The Backup Men

Mac McCorkle #3

by Ross Thomas

A saloon owner and a former CIA agent team up to help a pair of assassins escape death


The twins who walk into Mac McCorkle’s bar look identical, despite their differing genders. Their names are Wanda and Walter Gothar, and from the steel in their eyes it’s apparent that their business isn’t the friendly kind. They’ve come seeking help from Mac and his partner, Padilla, an ex-CIA agent who has skulked in the world’s darkest corners.
 
Anxious for a big payday, the twins took an assignment out of their depth, working as bodyguards for a Saudi prince who came to Washington to sign an oil deal. The job fell apart, and now the twins are being pursued by the world’s two finest killers­—who take out Walter without breaking a sweat. Now Mac and Padilla are faced with a Save Wanda, or join her in the grave.

Genres: Fiction, Crime, Thriller, Mystery, Espionage, Action, Politics

227 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Ross Thomas was an American writer of crime fiction. He is best known for his witty thrillers that expose the mechanisms of professional politics. He also wrote several novels under the pseudonym Oliver Bleeck about professional go-between Philip St. Ives.

Thomas served in the Philippines during World War II. He worked as a public relations specialist, reporter, union spokesman, and political strategist in the USA, Bonn (Germany), and Nigeria before becoming a writer.

His debut novel, The Cold War Swap, was written in only six weeks and won a 1967 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Briarpatch earned the 1985 Edgar for Best Novel. In 2002 he was honored with the inaugural Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award, one of only two authors to earn the award after their death (the other was 87th Precinct author Evan Hunter in 2006).

He died of lung cancer two months before his 70th birthday.

Reviews

[James Thane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another very satisfying entry in Ross Thomas's series featuring Washington, D.C. saloon owners, Mac McCorkle and Michael Padillo. McCorkle appears to be born for the job of running a saloon, but Padillo was formerly employed by a shadowy government agency and his past life continues to intrude into his efforts to assist McCorkle in running their joint enterprise. Whenever this happens, McCorkle inevitably gets dragged into the mess as well.

In this case the interruption comes from a man named Walter Gothar and his twin sister, Wanda. The Gothars come from a long line of shady European agents and have hired on to protect a man who is about to become the king of a small middle eastern nation with huge oil reserves. The soon-to-be king needs to get safely from the east coast to San Francisco where he is scheduled to sign a huge deal with a couple of oil companies. A team of seriously dangerous assassins has been hired to make sure that the future king never reaches California and the Gothars want to hire Padillo and a yet-to-be-named teammate to back them up on their mission to protect the guy.

Padillo has no interest in the offer and turns the twins down flat. But then Walter Gothar is found murdered in McCorkle's apartment, which changes the dynamics of the situation. Padillo now agrees to join Wanda in protecting the future king and when the man who Padillo wants to assist him refuses, McCorkle signs on, even though he knows he will be no match for the deadly assassins. He's pretty unhappy about the fact that someone used his apartment as a place to commit a murder.

What follows is a cross-country game of cat an mouse with a lot of twists and turns. Much of the action is completely implausible and the plot is pretty thin. None of that matters, however, because the strength of these books lies in their witty intelligence and in the sparkling dialog that Thomas gives his characters. Spending an evening with them is great fun. All in all, a very good read.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

The "Backup Men" is the third book in a series, however, it is not really necessary to read the first two in order to enjoy this entry to the series. If you need to or want to read the others in this series they are:

1 - "The Cold War Swap" 1966
2 - "Cast a Yellow Shadow" 1967
3 - "The Back Up Men" 1971
4 - "Twilight at Mac's Place" 1990

This installment concerns Mac McCorkle - a bar owner, and Mike Padillo - x- employee of a never named government agency hired to be back up to a brother and sister team protecting an about to be named king of a small middle eastern country.

Bullets fly and people die but Ross Thomas never looses that tongue and cheek sense of humor that makes his books so wonderful.

Let me state one other observation about the book itself. Though published in 1971 by William Morrow, the quality of the paper and the binding of the book is vastly superior to most of the books being published today, especially the copy paper most of today POD books are printed on.

Recommended to those who enjoy espionage and crime fiction with a touch of humor.

[Yigal Zur · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was my first Ross Thomas thriller and i enjoyed every minute of reading. so should give 4.5 4.7as 5 i give only to old classics. if you look for a serious plot forget it. it seems like any plot will do here but the language, the characters wow. sometimes i felt to compare to great old Chandler as both of them are sharp and smart cynical but Thomas take more to the funny side of the dark. a real basic school for thriller writers

[Marty Fried · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my third read in the series, but I don't remember much from the first two, and I don't think I missed anything by not remembering, so it can safely be read standalone.

