Mango Bob

Mango Bob #1

by Bill Myers, Bill H. Myers (Aka), Mike Steele (Narrator)

Book 1 of 14: Mango Bob Series
🎧Listening Length = 6 hours and 57 minutes

In this first book in the Mango Bob series, Walker has just lost his job, his wife has filed for divorce, and he’s living in a tent down by the river.

Being ever-resourceful, Walker swaps his truck for a motorhome (a.k.a. "the Love Bus"), and agrees to drive it cross-country to sleepy Englewood, Florida, so he can deliver a cat named Mango Bob to a woman he's never met.

Should be easy, right? Drive to Florida, hand over the cat, and then hang out on the beach.

Except there’s an unsolved murder involving the Love Bus, the Mexican mafia, and a half million in missing gold coins.

Add to the mix a trigger-happy grandma, a team of bungling burglars, the hot chick with the kayak, the repo man, and you get a rollicking travel romp through the Sunshine State.

A fun and fast listen!

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Humor, Cozy, Adventure, Cozy Mystery, Ebooks

Audible Audio

First published April 2, 2012

About the author

Bill Myers was born into a Christian home, and although as a child he became bored with Christianity, he decided at the University of Washington quote, to "make God my boss." Ironically, at the University his worst subject was writing. He claims to have prayed, and said that he would be able to do anything for God, except write. Even so, he has become a prominent Christian writer, and has a large amount of successful books and films to his credit.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.49 stars

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

1 star... because everyone gets one star. Two stars because there’s a level of dexterity in the writing.

3 stars missing because it is mind crushingly tedious and completely devoid of the humour promised.

[Wes Thurmann · Rating 1 out of 5]

If a friend tells you to read this book because you are a fan of Dorsey or Hiaasen, get rid of that friend. You don't want friends that mislead you.

[Aristotle · Rating 2 out of 5]

You'll be living in a van down by the river!

I know how to use an RV and what boondocking is.
Well that's good.

I was hoping for a quirky murder mystery police procedural.
Nope.

[Cujo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very likeable, relatable, characters. Very fast paced plot with absolutely no boring dialogue. This looks like its set to be a very fun and entertaining series. While this first book isn't really much of a mystery, it's more of an introduction of the characters and sets the plot for the rest of the series.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good light read. With characters like Johnny Walker and Jack Daniels how can you go wrong? I now know enough about Class B+ motorhomes I think I'm ready for retirement as a snowbird.

[C-shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great light mystery series, very easy-going and likeable, especially for cat lovers. The story stops suddenly, so I immediately downloaded the next book, _Mango Lucky_, to find out what happened to the recurring characters. This is going to be a favorite series for me!

[Ken Finlay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was nearly 200 pages in before it struck me that the story seemed to be missing - there's plenty of information about caring for motorhomes (almost a manual) and a lot of nothing much else. Even Mango Bob was a bit of a disappointment - he's a cat, he doesn't have much to do with anything.
And then I realised that I had actually enjoyed the book so far.
About the same time it came to me that I had read 'Mango Bob' before but didn't seem to remember much about it - mostly because there isn't a lot to remember, it trots along at a very leisurely pace and it doesn't end, it just gently comes to a halt.
The plot, such as it is, involves Jack buying a motorhome and setting off toward Florida. Someone wants the RV and there are various set pieces concerning attempts to hijack it ...
If you are looking for an easy read, 'Mango Bob' fits the bill. If you want action, mystery or depth, look elsewhere.
P.S. I had a dream last night in which every couple of months I re-review this book as new, each time not realising that I've done it before ... it really is that peculiarly forgettable.

[Aiyana PZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent beach read. I feel like the author was trying to channel Carl Hiasson but couldn’t quite reach it. I’ll try another one and see if he can keep building upwards.

[Mimi Suter]

This is a pleasant book by a local writer that I had the pleasure of meeting in person! I really enjoyed reading about all the places and situations that I live on a daily basis. Good luck to this nice author.

[gojenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting plot with a mystery. It’s kinda refreshing for the main characters to be basic good, ordinary people.

