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Doohickey: A Novel
Nick Fashon is having a bad day. He's just found out his estranged grandfather has died mysteriously in the Arizona desert. Then he meets his potential father-in-law, who turns out to be an ex-cop with a screw loose and a penchant for bean dip. To top it off, he returns home to find his successful clothing shop has just burned to the ground and taken his upstairs apartment with it. Love & Fashion was Nick Fashon and Vince Love's thriving clothing store until it went up in flames -- the work of an arsonist, police say. Suddenly Nick is homeless and disillusioned, and both the insurance investigators and the police want a word with him. Where can he turn for help? He's wearing out his welcome with his archaeologist girlfriend, Gretchen, who's developing her own suspicions about him. His business partner and best friend, Vince, isn't much help either, as Nick discovers more and more disturbing clues that point to Vince as the one who set the blaze. Things begin to look up when Nick finds out his eccentric late grandfather has left him an unusual a thriving pet-coffin business and a barn full of peculiar inventions, including one particularly interesting doohickey called the HandyMate. The HandyMate is the ultimate kitchen gadget -- a simple tool that can cut, core, chop, slice, and potentially transform the domestic world. Full of entrepreneurial zeal, Nick is determined to see one in every kitchen drawer in America. But Nick isn't the only one planning to strike it rich with the HandyMate. Yola Fuentes, Nick's grandfather's irresistibly sexy business partner, is so determined to get the HandyMate that she makes Nick an offer he can't refuse. And Robo Fuentes, her jealous ex-husband, has a bullet with Nick's name on it if he takes her up on that offer. Nick quickly finds himself caught in a situation where a twisted thing of plastic might end up costing him his girlfriend, his self-respect -- and his life. With the help of a cast of colorful characters, master storyteller Pete Hautman delivers a stylish and funny mystery with more twists and turns than the HandyMate itself.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
4 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Pete Hautman
60 books357 followersPeter Murray Hautman is an American author best known for his novels for young adults. One of them, Godless, won the 2004 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. The National Book Foundation summary is, "A teenage boy decides to invent a new religion with a new god."
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 25, 2023
Ever have one of those days when everything seemed to be going your way? Nick Fashion has a beautiful fiancée, a thriving business, a fancy car ... if it had been me, I'd be terrified.
But in Doohickey, Nick stumbles unaware into Very Bad Day territory. His business burns down, his eccentric inventor grandfather dies under mysterious circumstances, and his potential father-in-law ends up being a suspicious ex-cop. In short order he's a broke, single, arson suspect with bullet holes in his car.
Pete Hautman really does, as the Bible might put it, a Job job on poor Nick. But Nick has a glimmer of hope: He inherits his grandfather's isolated desert compound, along with a brilliant invention: a kitchen doohickey that's bound to make him rich ... if he can figure out how to pay for the production, avoid being killed by an angry psycho, and not get arrested.
https://www.amazon.com/Doohickey-Nove...
Poor Nick: Every time something does go his way, it backfires. An offer of financial support from a beautiful cooking show host, for instance, angers two people Nick doesn't want to make mad: his fiancée and the aforementioned angry psycho, the host's ex-husband. It's exactly the kind of twisted complications and eccentric characters Hautman excels in. Doohickey is one of those novels in which you root for Nick to succeed, but can't help being entertained by his failures.
Sadly, it took me twelve years for me to find this book, but now that Pete Hautman is on my radar, you can be sure I'll track down some of his many other works. It's a fun read ... even if not so fun for the characters.
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
But in Doohickey, Nick stumbles unaware into Very Bad Day territory. His business burns down, his eccentric inventor grandfather dies under mysterious circumstances, and his potential father-in-law ends up being a suspicious ex-cop. In short order he's a broke, single, arson suspect with bullet holes in his car.
Pete Hautman really does, as the Bible might put it, a Job job on poor Nick. But Nick has a glimmer of hope: He inherits his grandfather's isolated desert compound, along with a brilliant invention: a kitchen doohickey that's bound to make him rich ... if he can figure out how to pay for the production, avoid being killed by an angry psycho, and not get arrested.
https://www.amazon.com/Doohickey-Nove...
Poor Nick: Every time something does go his way, it backfires. An offer of financial support from a beautiful cooking show host, for instance, angers two people Nick doesn't want to make mad: his fiancée and the aforementioned angry psycho, the host's ex-husband. It's exactly the kind of twisted complications and eccentric characters Hautman excels in. Doohickey is one of those novels in which you root for Nick to succeed, but can't help being entertained by his failures.
Sadly, it took me twelve years for me to find this book, but now that Pete Hautman is on my radar, you can be sure I'll track down some of his many other works. It's a fun read ... even if not so fun for the characters.
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
June 1, 2024
Got in a box of free books. Read while waiting for a library hold to come in. The description and name made me assume it would be a more quirky story, but not a bit. I finished just in case the ending saved it for me, but naw.
September 30, 2019
Good, but felt a little underdone. No character really changes or grows, but a good and twisting plot carries the story well.
October 14, 2019
One of my 17 best mysteries read in 2002.
October 23, 2007
Pete Hautman's Doohickey is a lightweight little romp through the weirdness of Tucson. Nick Fashon is a metrosexual who runs a clothing boutique and has a lot of Bally loafers and Motown records. His business burns down, is oddball grandfather dies, his partner goes bananas, and his girlfriend kicks him out. He also gets the snot beat out of him, and shot.
And all because everybody wants a piece of the HandyMate, the greatest kitchen gadget ever designed.
Hautman's characters are cartoons and his plot convoluted; Nick spends an enormous amount of time driving from Point A to Point B.
But he's a good satirist, taking pokes at food television, lawyers, cops, insurance companies, and American life in general.
No laugh out loud moments here, but a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.
And all because everybody wants a piece of the HandyMate, the greatest kitchen gadget ever designed.
Hautman's characters are cartoons and his plot convoluted; Nick spends an enormous amount of time driving from Point A to Point B.
But he's a good satirist, taking pokes at food television, lawyers, cops, insurance companies, and American life in general.
No laugh out loud moments here, but a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.
November 12, 2007
A fun lightweight read. The characters and plot are quirky but believable, and it skips along like a plastic float in a swimming pool on a sunny afternoon.
April 10, 2015
Minnesota author!
August 5, 2014
Another great Pete Hautman novel !!!!
March 21, 2016
Not Pete's best, just okay. Mildly amusing in spots.
Read
November 27, 2016Talk about bad days, twists and turns....lots of suspense and things to think about in this book. I enjoyed it completely!
December 4, 2010
This was just kind of...meh. The writing was pretty dry.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews