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Tubby Dubonnet #3
Trick Question
On trial for murder, Cletus Busters needs a miracle--having been found in a restricted area with the victim's severed head in his hand and with the trial less than one week away--until his lawyer asks Tubby Dubonnet to take over the case. Reprint.
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 27, 1997
824 people are currently reading
1530 people want to read
About the author
Tony Dunbar
43 books100 followersTony Dunbar started writing at quite a young age. When he was 12, growing up in Atlanta, he told people that he was going to be a writer, but it took him until the age of 19 to publish his first book, Our Land Too, based on his civil rights experiences in the Mississippi delta. For entertainment, Tony turned not to television but to reading mysteries such as dozens of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories. Among his favorites are: Dashiell Hammett, author of The Maltese Falcon, and Tony Hillerman, and John D. MacDonald, and Mickey Spillane.
He has lived in New Orleans for a long, long time, and in addition to writing mysteries and more serious fare he attended Tulane Law School and continues an active practice involving, he says, “money.” That practice took a hit in the Hurricane Katrina flooding, but the experience did produce a seventh Tubby Dubonnet mystery novel, Tubby Meets Katrina
The Tubby series so far comprises seven books: The Crime Czar, City of Beads, Crooked Man, Shelter from the Storm, Trick Question, Lucky Man, and Tubby Meets Katrina. The main character, Tony says, is the City of New Orleans itself, the food, the music, the menace, the party, the inhabitants. But Tubby Dubonnet is the actual protagonist, and he is, like the author, a New Orleans attorney. Unlike the author, however, he finds himself involved in serious crime and murder, and he also ears exceptionally well. He is “40 something,” the divorced father of three daughters, a collector of odd friends and clients, and he is constantly besieged by ethical dilemmas. But he is not fat; he is a former jock and simply big.
Tony’s writing spans quite a few categories and is as varied as his own experiences. He has written about people’s struggle for survival, growing out of his own work as a community organizer in Mississippi and Eastern Kentucky. He has written about young preachers and divinity students who were active in the Southern labor movement in the 1930s, arising from his own work with the Committee of Southern Churchmen and Amnesty International. He has written and edited political commentary, inspired by seeing politics in action with the Voter Education Project. And he has had the most fun with the mysteries, saying, “I think I can say everything I have to say about the world through the medium of Tubby Dubonnet.”
Hurricane Katrina and the floods, which caused the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans for months, blew Tony into an off-resume job serving meals in the parking lot of a Mississippi chemical plant to hundreds of hardhats imported to get the complex dried out and operating. It also gave Tony time to write Tubby Meets Katrina, which was the first published novel set in the storm. It is a little grimmer than most of the books in the series, describing as it does the chaos in the sparsely populated city immediately after the storm. “It was a useful way for me to vent my anger,” Tony says. Still, even in a deserted metropolis stripped of electric power. Tubby manages to find a good meal.
The Tubby Dubonnet series has been nominated for both the Anthony Award and the Edgar Allen Poe Award. While the last one was published in 2006, the author says he is now settling down to write again. But about what? “Birds and wild flowers,” he suggests. Or “maybe television evangelists.” Or, inevitably, about the wondrous and beautiful city of New Orleans.
He has lived in New Orleans for a long, long time, and in addition to writing mysteries and more serious fare he attended Tulane Law School and continues an active practice involving, he says, “money.” That practice took a hit in the Hurricane Katrina flooding, but the experience did produce a seventh Tubby Dubonnet mystery novel, Tubby Meets Katrina
The Tubby series so far comprises seven books: The Crime Czar, City of Beads, Crooked Man, Shelter from the Storm, Trick Question, Lucky Man, and Tubby Meets Katrina. The main character, Tony says, is the City of New Orleans itself, the food, the music, the menace, the party, the inhabitants. But Tubby Dubonnet is the actual protagonist, and he is, like the author, a New Orleans attorney. Unlike the author, however, he finds himself involved in serious crime and murder, and he also ears exceptionally well. He is “40 something,” the divorced father of three daughters, a collector of odd friends and clients, and he is constantly besieged by ethical dilemmas. But he is not fat; he is a former jock and simply big.