I like this author a lot, and enjoyed this book very much. It has good action, witty dialog, and is always unpredictable. Most of the characters are likable, even the villains. The heroes and the villains sometimes seem like they are friends, until they try to kill each other. Mac McCorkle, a protagonist and owner of Mac's Place, a well-known saloon in Washington, DC (formerly Germany), is a wise guy
that reminds me of some of my favorite characters like Elvis Cole.

The book is fairly old, from 1970, but doesn't really seem that dated except nobody has cell phones or internet. But this doesn't detract from the story at all. I'd recommend this or any other Ross Thomas book if you haven't read any. Just pick one.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ross Thomas has long been on my authors-to-read list, but I've only managed a few of his titles. For audiobook fans like me it's wonderful to discover these new recordings of classic crime titles, books by Thomas among them. Brian Holsopple reads well with multiple accents and a great appreciation for Thomas' sense of fun and smart (aleck) prose. Originally published in 1971, the book is dated--or parts of it are at least, but if one reads it with that knowledge, there's much to enjoy. This caper stars smart-mouthed restauranteur Mac McCorkle and his ex-gov't (and now professional bodyguard/hitman) partner serving as backup protection for a king, ready to sign oil leases but in danger of not living long enough to reap the profits. Lots of details from the period, an intriguing plot with a twist, and a bevy of likeable characters, mostly on the wrong side of the law. Entertaining and witty.

[Tom Stamper · Rating 5 out of 5]

McCorkle and Padilla are the backup men. They run an upscale restaurant in DC and both have backgrounds working off the books for the U.S. government or even shadier people. The job here is to guard a Middle Eastern king about to come into a fortune in oil leases.

Padilla is the serious and athletic one. If this is 1971, Padilla is the Steve McQueen character. McCorkle is funny like Sam Spade is funny when he goads Wilmer and Joel Cairo in the Maltese Falcon. I guess this would be Elliott Gould in 1971, but he reminds me most of an early 1980s Bill Murray. The other good example of the pairing would be the laconic western hero (think Duke or Coop) and his loquacious sidekick (Walter Brennan or Gabby Hayes). I think it’s important to have these types in mind because the story itself is funny without being a comedy. People die in Ross Thomas books in the most unfunny ways. The other side wants this king dead, and if they get their way, Padilla and McCorkle won’t be alive either.

I’m giving 5 stars here and I only gave the first two books 3 stars. I’m not sure if Ross Thomas got better writing these characters or if I was expecting those first two to be as good as The Fools in Town Are on Our Side. Maybe I needed to read a Ross Thomas book because the 2020 election is almost decided and once again it’s the end of life as we know it if your candidate does not prevail. I was due for a cynical take on Washington DC and the corruption therein that negates whatever gains we might think we get with elections results.

Whether I am overrating this particular title is not as important as the overall reality that Ross Thomas is criminally underrated. By my count this is only the 26th review of this book. There is no doubt a great many people who read this or similar genres would love Thomas is they only knew about him.

[Eric_W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure how I could have missed Ross Thomas over the years. I have read two of his books now and both were excellent.

Padillo and McCorkle are recurring characters in Thomas’s novels. An unlikely pair of sidekicks, they partner in owning a bar in Washington. Both have somewhat shady but apparently reputable pasts, and Padillo is approached by the Gothar twins to provide backup in providing security for the soon-to-be king of a very small but very oil-rich Middle Eastern country. There are others who want to make sure the prince makes no deals nor returns to his country.

The book has a definite old-fashioned feel to it with some of the action having a slight fantastical feel to it. What makes the book sparkle is the dialogue that propels the book forward. Thomas has a gift for writing dialogue. Some of the short conversations reminded me of those between Boyd Crowder and Raylan Givens. The ending came as a nicely complicated surprise. Quite enjoyable.

[Sean O · Rating 3 out of 5]

Holy moly! Ross Thomas wrote a book where a main woman character didn’t sleep with the protagonist! I swear, I don’t recall that ever happening before.

The actual story is just so so. Mac and Padillo are supposed to protect an Arabic potentate. There are a couple bad guys, and a bit of a serpentine plot that doesn’t stand up. There’s also a couple of weird subplots that go nowhere. Seriously, what is the old woman magazine publisher supposed to be?

