Short Money

Joe Crow #2

by Pete Hautman

Unenthusiastically accepting a job as a bodyguard for an unsavory plastic surgeon, ex-cop Joe Crow soon learns that his employer has vicious enemies and is swept into a web of deadly big game hunting. Reprint.

Genres: Mystery

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Peter 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."

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A prequil to Hautman's "Drawing Dead" this is a fun story with Joe Crow as the main character.
Joe is an unhappy policeman as the story begins. He manages to get himself fired and his brother-in-law, David Getter, gets him a job as a body guard for Dr. Nelson Bellweather, a trophy hunting plastic surgeon with a home full of stuffed animal heads.
Joe meets Laura Debrowski at a Cocaine Anonymous meeting and they become friends. When others are criticizing Joe, Laura seems sympathetic and undemanding.
Bellweather is in trouble with George and Ricky Murphy who own the Talking Lake Ranch, where they invite guests to shoot exotic animals who they make ready for easy kills. George's son, Shawn, has told his father something about Bellweather that makes the family want revenge for his act.
A large part of the story also entails Shawn shooting his father's prized Elk, an animal he wanted to charge thousands for a hunter to kill.
This dialogue driven novel seems influenced by Elmore Leonard and I had fun thinking of John Travolta of "Get Shorty" when reading about Joe Crow.
The characters are well drawn, the humor at times is enough to make the reader laugh out loud. All in all, an amusing romp through the Minnesota wintry countryside.
Recommended.

[Addie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the narrator and the writing on this series is getting better! Still no perfect characters, but I find that I like Joe and Laura more...cool to find out how Joe got his jaguar...a fun listen, will have to listen to next one to see how the story and characters develop!

[John Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good story from Hartman with good characters and good writing. Very enjoyable.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wry humor, madcap plots... welcome to Jow Crow's world. Elmore Leonard meets Carl Hiaasen.

[LJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

SHORT MONEY - NR
Hautman, Pete - prequel to Joe Crow series

Unenthusiastically accepting a job as a bodyguard for an unsavory plastic surgeon, ex-cop Joe Crow soon learns that his employer has vicious enemies and is swept into a web of deadly big game hunting.

I kept thinking this would improve. It didn't.