Tony’s writing spans quite a few categories and is as varied as his own experiences. He has written about people’s struggle for survival, growing out of his own work as a community organizer in Mississippi and Eastern Kentucky. He has written about young preachers and divinity students who were active in the Southern labor movement in the 1930s, arising from his own work with the Committee of Southern Churchmen and Amnesty International. He has written and edited political commentary, inspired by seeing politics in action with the Voter Education Project. And he has had the most fun with the mysteries, saying, “I think I can say everything I have to say about the world through the medium of Tubby Dubonnet.”
Hurricane Katrina and the floods, which caused the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans for months, blew Tony into an off-resume job serving meals in the parking lot of a Mississippi chemical plant to hundreds of hardhats imported to get the complex dried out and operating. It also gave Tony time to write Tubby Meets Katrina, which was the first published novel set in the storm. It is a little grimmer than most of the books in the series, describing as it does the chaos in the sparsely populated city immediately after the storm. “It was a useful way for me to vent my anger,” Tony says. Still, even in a deserted metropolis stripped of electric power. Tubby manages to find a good meal.
The Tubby Dubonnet series has been nominated for both the Anthony Award and the Edgar Allen Poe Award. While the last one was published in 2006, the author says he is now settling down to write again. But about what? “Birds and wild flowers,” he suggests. Or “maybe television evangelists.” Or, inevitably, about the wondrous and beautiful city of New Orleans.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 164 reviews
August 2, 2021
Tubby has some interesting friends. This was a fast paced story that was very entertaining.
March 3, 2025
I'm only on the third of this series of 10 and I've already gained 5 pounds. I can smell the muffaletta, and see Antoine's and Tujague's in my mind's eye. Unfortunately, my high desert small-town doesn't have a Cajun or a French shop, or even a good Italian restaurant. We are 100 miles north of the Mexican border, so we do have six taco establishments and one makes do with what is available and easy. They can't compare to street vendor offerings in the Garden District of the Big Easy.
If you have better willpower than I, you will love this series. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving it myself, despite new love handles. Tubby is a lawyer with a great deal of self-control and common sense except when food or booze is at issue, and his cases border on the 'that-couldn't-happen', but it does, and he handles it with deeply felt concern and class. In Trick Question, he winds up with another major pro-bono case - a night janitor in a medical research laboratory accused of the first-degree dastardly murder of one of the research doctors. Just because he was caught cradling said Doc Valentine's unattached frozen head in his arms by the night watchman.
But as he says himself on page 85, Tubby was 'going to enjoy this case in spite of himself'. Most of the balance of his current legal commitments are also pro bono and rest with family members and poor friends, as usual. This story has several trick questions, but you will know the headliner when you see it.
Though only in book three of ten, we already understand that he can handle any case. Very well, indeed. Perhaps even better, on a full stomach.
REVIEWED on February 24, 2825 at Goodreads, AmazonSmile, and BookBub. Not available for review on B&N or Kobo.
If you have better willpower than I, you will love this series. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving it myself, despite new love handles. Tubby is a lawyer with a great deal of self-control and common sense except when food or booze is at issue, and his cases border on the 'that-couldn't-happen', but it does, and he handles it with deeply felt concern and class. In Trick Question, he winds up with another major pro-bono case - a night janitor in a medical research laboratory accused of the first-degree dastardly murder of one of the research doctors. Just because he was caught cradling said Doc Valentine's unattached frozen head in his arms by the night watchman.
But as he says himself on page 85, Tubby was 'going to enjoy this case in spite of himself'. Most of the balance of his current legal commitments are also pro bono and rest with family members and poor friends, as usual. This story has several trick questions, but you will know the headliner when you see it.
Though only in book three of ten, we already understand that he can handle any case. Very well, indeed. Perhaps even better, on a full stomach.
REVIEWED on February 24, 2825 at Goodreads, AmazonSmile, and BookBub. Not available for review on B&N or Kobo.
September 12, 2020
3.5 stars
When the book opens, Wheezy Wascomb is on her way to pick up her grandchildren to take them to the lake when she suddenly loses consciousness in her car and runs right into a concrete rail on an old highway bridge . She dies on the spot from the impact.
Meanwhile, Tubby Dubonnet now owns Mike’s Bar and has been running it for the past three months. His friend, Raisin Partlow is his usual goofy self and cool to hang around with.
