Published: July 31, 2011
Words: 73,744 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781465755827

Short description

Tom Iris has no plans for the July 4th long weekend, aside from sparking one up and spinning some John Coltrane. But all of that quickly changes when Tom runs into his boyhood crush, Cheryl Kerr, only to soon after find himself the prime suspect in the murder of Cheryl's ex-husband, Jack Dobbs. Desperate to clear his name, Tom enlists a motley crew of characters to help him find the real murderer.

Extended description

Tom Iris has no big plans for the July 4th long weekend. But that quickly changes when he runs into his boyhood crush, Cheryl Kerr, the newest recruit for International Lab Group in Blockton, and they plan to meet up. Beginning the long weekend with the usual game of poker, Tom, against his better judgment, smokes and drinks himself into a stupor, only to soon after find himself lost and alone in the industrial area of Blockton. Things take a turn for the worse when he discovers a body a dead body which turns out to be Cheryl’s ex-husband. Not only that, Cheryl has been injured in a bombing at the ILG building, a bombing seemingly orchestrated by a militant animal rights group. When Tom learns that he is the prime suspect in the murder of Cheryl’s ex, Jack Dobbs, he enlists a motley crew of characters—including Mal, a pot-growing barber, and Hepp, a bumbling ex-con and newsstand operator—to find Dobb’s real murderer, a task which pits him against professional killers and ph.. (Read more) Tom Iris has no big plans for the July 4th long weekend. But that quickly changes when he runs into his boyhood crush, Cheryl Kerr, the newest recruit for International Lab Group in Blockton, and they plan to meet up. Beginning the long weekend with the usual game of poker, Tom, against his better judgment, smokes and drinks himself into a stupor, only to soon after find himself lost and alone in the industrial area of Blockton. Things take a turn for the worse when he discovers a body a dead body which turns out to be Cheryl’s ex-husband. Not only that, Cheryl has been injured in a bombing at the ILG building, a bombing seemingly orchestrated by a militant animal rights group. When Tom learns that he is the prime suspect in the murder of Cheryl’s ex, Jack Dobbs, he enlists a motley crew of characters—including Mal, a pot-growing barber, and Hepp, a bumbling ex-con and newsstand operator—to find Dobb’s real murderer, a task which pits him against professional killers and pharmaceutical magnates. As the mystery begins to unravel, Tom finds danger at every turn and learns that nothing is as it seems--and no one is safe. That is until Tom blows the case wide open by doing what he is best at—nothing.
(Less)

Tags

mystery, murder mystery, marijuana, murder screwball comedy, noir crime, noir humor, genrebender, pharmeceuticals, slackers

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Reviews

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Review by: Katy Sozaeva on April 24, 2012 :
Book Info: Genre: Suspense Reading Level: Adult

Disclosure: I won a free eBook copy of this book on LibraryThing, which I received in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Tom Iris has no big plans for the July 4th long weekend. But that quickly changes when he runs into his boyhood crush, Cheryl Kerr, the newest recruit for International Lab Group in Blockton, and they plan to meet up. Beginning the long weekend with the usual game of poker, Tom, against his better judgment, smokes and drinks himself into a stupor, only to soon after find himself lost and alone in the industrial area of Blockton. Things take a turn for the worse when he discovers a body; a dead body which turns out to be Cheryl’s ex-husband. Not only that, Cheryl has been injured in a bombing at the ILG building, a bombing seemingly orchestrated by a militant animal rights’ group. When Tom learns that he is the prime suspect in the murder of Cheryl’s ex, Jack Dobbs, he enlists a motley crew of characters—including Mal, a pot-growing barber, and Hepp, a bumbling ex-con and newsstand operator—to find Dobbs’ real murderer, a task which pits him against professional killers and pharmaceutical magnates. As the mystery begins to unravel, Tom finds danger at every turn and learns that nothing is as it seems--and no one is safe. That is until Tom blows the case wide open by doing what he is best at—nothing.

My Thoughts: I hadn’t really planned on reading another book over the weekend, but when I saw this was by the same author as Beast Saves the Brothers and Sisters of the Cosmic I AM, I decided to go ahead and read it, too, even though it was late Sunday night. I didn’t get a chance to actually finish it before my weekly editing started (no thanks to NetFlix’s allure) and had to carry it over, but was able to get back to it by Tuesday morning.

Anyway, this book was hilarious – the bumbling attempts at various things by Tom and his stoned and/or drunk friends were a real hoot. In some ways, the book reminded me of the movie “Half Baked,” although the book is a bit more of a thriller/suspense aspect than that; but it is mighty funny in places. A couple quotes: “Weed, the ready pipe wrench for all your ontological plumbing problems.” Or how about: “It turns out reconnaissance and reminiscence are fundamentally at odds. Like drinking while driving, like sex in a church, or drinking in a church and sex while driving—all doable, but not advisable.”

The main problem I had with the book was the random and frequent lack of punctuation. Sentences all ran together, with the only hint that a new one had begun being the random capitalization of a word. It was frequently a cause for a pause where I would try to figure out whether a sentence was meant as a statement or a question or what. But if you can deal with that, then you should enjoy this book. There is a terrific twist to the end that I absolutely did not see coming; it was really out from left field. Great stuff. Highly recommended.
(reviewed long after purchase)

Review by: Catlin P on Oct. 22, 2011 :
I just couldn't get into this book. It moved glacially, and all the references to pot-smoking were distracting, at very least. I tried several times to keep going with it, but always ended up putting it down.
(reviewed long after purchase)

Review by: Catlin P on Oct. 22, 2011 : (no rating)
I'm sorry, but I just couldn't get past all the pot-smoking references and distractions. The story took forever to go anywhere, and I just couldn't keep going with it.
(reviewed long after purchase)

Review by: April on Oct. 09, 2011 :
I was endeared to the character of Tom Iris and enjoyed watching his personal growth throughout the story. It could have used some editing, but I have noticed that many ebooks I have read have the same complaint and so believe that is a quality more of the format than the writer per se.
(reviewed long after purchase)

Review by: Bill Thibadeau on Sep. 26, 2011 :
Is adjectivitis a real word? The author, G.W. Davies has managed to use every adjective known to the English language.
The story doesn't start until about half way through the book. I was ready to put the book down when it started to pick up and start to make sense. The story simply took too long to develop but, once started, it was interesting with a bit of a twist to the ending.
One major problem with the book was the lack of editing. There were numerous areas of the book lacking punctuation. That is usually not much of a problem to me but given the writing style of many adjectives, similies, and run on sentences caused me to have to re-read many, many sentences to see what was intended. The lack of editing destroyed the flow for me.
I start reading every book with a three star rating in mind and adjust as I go. The story and interest level would have received four stars but the lack of editing and drawn out beginning really lowered the rating.
The real bottom line for me is that I will give this author another read in the hope that he/she learns from the reviews and edits the next book.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Review by: mohitgoel on Sep. 12, 2011 :
Somehow the book didn't work for me. The story line was thin, the writing in some need of a serious hawk eye editor. The attempts at humor mostly fell flat and at times the the same humor device was used multiple times within a few pages ("Faster than you can blah, something happened...").

Appreciate the attempt by the author though. Some editing would have really helped to lift the average prose.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

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