Crow/O'Gara/Speeter/Fabian Series by Pete Hautman
Crow/O'Gara/Speeter/Fabian #1
Drawing Dead
Pete Hautman
Joe Crow thinks he's one hell of a poker player. An ex-cop who dresses halfway between a slob and a nerd and looks a little like Wayne Newton when he's surprised, Crow has almost forgotten what it feels like to lose. But then he lets Laura Debrowski - a spike-haired, leather-clad burst of rock'n'roll in a Muzak world - play a few hands with his stack. The next thing he knows, a drug-addled stockbroker named Dickie Wicky is holding an IOU with Crow's name - followed by too many zeros. Crow figures he can pay off the marker eventually, but Dickie has another idea. He wants Crow to tail his sexy wife, Catfish, find out who she's been shacking up with, and then get rid of him. That is, pay the guy to go away - not kill him. But some other people have different ideas. Freddy Wisnesky, a mildly retarded, oversized thug with a face like a pot roast and a passion for floral neckties, is also looking for Catfish's lover. Two con artists named Tom Jefferson and Ben Franklin - or is it Tom Paine and Ben Cartwright? Thomas Aquinas and Benjamin Disraeli? - also find their way into Crow's neighborhood, peddling shares in a $12 million rare comic book collection that just might not exist. A small-time Mafioso/car dealer/poker player, who calls himself Joey Cadillac ("new or used, cash or stash"), is on Tom and Ben's trail, looking for revenge. And when Catfish shows up one night and invites herself into Crow's bed, Crow finds himself sucked into the underbelly of Minneapolis, where card hustlers, con men, comic books, and cocaine combine in a crazy comic caper. Crow thinks he can rise above all this, live right, and leave all these unpleasant people behind. But then he has a better idea. Drawing Deadis a zany, fast-paced thriller by a wickedly clever first novelist who combines the outrageous wit of Donald E. Westlake and the comic suspense of Elmore Leonard.From Publishers WeeklyA prolific children's nonfiction author (under the pseudonym Peter Murray) turns to adult fiction in this first-class caper novel, which involves a truly unique scam and enough memorably shady characters to fill several volumes by Elmore Leonard. Tom and Ben are fast-traveling con artists who prey on novice collectors in the comic book collectibles market. When they make the mistake of selling a bogus Batman #3 to smalltime Chicago hood Joey Cadillac, they're forced to flee to Minneapolis, where they set up another scam in cahoots with questionable investment counselor Dickie Wick and his oversexed wife Catfish. Former cop and ex-cokehead Joe Crow, in debt to Wick after a bad round of poker, gets caught up in their shenanigans, much to his regret. When his gal pal, the very punk Laura Debrowski, is beaten up while trying to help him, Crow gets mad and decides to con the con men. How it all turns out makes a wonderful story, tartly told. Hautman's knowledge of the comics field and its collectors' manias gives verisimilitude to the goings-on; his two legitimate dealers, Fatman and Natch, will prompt a smile of recognition from anyone who's ever visited a comics shop. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalEx-cop and ex-druggie Joe Crow is forced into using his investigative skills to pay off a gambling debt owed to a stockbroker of dubious reputation. Teaming up with his neighbor Laura Debrowski, Crow takes on the underworld of Minneapolis card hustlers and the lucrative genre of comic-book trading. Along the way, we are introduced to a variety of strange and interesting characters, relationships, and high-finance scams. In both characterization and plot intricacies, this novel strongly resembles the high comedic novels of Donald Westlake. Written in a breezy style, with broad strokes of understated humor, it becomes a fast-paced suspense thriller with a satisfying ending. One hopes that this novel is the start of a series of equally outrageous adventures played out against the background of Minneapolis and vicinity. Recommended for general fiction and browsing collections.- Erna Chamberlain, SUNY-BinghamtonCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Crow/O'Gara/Speeter/Fabian #3
The Mortal Nuts
Pete Hautman
Seventy-three-year-old ex-poker player Axel Speeter has one more winner-take-all hand to play with a pair of crooks who are after the $260,000 he keeps squirreled away in his room at the Motel 6. A New York Times Book Review Notable Book for 1996.Amazon.com ReviewLusting for fame, fortune, heavy drugs, and good times, ex-con James Dean shows up at the Minnesota State Fair with his doped-up skinhead buddies and a gun. Alex Speeter saw the trouble coming, but didn't do anything to ward it off. He was too distracted by the Bueno Burrito on the menu at the fair's taco stand where he works, and the quarter of a million dollars in cash he stashed away in Folgers cans in his hotel room. But when the two collide more than sparks fly in this humorous crime tale. From Publishers WeeklyCarl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard fans who have yet to discover Hautman's wryly comic, warmly human characters and madcap plots are in for a treat. Septuagenarian Axel Speeter, former roving gambler, now star taco entrepreneur at the annual Minnesota State Fair, lives at the Motel 6 despite having squirreled away $260,000 in cold cash inside coffee cans. Bucking the doubts of two pals from his swashbuckling gambling days-auto mechanic and junkyard proprietor Sam O'Gara (returning from Hautman's Drawing Dead and Short Money) and pint-sized Tommy Fabian, the fair's mini-donut king-the sentimental but streetwise and ever-libidinous Axel sends for Carmen, the sexy daughter of his mistress and business manager. Carmen, a med-tech student in Omaha, may be wild and possessed of a larcenous heart, but Axel knows that she sells tacos like no one else. Following her to the fair this year, however, is her skinhead lover and drug-dealer, Valium-hooked ex-con James Dean, who plans to steal Axel's coffee cans and head for Baja. When he can't find Axel's cache, Dean's interest turns to the midget donut king and his stash of cash. Mayhem ensues, inevitably. This is about as offbeat as a comic crime novel can get, and entertaining enough to win Hautman a whole passel of new admirers. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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