This one is only for Ross Thomas fans.

[Dave Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top notch. I don't think there is a modern author to match Thomas for ambience or economy of words. There is so much descriptive language, snappy dialogue and action here and so few words overall I don't know how he does it. It's like all extraneous words were ruthlessly weeded out by hired word-assassins. One of only four McCorkle & Padillo thrillers, make sure you read them and then use them as a touchstone to rate other thrillers & mysteries. This is #3 and set in the days just before the world changed with the oil embargo and ennui of the 70's, and long before cell phones ruined these kind of stories. The days when a revolver, a bottle and a brain were enough weaponry for gumshoe. Read this book.

[Roxane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story that shows off Mr. Thomas's droll humor...Padillo and McCorkle agree to be backup men. The job - get the King of a country (smaller than Kuwait but soon to be richer) to San Francisco to sign an agreement with two very wealthy oil companies.

[Sandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick, entertaining read with a fairly convoluted plot but the main characters more than make up for it.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans of the author should definitely include this in their “to read” list. The characters are delightfully drawn, the dialogue ever so cleverly scripted, and the twists, turns, and ending all make it worthwhile.

Padillo and McCorkle make a great pair, each with sufficiently different skills and backgrounds to insure that their “whole” is greater than the sum. Don’t fret too much if the entire plot has done away with any semblance of reality or believability. Just relax and go with the flow that Thomas has unleashed from chapter one and enjoy the ride.

Well deserved four stars.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this installment isn't as good as the first two in the series (which are, in order: 1)great and 2)astounding), it nevertheless offers some pretty wonderful insights into the relationship between Mac and Padillo, something which, to this point in the series, had often been more tangential than anything else.

[Kevin Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Fine Ross Thomas Novel

When Ross Thomas died I felt like I had lost a friend. Every year or so, I reread one of his books to rekindle my appreciation. While not as good as “Chinaman’s Chance” or Missionary Stew” this in one of his best.

[Aravind · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Backup Men, my first taste of Ross Thomas's writing, has everything a reader of crime fiction needs: dashing characters spouting wisecracks even when facing death, fights of all kinds using a multitude of weapons, flying bullets and falling bodies, and plenty of twists and turns.

McCorkle and Padillo – owners of a popular saloon in Washington, DC – are forced to back up a couple of accomplished espionage artists in protecting a soon-to-be-crowned king of a little oil-rich middle-eastern kingdom from being killed by a duo of lethal assassins on the American soil. While McCorkle's skill set does not cover such work, Padillo is an old hand, but even he is not confident of surviving against the deadly opponents. The thrilling chase across the nation, ending with the final showdown in San Francisco, is high on entertainment, and I had a great time following it!

[Larry Carr · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Backup Men by Ross Thomas (Book 3 in the Mac McCorkle series) was published in 1971. It’s good, particularly the droll humor and wry observations which Thomas is known for, narrated by Mac McCorkle, the amateur sidekick, to his bar partner Padillo- who’s the crème de crème of tough guys.
This one involves the reluctant acceptance of the job of backups to the body guards contracted to deliver the imminent king of newly found oil, soon to be rich Llahquhar to San Francisco to sign the oil deal with 2 of the world’s oil company behemoths.

Mac’s Place. “Michael Padillo and I had owned a saloon called Mac’s Place in Bonn on the banks of the Rhine. — had been dynamited and Padillo had disappeared for more than a year. I got married and opened another saloon in Washington, still called Mac’s Place and nobody has dynamited it yet, although when Padillo reappeared there had been some more trouble with a local black gangster, a Federal narcotics agent, and the dying white prime minister of a South Africa” (see books 1 & 2).

Twin professionals from Rhineland. Walter -“Some people have dirty laughs, but he had a dirty smile and it had taken him a lot longer than twenty-one years to perfect it. Swiss passport and it claimed that his name was Walter Gothar and that he lived in Geneva and that he was thirty-two years” “the message that Gothar wanted me to give Padillo. It was World War II slang and I felt that he was a little young to be using it — Those who had bought the farm during World War II had been those who’d died, of course, and if Gothar didn’t want to buy it, that meant that he didn’t want to die” About the other twin —“not identical twins?” “They’re identical all right, but you won’t have any trouble telling them apart.” “Why?” “Because Walter Gothar’s twin is called Wanda.”

