Hiatt Hilton, is because he was "kicked out" of the cult he helped start in a health food store. Therefore he dreams up a fake wedding in which he and his "bride not to really be" are fake kidnapped before the wedding in an effort to pin the blame on these crazed cultists. As an aside, Hilton presumably plans to make some money by selling his story of the kidnapping/foiled wedding to news media. Joe Crow is drawn into this simply because he has nothing else to do while is girlfriend is spending time in Paris, and becuase Sam O'Gara's friend Axel wants him to investigate his future pseudo son in law's background because Joe was somehow involved in the pseudo son in law and daughter in law meeting. Joe does nothing to save the day in this plot other than make a lucky cell phone call, but he manages to nearly get himself killed by two muggings in the process. OK....so the plot perhaps sounds terrible. (It really is.) But Hautman has a way with characters and words that will still amuse you, so I still had fun with this nutty book. But I'd certainly not recommend this book as your first taste of either Joe Crow or Pete Hautman. Try "Short Money" or "Drawing Dead" first.
4.0 out of 5 stars
I miss Rich Wicky,
By
This review is from: Ring Game (Mass Market Paperback)
This is my third Hautman. The previous two Joe Crow ones were 5 stars for me. This one is not not quite scary enough for a comic thriller. Drawing Dead had menacing characters to sharpen the edges. The central plot is that Hyatt Hilton is supposed to be thinking up a scheme connected with his wedding and the fraudulent Amaranthine cult, but that didn't keep me on the edge of my seat. Crow's depression is well described, and so is life as an American in Paris, and all sorts of other good stuff and comic incidents that have nothing to do with the main plot.
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