[Karen B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a review for the five books in Mango Bob series because they can be purchased as one from Amazon.

I have come to like the characters of John Walker and Mango Bob (the cat) throughout the books. The stories themselves are pretty good. It's hard to categorize them I listed them as cozy but they are also adventure tales as John travels around in his motor home with his friend's cat, Mango Bob (who really is now more of Walker's cat). I especially enjoyed the first and second books. In the first volume the reader learns that Walker has been divorced by his wife and laid off from his job (later referred to as fired). Walker decides to travel in his motor home. to go to Florida and is asked to take Mango Bob to his owner who lives in Florida.

In the second book, Mango Lucky Walker is asked to continue to help take care of Bob and his on/off again girlfriend asks him to go to the other side of the island. In spite of storms Walker is able to treasure hunt on the beach and with the help of the beautiful Anna, he manages to find a treasure and now has become wealthy.

The third book, Mango Bay , was a bit of a disappointment. Walker settles in an RV camp and meets yet another beautiful woman, Lucy. I loved the new characters introduced here, Polly and Buck who will show up in the last books as well. With Walker's help, Polly and Buck become the new owners of the RV site.

By this point I had become annoyed with all the typos and disappointed that the author did not have good professional editing and proofreading. There were grammar errors as well which detracted from the enjoyment of the story. It's a crying shame because I could have really liked this book.

Book four, Mango Glades finds Walker still taking care of Mango Bob who has by now become Walker's cat. Walker is tricked into taking the lovely Dr. Joy to another part of Florida where as a vet, she helps a Florida Panther and its kittens. By now it becomes clear that Walker meets these beautiful women, has an on and off again relationship which ends up "off". Poor Walker. He seems like quite a catch to me. More aggravation for me getting through the grammatical errors. I was sick of reading "would of" and "could of" where it should have been "would have" or would've
and "could have" or could've. Where is the professional editing in this series? I could see having a problem in the first book but to end up with more grammar mistakes by the fourth book is ridiculous.

Book five Mango Key has the lovely Dr. Joy getting to Walker to take her Key West to help her sister. Once again we see Walker to the rescue of these women who seem to just boss him around and make rules. For example, Dr. Joy is always warning him not to be late. Why he continually puts up with these annoying and demanding women can only be due to them being attractive. Mango Bob remains loyal and makes friends with everyone Walker meets. He's a good traveling companion for Walker. By now we hear no more of Bob's original owner. Guess her much loved pet is not so much loved by her. Walker meets a new woman, Kat, who is just as demanding and bossy as his previous companions. He is warned whatever he does, not to make her unhappy.

It's a shame because these books had such wonderful adventures as Walker becomes a hero through his logic and avoids getting into physical confrontations with the bad guys. Do the women appreciate it? No, of course not; they just take Walker for granted. I had to change my ratings for the first two books because of the lack of professional editing. Will someone please tell this author to get with the program? He has so much talent that is being ruined.

[Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is an extremely rare occasion that I award a book five stars, but I'm going to do so with this one. It's simply wonderful! Without giving too much away, Walker suddenly faces many significant changes in his life which somehow result in his transporting a cat (Mango Bob) in an RV from my beloved home state of Arkansas to Florida. He finds new relationships and adventures along the way. I was hesitant to read this book because I was afraid something bad would happen to the cat. I'll admit there were a few tense moments... Mr. Myers did such a wonderful job of developing the main characters and their relationships with one another; I found myself wanting to befriend them all. I've always been fascinated by the prospect of RV travel and now am even more so. Some might say there was a bit too much detail regarding RV living, but I really enjoyed it as the details made the story seem that much more real. Although there were fun and adventure in this book, they don't “slap you in the face.” This book is a quiet kind of wonderful. My only complaint is that I am left wanting more (in a good way). I truly hope the author does turn this into a series. Honestly, I can't put into words why I enjoyed this book so much (especially since it's branching out from what I typically read), but I did. Recommendations for it are going out to all of my friends.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly off on the dialogue and filled with plot holes you could drive a truck through, I, nevertheless, loved this book. It's the kind of book that I would want to write with the protagonist going on an adventure and finding riches. Plus there's a cat.

[Margo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like it, really, being free and all. But the Dragnet-Joe-Friday sentence structure was hard to deal with, and in the end, there was no end; it was like a serialized thing where you're supposed to read the next installment (except I won't).

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read! Liked it! Good vacation book....

[Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just okay. L. Shames is much better.

[Emz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, what a great book, if you enjoy reading the terms and conditions of your mobile phone contract you’re going to love this book.

And needless to say it was as funny as a dose of syphilis.

[Matt_Jess Canzoneri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a fun easy read. Perfect book for someone who loves travel adventures. The ending made me excited to start the next book in the series.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. Want to rent a RV now. Can wait for the next book to come out.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really have to compliment whoever wrote this description:
"Walker's task should be simple: drive the Love Bus 1,200 miles cross-country to Florida and deliver a cat named Mango Bob to a woman he's never met. But things are never really as simple as they seem. An unsolved murder involving the Love Bus and the Mexican mafia, along with a major case of mistaken identity, complicate Walker's efforts. Add a crazy gun-toting senior citizen, Mango Bob's escape attempts, and the hot kayak chick, and you get a rollicking travel romp through the Sunshine State."

It really makes it sound like an off-brand Carl Hiaasen or Dave Barry type wacky crime thriller in Florida. But the actual book is almost nothing like that. Instead the first 25% is just a Walden-like account of Walker getting divorced, living in a tent, and then buying a motor home. The titular cat doesn't even show up until the book is almost half over. There's so much detail about RVing and the cat's habits while the crime story is so paper-thin even on my Kindle. The carjacking and murder (or suicide) is dealt with so incompetently that I wish the author hadn't even bothered with it and just wrote a cozy romance about the love triangle of Walker, Sara, and Mango Bob.

I definitely don't have any interest in reading any sequels. Oh, and naming characters "Johnny Walker" and "Jack Daniels" is so hackneyed.

[Ellen Behrens · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a full-time RVer (living and traveling the country full-time in an RV) and a writer myself, I'm always looking for a great RV-themed book, so I was attracted to the possibilities "Mango Bob" offered.

Sadly, despite a great opening line ("I never planned to live in a tent"), the book was -- like an engine needing an overhaul -- very slow to get going. Many thing happened, but nothing of real interest, and I couldn't help but mentally edit out all the extraneous stuff as I read. Perhaps my having lived through the decision to live in an RV, select the right one, and get started on the road meant I had less patience with the many chapters devoted to Walker's transition from tent to RV to life on the road.

What was especially unfortunate was that the book's most interesting characters and situations were related in passing, stunting the best possibilities the novel had to offer for development and complication.

On the plus side, it's a warm, friendly book. Readers with a hunger to read every detail of a character's life will relish "Mango Bob." Readers who prefer page-turning action, a head-scratching mystery or other compelling elements in their fiction, should select something else.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a first-in-series offering, this effort is brief to the point of scarcity. The novel is marked by what it does not include, not by what it does, and what is missing is the guts of the thing: Description, elaboration on the narrative, even a little narrative in the dialogue - all these are given up in the author's seeming attempt to produce a lean product. Normally, this might be pleasing, but he's gone too far: We don't even find out in this installment about Mango Bob - a character who may not be a speaking part but one whose transport affords a good deal of the action - not what he looks like, how he came to be a traveling cat...

Oh, yes, the raison d'être of the series is a cat who needs transporting from the narrator's former home across country to Florida, where the plot thickens and spawns other books. Here's the thing: The story is catchy, the characters, though bare, are likable and the events just tantalizing enough that you finish this first story wanting more. I have read three of the series so far, with little effort, and while I have found them uniformly more informative than the first one, they are barely more taxing. These are easy reads, diverting but not challenging, especially if you can forgive a few inconsistencies in backstory and detail. They don't strain credibility overmuch, and, eventually, you do get a decent description of Mango Bob, the road-worthy cat.