The opposition. “Gitner. He said, “Then you have got trouble.” “That is why we need a—uh—backup man,” —Reaction. “saw Gitner in action once and he’s faster and younger than any of us.” Wanda reminds Padillo. “You’ll never be out of it, Michael. I told you that seven years ago in Bucharest.” “You told me a lot of things in Bucharest, Wanda, but none of them was true.” “And for how long have you been an authority on truth?” “I’m not,” he said, “but I’m damned good when it comes to lies.”

Wife out of town, Mac-home to an empty abode. “ I got home, which was on the eighth floor of an apartment building located just south of Dupont Circle. If the neighborhood wasn’t as fashionable as Georgetown, it had more flavor, and that’s what city living supposedly is all about. Within a one-block radius, I needed no more than three minutes to contract for either a bag of heroin or an angel food cake and that must have been what the apartment’s management meant when it advertised the place as being convenient to fine shopping.” —“sitting in my chair—was still sitting in it, in fact, sprawled in it really, his head back, his hands in his lap, and his feet stuck straight out in front of him. The grips were attached to the piano wire that had been used to choke the life out of Walter Gothar.” Mac calls cops and then calls Padillo.

Padillo arrives first and takes the lead. “A trip downtown wouldn’t teach these two anything, Sergeant,” he said. “You want to know why?” “Because you can’t teach anything to guys who know it all—and you know it all, don’t you, Padillo?” “Not all of it,” Padillo said. —“don’t know what goes on inside a cop’s head.” “You think it’s different from what goes on inside your head?” “It has to be.” “Why?” “Because,” Padillo said, “I could never be a cop.”

Burmser gets em sprung. Padillo explains. “It wasn’t Kragstein who bothered them. It was his new partner. Or maybe associate.” “Who?” “Amos Gitner,” Padillo said and turned to watch the show. It was worth it. Burmser let his jaw drop — “Can I use your phone?” “You may,” I said, doing my snide bit to keep the language pure. He turned to Padillo once more. “Is he in the country?” “Amos? I don’t know.”

Llaquah. “It’s way down the Persian Gulf, about the size of Delaware. It’s also an absolute monarchy with a new oil strike that supposedly makes Kuwait look like a dry hole.” “Well, the kid’s going to be the king of Llaquah as soon as his brother gets through dying.” —“When does the wicked uncle come in?” I said. “Well, there’s no wicked uncle, but there are a couple of oil companies.” “That’s almost as good,” I said. “Two giant industrial combines locked in a death struggle over a tiny corner of the world which contains the richest oil reserves known to—” “No death struggle,” Padillo said. “They’re in cahoots—a cooperative venture” [my guess it’s Getty & either Shell or BP].

Would be king. “What’s the kid’s name?” “Peter Paul Kassim.” — “At sixteen he underwent a religious experience and rejected his Muslim faith, converted to Catholicism, and entered a French monastery where he’s been ever since.” The contract-“that’s what I’m supposed to do. Keep Peter Paul alive and at the same time find out who wants him dead.” —“I only said that I’d try to keep him alive.” “For how long?” “Until his brother dies and he automatically becomes king and signs the documents.” Burmser convinces Padillo -he’s backup. Mac, the amateur, is in too. Who/why killed Gothar in his home?

Kraigstein likes dives. Meeting place agreed. “It’s a place called The Chatterbox, on Sixth Street, I believe.” “I hope it’s crummy enough for you,” Gitner said. “Mr. McCorkle assures me that it is.” “The Chatterbox drew a mixed clientele in that half of the customers were drunk while the other half were trying to get that way and would soon succeed” “ He looked American—the way young, earnest Americans looked a decade or so ago before they discovered things that they thought were more important than close shaves, clean fingernails, tidy haircuts and J. Press suits. Gitner was something of an anachronism, I decided, a throwback to the fifties” —“came as faint surprise when I realized that Gitner was a blond version of Padillo as he’d been not quite fifteen years ago when I’d first met him -ready for either fight or frolic. But that’s what I get for having been reared on Tennyson.”

The riches. “Llaquah was under British protection until it became independent in 1959, that it had nearly a third of the free world’s estimated oil reserves, that it was an absolute monarchy, that it was destined to become one of the richest nations in the world, at least on a per capita basis, and that it had a standing army of 2,000.” -“What do I call him, King, your Excellency, or just Peter Paul?” “Try Mr. Kassim” “The king himself was short, plump and totally bald at twenty-one. Either that or the monastery where he’d spent the last five years had a thing about shaved heads.” “Scales, I judged him to be somewhere near fifty, a little seedy, a little worn, even a little sad.”

Padillo’s girl in NY. “EVEN IF her father and grandfather hadn’t supplied half of the nation’s chocolate bars, I could still see why the papers might have tagged her as the Kandy Kid. She had taffy-colored hair and cinnamon eyes and a creamy nougat complexion and a voice that was as smooth and as rich as melted butterscotch. … Amanda Clarkmann -she turned and kissed Padillo and it was a long, unabashed kiss which I watched and discovered what must have been a trace of voyeurism that I didn’t know existed.” … “And the king is poor?” “Today, he’s broke. Next week he may be the richest king in the world.” “For someone who had just spent five years in a monastery, Kassim appeared inordinately interested in secular stuff. Amanda Clarkmann kept the conversation going with effortless ease, directing most of it at the king. If his table talk and manners lacked polish, there was nothing wrong with his appetite.”

Mac considers the environment. “I can’t think of any disadvantages in being rich,” I said. Padillo looked around the room. “Only one,” he said. “What?” “Worrying that someday you might be poor.”
Later… “It had gone just like Padillo had planned it. The only thing wrong was that one of the men with a drawn gun and a gray uniform was Amos Gitner.” There’s unanticipated collateral damage Amanda deceased. Padillo -now fully involved, and it’s personal.

Half-way in … you may want to read, or my highlights are visible if you seek further snippets?

[Mal Warwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Get ready for another wild ride in the lives of Mac McCorkle and Michael Padillo. Mac and Mike were co-owners of a saloon called Mac’s Place, in Bonn, West Germany. Mac was a special-operations officer in Burma in World War II, Mike a spy and hit man for an unnamed U.S. government agency. (It’s involved in espionage, but it’s not the CIA.) Now that Mac’s Place has been dynamited and left in ruins as a result of one of Mike’s missions gone awry, Mac has reopened the place in Washington, DC, where Mike has rejoined him.

Though Mac is content to run the bar and restaurant, which is making a great deal of money, it seems that his life is repeatedly disrupted when Mike’s old career comes back to haunt him. This time, in The Backup Men, Mike is approached by a shadowy European character named Walther Gothar, a killer for hire he knew back in the old days. Mike refuses to accept Gothar’s invitation to join him in protecting an important foreign visitor to the U.S. Eventually, though, he is forced to relent when Gothar turns up dead — in Mac’s luxurious apartment. To learn the identity of Gothar’s killer and ensure that Mac isn’t in danger, Mike now agrees to accept the job, working with Gothar’s twin sister.

Skullduggery is inevitable

Since The Backup Men is one of Ross Thomas’ many thrillers, Mac will, of course, eventually be forced to join Mike on what inevitably proves to be a fool’s errand. With shady characters popping out of the woodwork at every turning point in the story, skullduggery is inevitable. There will be many surprises along the way to the satisfying end. There will also be a great deal of fun.

Thomas’ writing is invariably witty and clever, with a strong dose of cynicism. The dialogue sparkles, and his narrative prose often does, too. Here he is, describing a seedy saloon: “The Chatterbox drew a mixed clientele in that half of the customers were drunk while the other half were trying to get that way and would soon succeed, if their money held out.” And here, referring to a poor neighborhood in Washington, DC: “I noticed that a lot of the old buildings had been torn down and if you liked to look at parking lots, you might say that the neighborhood had been improved.”

About the author

Mac McCorkle and Michael Padillo appear in four of the 25 thrillers written by the late Ross Thomas (1926-95).

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Review of the Audiobook

Originally published in 1971.

Audiobook edition published by HighBridge Audio in 2013.
Read by Brian Holsopple
Duration: 6 hours, 1 minute.

Ross Thomas (1926-1995) is a multiple Edgar Award winner. HighBridge Audio is going back and re-releasing a number of his books as audiobooks.

The Backup Men is #3 in the four part Mac McCorkle series. I had not read or listened to any books by Ross Thomas before this one and, to his credit, Thomas did an extraordinary job of getting this newbie listener up to speed rather quickly.

Mac McCorkle is a part owner of a rather fancy restaurant in Washington, D.C. that he calls a "saloon." His partner is Mike Padillo who used to work for the CIA or a similar government entity (he is never quite clear about this) and is well-known in the professional hitman/bodyguard/spy community.