One Sunday night in Moskowitz Memorial Laboratory housed in New Orleans State University Medical School, a custodian named Cletus Busters is doing his usual cleaning rounds in the animal care lab when he opens a built-in freezer cabinet and a frozen corpse falls right out, the head snapping off as the body hits the floor.
Upon closer inspection of the decapitated head, Cletus recognizes it as Dr. Valentine. But then he does the unthinkable: at first, he tries to reattach the head back to the body but it won’t hold. Then he picks up the head, wraps it in some cleaning rags. Just then, a security guard on rounds stumbles in and sees him cradling a head and calls the police.
While Mike and Raisin are both having drinks in the bar, a man walks in. Tubby recognizes him as a law school buddy of his named Mickey O’Rourke though Mickey was in school ten years before Tubby was.
Mickey looks haggard and smells of cigarette smoke and whiskey. According to him, his wife left him, his kids won’t talk to him, he’s lost his house and his law practice is going under. Then he confides to Tubby that he’s in a bad spot.
Apparently, Mickey has a trial in a week —he’s representing a man guilty of murder in a week and he has nothing to work with. Besides, he’s inebriated all the time to function properly and unprepared for the trial. Matters worse, the judge won’t let him out.
So he asks for Tubby’s help in representing his client since Tubby is a good trial lawyer but Tubby turns him down immediately.
Then Mickey promises Tubby some good money from an aunt whom he claims is about to leave him with some money soon after she passes. But Tubby doesn’t budge.
Then Mickey reminds him of a favor he once did him—he introduced Tubby to his Mattie (they eventually got married and divorced). Finally seeing no other way to back out, Tubby agrees to see him the following day to talk about Mickey’s problems.
The client in question is the janitor who has been working at the center for three years. Apparently, the body has been identified as that of Whitney Valentine, a research pathologist at New Orleans Medical Center and a rising-star doctor which is sure to draw the media’s attention.
In addition, the janitor has been accused of pilfering drugs from the hospital so the District Attorney is speculating that the doctor was killed because he caught the janitor stealing drugs from the hospital and was killed as a result. The janitor also has a prior for selling crack. The police found some drugs in the janitor’s house. Eventually Tubby agrees to help Mickey with the case.
Meanwhile back at Tubby’s firm, Dubonnet & Associates, Tubby’s secretary, twenty-six-year-old Cherrylynn has made it her life’s mission to keep her boss on track. She’s been accusing him of letting his law practice slide and wants to help him stay on track.
Over lunch with his daughter, Debbie breaks the news that she’s two months pregnant, adding that the father of the baby’s suggesting they get married.
Tubby decides to do some digging into the doctor’s background with the help of Flowers, an ex-FBI-turned-investigator. They discover that Val had been investigating the death of the woman who drove off the Highway 11bridge into Lake Pontchartrain.
While working on the doctor’s case, an old friend of Tubby, Monique reaches out to Tubby to ask him to help a friend of hers. The friend in question, Denise Maggio has a family situation. She has a dispute with her father over the family business.
Her father and uncle both own an oil company but her father passed the previous year and now her uncle has been trying to force her out the company claiming that her father owned only ten percent of the company which is not true and she has her father’s shares certificates to prove it. Tubby agrees to help her on a contingency retainer.
When the book opens, Wheezy Wascomb is on her way to pick up her grandchildren to take them to the lake when she suddenly loses consciousness in her car and runs right into a concrete rail on an old highway bridge . She dies on the spot from the impact.
Meanwhile, Tubby Dubonnet now owns Mike’s Bar and has been running it for the past three months. His friend, Raisin Partlow is his usual goofy self and cool to hang around with.
One Sunday night in Moskowitz Memorial Laboratory housed in New Orleans State University Medical School, a custodian named Cletus Busters is doing his usual cleaning rounds in the animal care lab when he opens a built-in freezer cabinet and a frozen corpse falls right out, the head snapping off as the body hits the floor.
Upon closer inspection of the decapitated head, Cletus recognizes it as Dr. Valentine. But then he does the unthinkable: at first, he tries to reattach the head back to the body but it won’t hold. Then he picks up the head, wraps it in some cleaning rags. Just then, a security guard on rounds stumbles in and sees him cradling a head and calls the police.
While Mike and Raisin are both having drinks in the bar, a man walks in. Tubby recognizes him as a law school buddy of his named Mickey O’Rourke though Mickey was in school ten years before Tubby was.
Mickey looks haggard and smells of cigarette smoke and whiskey. According to him, his wife left him, his kids won’t talk to him, he’s lost his house and his law practice is going under. Then he confides to Tubby that he’s in a bad spot.
Apparently, Mickey has a trial in a week —he’s representing a man guilty of murder in a week and he has nothing to work with. Besides, he’s inebriated all the time to function properly and unprepared for the trial. Matters worse, the judge won’t let him out.
So he asks for Tubby’s help in representing his client since Tubby is a good trial lawyer but Tubby turns him down immediately.
Then Mickey promises Tubby some good money from an aunt whom he claims is about to leave him with some money soon after she passes. But Tubby doesn’t budge.
Then Mickey reminds him of a favor he once did him—he introduced Tubby to his Mattie (they eventually got married and divorced). Finally seeing no other way to back out, Tubby agrees to see him the following day to talk about Mickey’s problems.
The client in question is the janitor who has been working at the center for three years. Apparently, the body has been identified as that of Whitney Valentine, a research pathologist at New Orleans Medical Center and a rising-star doctor which is sure to draw the media’s attention.
In addition, the janitor has been accused of pilfering drugs from the hospital so the District Attorney is speculating that the doctor was killed because he caught the janitor stealing drugs from the hospital and was killed as a result. The janitor also has a prior for selling crack. The police found some drugs in the janitor’s house. Eventually Tubby agrees to help Mickey with the case.
Meanwhile back at Tubby’s firm, Dubonnet & Associates, Tubby’s secretary, twenty-six-year-old Cherrylynn has made it her life’s mission to keep her boss on track. She’s been accusing him of letting his law practice slide and wants to help him stay on track.
Over lunch with his daughter, Debbie breaks the news that she’s two months pregnant, adding that the father of the baby’s suggesting they get married.
Tubby decides to do some digging into the doctor’s background with the help of Flowers, an ex-FBI-turned-investigator. They discover that Val had been investigating the death of the woman who drove off the Highway 11bridge into Lake Pontchartrain.
While working on the doctor’s case, an old friend of Tubby, Monique reaches out to Tubby to ask him to help a friend of hers. The friend in question, Denise Maggio has a family situation. She has a dispute with her father over the family business.
Her father and uncle both own an oil company but her father passed the previous year and now her uncle has been trying to force her out the company claiming that her father owned only ten percent of the company which is not true and she has her father’s shares certificates to prove it. Tubby agrees to help her on a contingency retainer.
August 30, 2014
I love reading Tubby Dubonnet books after slogging through looooong-winded books by authors with agendas...
This is another easy read that kept me entertained and helped me relax.
This is another easy read that kept me entertained and helped me relax.
May 9, 2023
Third in the series of legal thrillers/mysteries set in New Orleans, starring around Tubby Dubonnet. This time Dubonnet is pulled in to help out an alcoholic lawyer who has been assigned to defend a black janitor found with a frozen corpse whose head fell off after the body fell. The janitor is being railroaded and Tubby tries to investigate what really led to the white doctor’s death. In addition he is also hired to help a young female boxer whose uncle is trying to prevent part of her inheritance after her father dies. Dubonnet is an interesting character and it is great to see all the references to places in New Orleans (many of which are now gone). Looking forward to others in the series (previously read the first two years ago).
July 20, 2020
Thoroughly Enjoyed This Book
Great pace and quirky characters who could almost be real!! New Orleans always projects an air of mystique and the author managed to capture that without overwhelming the reader with too much detail. Will definitely be reading more in this series!
Great pace and quirky characters who could almost be real!! New Orleans always projects an air of mystique and the author managed to capture that without overwhelming the reader with too much detail. Will definitely be reading more in this series!
July 17, 2019
An enjoyable story, well told with interesting characters.
It was a pleasure to read a novel that had been professionally edited and the lack of typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors made a refreshing change.
It was a pleasure to read a novel that had been professionally edited and the lack of typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors made a refreshing change.
August 29, 2016
I enjoy this series, although I haven't read any of the books in quite a few years. After reading this one in 1998, I noted that it was "good, maybe not up to the first two." So I'll give it a 3, maybe 3.5 stars.
November 27, 2015
Enjoyable .
An enjoyable fun read with likeable and engaging characters. A good read for unwinding and relaxing with a glass of wine.
An enjoyable fun read with likeable and engaging characters. A good read for unwinding and relaxing with a glass of wine.
May 28, 2019
TRICK QUESTION by Tony Dunbar opens a with a head-turning incident: A body, frozen solid, falling out of a freezer. It hit the floor and the head “snapped off and flipped into the air… bounced a few feet away, coming to rest at the base of a steel hotel full of hamsters. The dead eyes, oblivious to the squeals and panic they had caused, stared blankly at the ceiling. A mustache on the face, like a graffiti smudge on a marble sculpture, was fuzzy with ice crystals.”
That opening in itself might be motivation enough to read the book. Fortunately, Tubby Dubonnet – the lawyer hero who eventually takes over the case for another, alcoholic, attorney – is an integral part of the city of New Orleans. So the reader can enjoy not just how Tubby solves the crime and manages to prove the innocence of the client, but also the sights, smells, food and drink of the fabled city.
For example, this is a description of Tubby’s office:
“He liked his office. Its best features were the simple wooden desk and the window through which he could see most of the universe he cared about – the cracked tile roofs of the historic buildings in the French Quarter, the steady bustle of Canal Street, ships navigating the hairpin bend of the Mississippi River, and a thousand blocks of old neighborhoods stretching away to the seawall around Lake Pontchartrain. He could make out the sails of a few pleasure boats and started imagining what a day of fishing for his supper would feel like. Right now a morning rainstorm was breaking up over the Industrial Canal, dark clouds thinning out to blue, while downtown the sun shone on office workers shuffling miserably along the sidewalks.”
That’s the type of prose that some might reserve for lovers.
And the food:
“The Ricca family did a great job with any kind of seafood, stewed chicken, stuffed peppers, any kind of regular food you could name…They kept the place simple. No fancy art on the walls; just a few letters from the fans. The menu hanging over the counter hardly ever changed, and instead of decor, the restaurant offered the kind of aroma that made you want to push the guy ahead of you out of line... Tubby was starting on the second half of his muffaletta, immensely enjoying the spicy olive salad, ham, and salami in the crusty Italian roll, and reading about Tulane basketball in the Times-Picayune sports section.”
And what is New Orleans without a touch of voodoo? Tubby’s client, we learn,
“…does voodoo cures and casts spells He has a little shrine in the water heater shed behind his house. One of the neighbors had to put out a fire with a garden hose last year when Cletus went to Time Saver and forgot he had left some candles burning. Some leaves caught on fire, and it was pure luck the neighbor saw it or the house might have burned down. The neighbor says he popped open the shed door and there was a dead chicken on a blanket, some Mardi Gras beads around it, an unlit cigar on top, and a circle of candles.”
Tubby takes this news in stride. He replies judiciously: “We’re all entitled to our personal eccentricities.”
Obviously, Tubby enjoys his life. And though we may be envious, he is not above day-dreaming a bit:
“Have a couple of drinks, go to work every day, watch the Saints on the weekend, maybe play a little tennis or catch some music at a club: that was the kind of fulfilling life a man could happily lead – unless he started getting involved with women…”
I, for one, appreciate the mystery but even more the atmosphere of New Orleans that Dunbar incorporates into the story.
That opening in itself might be motivation enough to read the book. Fortunately, Tubby Dubonnet – the lawyer hero who eventually takes over the case for another, alcoholic, attorney – is an integral part of the city of New Orleans. So the reader can enjoy not just how Tubby solves the crime and manages to prove the innocence of the client, but also the sights, smells, food and drink of the fabled city.
For example, this is a description of Tubby’s office:
“He liked his office. Its best features were the simple wooden desk and the window through which he could see most of the universe he cared about – the cracked tile roofs of the historic buildings in the French Quarter, the steady bustle of Canal Street, ships navigating the hairpin bend of the Mississippi River, and a thousand blocks of old neighborhoods stretching away to the seawall around Lake Pontchartrain. He could make out the sails of a few pleasure boats and started imagining what a day of fishing for his supper would feel like. Right now a morning rainstorm was breaking up over the Industrial Canal, dark clouds thinning out to blue, while downtown the sun shone on office workers shuffling miserably along the sidewalks.”
That’s the type of prose that some might reserve for lovers.
And the food:
“The Ricca family did a great job with any kind of seafood, stewed chicken, stuffed peppers, any kind of regular food you could name…They kept the place simple. No fancy art on the walls; just a few letters from the fans. The menu hanging over the counter hardly ever changed, and instead of decor, the restaurant offered the kind of aroma that made you want to push the guy ahead of you out of line... Tubby was starting on the second half of his muffaletta, immensely enjoying the spicy olive salad, ham, and salami in the crusty Italian roll, and reading about Tulane basketball in the Times-Picayune sports section.”
And what is New Orleans without a touch of voodoo? Tubby’s client, we learn,
“…does voodoo cures and casts spells He has a little shrine in the water heater shed behind his house. One of the neighbors had to put out a fire with a garden hose last year when Cletus went to Time Saver and forgot he had left some candles burning. Some leaves caught on fire, and it was pure luck the neighbor saw it or the house might have burned down. The neighbor says he popped open the shed door and there was a dead chicken on a blanket, some Mardi Gras beads around it, an unlit cigar on top, and a circle of candles.”
Tubby takes this news in stride. He replies judiciously: “We’re all entitled to our personal eccentricities.”
Obviously, Tubby enjoys his life. And though we may be envious, he is not above day-dreaming a bit:
“Have a couple of drinks, go to work every day, watch the Saints on the weekend, maybe play a little tennis or catch some music at a club: that was the kind of fulfilling life a man could happily lead – unless he started getting involved with women…”
I, for one, appreciate the mystery but even more the atmosphere of New Orleans that Dunbar incorporates into the story.
May 11, 2018
When we last left my reviews of the Tubby Dubonnet series, I admitted that I had read them out of order. I read the second book, then the first book, and now I’ve read the third book. I mentioned that I rather liked that order, and now that I’ve read the third book immediately after the first book, I have to say that I ABSOLUTELY confirm that this is the correct order. Yes. Do this. Book 2, then book 1, then book 3. If you are reading this book because you are considering starting your Tubby series reading here, do not. Go directly to the second book and do that. You’ll be living the very best life if you do.
In this book, Tubby, the old soft heart, finds himself the public defender for a none-too-loquacious janitor named Cletus Busters who is suspected of killing a scientist, freezing him solid, then dropping him on the ground such that he shatters. Despite there being ample other suspects, including the real killers, the right to a speedy trial pushes us into the courtroom with breakneck speed.
Where the previous two books in the series were more thrillers than mysteries, this one is a good, old fashioned, private eye, gumshoe, keep reinterviewing the same people and reviewing the same notes kind of mystery. So if you like a Kinsey-Milhone Sue-Grafton kind of T-is-for-Tubby, this book will be right up your alley. And I do! Hence the five stars.
Also, I like that Cherylynn is starting to be fleshed out as a character. In this book, you see that she has a romantic side.
But I suppose a trigger warning is necessary: this book does acknowledge the presence of physical abuse in a relationship and hints at incestuous rape.
In this book, Tubby, the old soft heart, finds himself the public defender for a none-too-loquacious janitor named Cletus Busters who is suspected of killing a scientist, freezing him solid, then dropping him on the ground such that he shatters. Despite there being ample other suspects, including the real killers, the right to a speedy trial pushes us into the courtroom with breakneck speed.
Where the previous two books in the series were more thrillers than mysteries, this one is a good, old fashioned, private eye, gumshoe, keep reinterviewing the same people and reviewing the same notes kind of mystery. So if you like a Kinsey-Milhone Sue-Grafton kind of T-is-for-Tubby, this book will be right up your alley. And I do! Hence the five stars.
Also, I like that Cherylynn is starting to be fleshed out as a character. In this book, you see that she has a romantic side.
But I suppose a trigger warning is necessary: this book does acknowledge the presence of physical abuse in a relationship and hints at incestuous rape.
June 3, 2018
Trick Question - a review by Rosemary Kenny
When voodoo priest and part-time janitor at a research lab, Cletus finds the body of his nemesis Dr Valentine hideously beheaded, as his frozen corpse shatters literally at Cletus' feet, it's not long before he's arrested as the prime suspect in this tongue-in-cheek investigation by the 'tired of Life' lawyer Tubby Dubonnet.
Helped by his often infuriating (& infuriating) secretary, the level-headed Cherrylynn and dragged unwillingly into the part of co-counsel, with his alcoholic ex-drinking partner and colleague Mickey O'Rourke, Tubby couldn't be more reluctant to be a defence counsel for the uncooperative Cletus and to have to face an unsympathetic judge, who rejects Tubby's plea for more than two weeks to investigate the case he knows almost nothing about!
Can Tubby and the team pull off a miracle and discover the real killer in time? How does boxer Denise DiMaggio become another of Tubby's clients? How do the two cases intermingle eventually? Who tries to run Tubby off the road?
What experimental developments had Dr Valentine been working on? Why did this put him in danger?
What happens at the laboratory when O'Rourke goes to question Dr Swincter? What evidence does he find there?
As time runs out for Cletus and the Assistant DA's calling for the death penalty, the case is in Tubby's hands and the odds are against a happy result. Tony Dunbar's expert story-telling skills are second to none as he weaves the magic threads of danger and delight, mayhem and murder and a round or three at Mike's Bar when the jury's had their say
together in an exciting way that will leave the reader eager for more...get your copy today
When voodoo priest and part-time janitor at a research lab, Cletus finds the body of his nemesis Dr Valentine hideously beheaded, as his frozen corpse shatters literally at Cletus' feet, it's not long before he's arrested as the prime suspect in this tongue-in-cheek investigation by the 'tired of Life' lawyer Tubby Dubonnet.
Helped by his often infuriating (& infuriating) secretary, the level-headed Cherrylynn and dragged unwillingly into the part of co-counsel, with his alcoholic ex-drinking partner and colleague Mickey O'Rourke, Tubby couldn't be more reluctant to be a defence counsel for the uncooperative Cletus and to have to face an unsympathetic judge, who rejects Tubby's plea for more than two weeks to investigate the case he knows almost nothing about!
Can Tubby and the team pull off a miracle and discover the real killer in time? How does boxer Denise DiMaggio become another of Tubby's clients? How do the two cases intermingle eventually? Who tries to run Tubby off the road?
What experimental developments had Dr Valentine been working on? Why did this put him in danger?
What happens at the laboratory when O'Rourke goes to question Dr Swincter? What evidence does he find there?
As time runs out for Cletus and the Assistant DA's calling for the death penalty, the case is in Tubby's hands and the odds are against a happy result. Tony Dunbar's expert story-telling skills are second to none as he weaves the magic threads of danger and delight, mayhem and murder and a round or three at Mike's Bar when the jury's had their say
together in an exciting way that will leave the reader eager for more...get your copy today
October 10, 2022
If you want to talk about having a bad day, you do not know what that means until you have read the story of Cletus Busters. Cletus works as a janitor in a medical lab in New Orleans. One evening at work he opens the freezer where dead bodies are kept that need to be examined for various diseases only to discover that the lead scientist of the lab is frozen dead inside. When the frozen body falls on him Cletus grabs the head to stand it back up only to find the head has snapped off in his hands.
That is when security happens to walk in the room, and calls the police, who immediately arrest Cletus for murder, and off he goes to jail. And that is what I call a really bad day! On top of that the lawyer Cletus hires is so drunk he can not function when he decides that he can not defend Cletus and calls on Tubby Dubonnet. Tubby can not believe that just a few days before the trial is to begin he finds himself stuck with a murder trial of a guy who is either really stupid or cannot possibly be guilty and a police force that does not care. This case will either make Tubby’s law career or leave him taking any case he can get.
Of course, I loved this book! Who wouldn’t? A man is left holding a dead man’s frozen head while a security guard enters the room, too fun to not read! Tubby is one of the funniest lawyers I have encountered in my reading selections and Cletus just cannot catch a break, with his sojourn into voodoo and previous drug arrest coming into the picture. Grab a beer and some popcorn while you sit in one place and turn the pages until the end!
That is when security happens to walk in the room, and calls the police, who immediately arrest Cletus for murder, and off he goes to jail. And that is what I call a really bad day! On top of that the lawyer Cletus hires is so drunk he can not function when he decides that he can not defend Cletus and calls on Tubby Dubonnet. Tubby can not believe that just a few days before the trial is to begin he finds himself stuck with a murder trial of a guy who is either really stupid or cannot possibly be guilty and a police force that does not care. This case will either make Tubby’s law career or leave him taking any case he can get.