[Grant E Moulton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book and want to read more. John Walker is a good man and I like reading of his experiences. He is a lucky guy with some surprising adventures. The book often gets detailed in his mundane experiences, but i wonder if that isn't something that comes from the author's personal experience as well. I wouldn't want to drive an RV without retracting the slider or without lowering the TV antenna. Bill Myers isn't Edgar Rice Burroughs writing a thrill a minute sword fight on Mars, Venus or inner Earth. He writes a bit more laid back sort of book, but the story keeps me reading. In some ways John Walker is a lot less curious than the reader wants him to be, he is a lot more patient and often a lot more mature than his age would suggest. This character is a great guy who you can trust with your cat. I guess we all aspire to be that kind of person.

[Alain Lefebvre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must confess that I enjoy these books. I am more a political writer, I read essays (I focus on biographies and some history books about the Nordic countries, the occasional Science-fiction book (space opera Hamilton style, Fredric Brown, Robert Sheckley), but also the ones about the environment), but when it is cold and I feel down, I enjoy these relaxed books, where things are simple, even if women are complicated. It gives me the feeling of living some days with a friend, in a Floridian warm atmosphere, a guy who looks simple but is not stupid. And I know that there will not be dangerous situations (let's say, seldom, and never frightening). This book is necessary if you don't want a full-packed story, and if you want to learn a little about these big vans for modern nomads. Because of Bill Myers, I frequently dream of buying one, and of going on the road...

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

It would seem at first that this would be a downer book. Walker's being divorced and he's losing his job as the factor is being moved to Mexico.

On the other hand, someone offers to help him get a mobile home relatively cheap.

On the other other hand, the home holds a secret that could cost him his life.

At the same time, though, as he travels he makes friends who become very, very important to him.

This includes a very bossy woman who he helps but who seems to be subject to changing her moods.

Then there's the cat, Bob.

It all ties together quite well. Various people help him out of problems and teach him a lot about having a RV. I kind of enjoyed the book and will go on to the next one in the series.

[Jeff Benham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just really good story telling. John Walker is ex-military and was employed as a computer specialist until his company up and moved to Mexico and he lost his job. Oh and his wife also divorced him. He does get an RV out of the deal and a cat named Mango Bob who he agrees to deliver to Florida. The RV has a history and someone wants it bad. Bad enough to break into it. Bad enough to try and hijack it Bad enough to steal it once it gets to Florida. Along the way he meets Jack Daniel, a retired cop, who has an RV just like his and loves a mystery. If you love a mystery, you should like this book too.

[Kathy Bernheimer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wish I could get my money back on this one. The writing is as if a high school student was given a minimum numbers of words for a report. Every. Single. Action. Is described in detail. Instead of "Jack showed me how to set up the motorhome" there are pages of unnecessary dialogue describing how to hook up the water and power to the camper that I, for one, didn't need to know. The only excitement is when the cat gets out but even that has no suspense. Definitely not a comic romp through Florida. There was no comedy. I only kept reading in the hope something of interest might happen. Total waste of my time.

[Fran Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read that left me yearning for more Mango Bob

I chose 5 stars for this book mostly because it was a fun story and a quick read that introduced me to several things I was already interested in. I've always wanted to live in an RV in Florida!! That has been a dream of mine for many years. Being a lover of animals and finding myself in crazy predicaments often, I related to Walker's life. The story wasn't deep. There wasn't a lot to it, but it was very descriptive and the characters were entertaining. I am left yearning for more adventures with Walker, Mango Bob, The Love Bus and Sarah.

[Rex Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

um, okay

I am gracing this book with four stars based on potential. First off, this book reads like a serialized magazine story or the basis for a TV pilot. It also reads like a shop manual for getting a no-fault divorce, RV owners manual, a travel novella of moving through the Deep South, and the fastest pick-up tale by two people not necessarily ready for a relationship. Writing style needs Improvement, kinda clunky, really. But the best part? Mango Bob. I’ll read the next two books just Bob. If Myers’ writing improves, I’ll go further. So, give it a chance for a very quick read. Besides, gotta find out if she won the lottery and if so, does she buy the boat …….