Padillo is approached by a couple of well-known members of his professional community, a set of nearly identical male and female twins, the Gothars, to be their backup man in an operation. They are guarding the new king of a country next door to Kuwait. Remember that this is still 1971 so the massive oil fields in the Middle East were still being explored and developed. In this case, this little country was just being opened up to Western oil exploration, assuming that the new king lives long enough to sign the contracts, that is.

It turns out a pair of equally well-known spies/thugs/hitmen are out to kill this new king. When the male twin is found dead in McCorkle's apartment Padillo agrees to help the surviving twin escort the new king. McCorkle insists on coming along as a "talented amateur" and the chase begins.

Although this is a shorter-than-average audiobook, it just felt like ...

Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2014/...

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Tell Padillo we don't want to buy the farm." When Mac McCorkle receives that cryptic message for his partner Michael Padillo at Mac's Place, their bar in Washington, DC, it's the beginning of another risky assignment, one Padillo is loath to take on. The German twins Walthar and Wanda Gothar are calling in an old debt they claim Padillo owed their brother before he was killed in Beirut. The Gothar's assignment is to protect Peter Paul Kassim until he can become king of Llaquah, an incredibly oil-rich country near Kuwait. With such big bucks at stake, Kassim is a target of skilled assassins and the Gothars need Padillo as a back-up man. In an attempt to keep their charge, the "richest kid in the world," alive, they're pursued across the country by determined adversaries. As usual that pursuit, told in Thomas' sparkling prose, is the prize of this adventure in which it's impossible to tell the scammers from the scammees.

[Aaron Martz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is as light as air. It's all action and suspense and one-liners. If it had been made into a movie when it came out in 1971, it would have starred Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. It's essentially a buddy-comedy about a couple of out of shape tough guys who get hired to protect a would-be king from some ruthless assassins. The chase takes them from New York to San Francisco, and involves shoot-outs, fist fights, car chases, double crosses, reversals, startling revelations, and etc. There's even a femme fatale. It's all been done a whole lot better, but it's also been done a whole lot worse, and at least The Backup Men is never boring. It's good for at least a handful of laughs.

[Doug Gillan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good, twisty thriller with McCorkle and Padillo, resauranteurs and, in this case, assistant or backup bodyguards. They are assisting German twins, Wanda and Walter Golthar to protect the new king of a small oil-rich arab countryand his companion. Ross Thomas is great as always. I can't describe much about the plot without giving spoilers away, so I will just say that if you like books by Robert Crais or Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett the likelihood is high that you will like this one as well (and the rest of Ross Thomas' books).

[Craig Pittman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This third entry in Ross Thomas' series about Mike Padillo and Mac MacCorkle, saloon owners and sometime spies, is the best of the bunch. It's got a nifty set-up and a great payoff, and in between the plot speeds along without much of a let-up. Best of all, of course, is MacCorkle's self-deprecating and world-weary commentary on everything. Makes me wish there were more than four books in the set.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Mac McCorkle/Mike Padillo caper where Padillo is coerced into providing bodyguard service to a visiting prince from some oil-providing country. Mac volunteers to help Mike keep the prince alive. The prince lives despite some bungling assassination attempts, and a surprise twist appears at the end when the prince is found to not really be a prince. Okay story, but not very gripping.

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ross Thomas at his most indulgent. Pleasant and fun with all the hallmarks of a Thomas novel, but he's clearly here to have fun with his first two characters and is mostly just goofing around. Of all things, this one is the most "cinematic" of Thomas novels--it could easily be adapted to a decent spy thriller.

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's always relaxing to read Ross Thomas. Interesting, even if not credible, characters, ditto plot, ditto action. Snappy but not outrageous dialogue. Satisfying finishes. Just good simple fun, for when you've had enough problems and irritation for one day. Nice; glad I still have a few more to go for when times get tough.

[Terry Simpkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another solid read from Thomas. The first of this series that I’ve read, Mac and Padilla are engaging and there is, of course, plenty of witty repartee between them. My favorite so far (I’ve only read three by this author to date) is still my first p, The Eighth Dwarf, but I’m very glad to stumbled on this talented crime novelist.

[Kenneth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still enjoying the characters but I didn't enjoy this one's mystery as much. Maybe I should move to some other Ross Thomas' books for a spell. This one did have some great passages that I enjoyed and highlighted.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Occasionally entertaining thriller with a plot that just did not make sense to me, it felt too contrived. Ross Thomas has written better novels, such as "Out on the Rim".

[Deb]

Loved Ross Thomas altho the hard boiled was not my preferred genre....

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are gooooood