Of course, I loved this book! Who wouldn’t? A man is left holding a dead man’s frozen head while a security guard enters the room, too fun to not read! Tubby is one of the funniest lawyers I have encountered in my reading selections and Cletus just cannot catch a break, with his sojourn into voodoo and previous drug arrest coming into the picture. Grab a beer and some popcorn while you sit in one place and turn the pages until the end!
January 3, 2025
Trick Question, book three of “The Tubby Dubonnet Series,” by Tony Dunbar, is a fast-paced contemporary mystery that takes place in colorful New Orleans.
Attorney Tubby Dubonnet reluctantly takes on a case as a favor to a fellow lawyer, a case that appears to have little hope of success.
When Cletus Busters, a janitor at a research laboratory, snoops around the office of Doctor Whitney Valentine, he opens a walk-in freezer. To the janitor’s dismay and horror the frozen body of the doctor falls out and crashes to the floor, causing the head to snap off and roll across the room. It seems the two, Dr. Valentine and Cletus, have had a falling out in the past and now the janitor finds himself charged with murder.
When Tubby Dubonnet calls on his client, he finds the man unhelpful in his own defense. Although Cletus denies killing the doctor, he is obviously hiding something. The frustrated attorney fears his reputation is at stake with a case that seems doomed for failure.
I was intrigued with this mystery. I’ve spent time in New Orleans and was delighted with the author’s references to the tastes and places of this fabled city. The fast-paced story is written with droll humor. Trick Question is the only book I have read in this series, but I was captivated both by the mystery and also by the regional setting.
August 20, 2018
I have now read the first four books of this series, enjoyed them all. Tubby Dubonnet is a lawyer in New Orleans. Tubby is not your "typical" lawyer - he is softhearted, usually ready to take a case for the down-on-their-luck little guy. He also needs to make a living to support his three daughters, nice young ladies who need fatherly advice once in awhile. So he also looks for cases that will pad his bank account. This book does not look like one of those cases though. The janitor, Cletus Busters, at a medical laboratory opens a door to the lab freezer and out falls the frozen body of a research doctor. As the frozen body hits the floor, the head falls off and shocked Cletus picks it up. Enter the security guard. So fast forward....the police believe Cletus did it and they look no further, charging Cletus with murder. Tubby offers to help out his alcoholic lawyer friend defend Cletus. Poor Tubby gets very little help from Cletus either, especially when Tubby hears about Cletus' voodoo practices. Tubby's other client is a low self-esteem female boxer with an abusive trainer/boyfriend. Tubby is one busy lawyer in this one! I enjoy this series...plenty of laughs and just enough mystery to make it interesting.
July 5, 2019
In my experience as a binge reader (mostly during the sultry summer months), more is most Definitely More in the Tubby Dubonnet series. Forget Mies Van der Rohe and his sage "less is more" philosophy---go ahead and read Dunbar's enjoyable books one after another and relish the fun.
Tubby Dubonnet is a sage lawyer, but also one who is savvy enough to often be conflicted by the demands of his profession. That tension is what makes him an interesting character, and what sets this series aside as more than light mystery fiction.
The characters have depth and heart and it makes reading these novels a step beyond just an afternoon escape. Dunbar exposes the fragility of relationships, our need for stability, our search for acceptance, and our longing for love. None of this is too obvious or too demanding, but it is there nonetheless and it is one of the reasons that I find this series so satisfying.
Thank you Mr. Dunbar---please keep writing.
Tubby Dubonnet is a sage lawyer, but also one who is savvy enough to often be conflicted by the demands of his profession. That tension is what makes him an interesting character, and what sets this series aside as more than light mystery fiction.
The characters have depth and heart and it makes reading these novels a step beyond just an afternoon escape. Dunbar exposes the fragility of relationships, our need for stability, our search for acceptance, and our longing for love. None of this is too obvious or too demanding, but it is there nonetheless and it is one of the reasons that I find this series so satisfying.
Thank you Mr. Dunbar---please keep writing.
February 4, 2018
Hm.... how to describe.... As I was reading along, nothing super impressive, just kind of an enjoyable story. Then when it came to the end, I was very disappointed. It literally hit me like "yup - here's the answer to the mystery - but big deal - it's just a book in this series about Tubby so I have an income " - from the author. Given the information in the plot - there were "clues" that were never explored & in all honesty would have made a better & different ending. (The dead guy had been supplying illicit drugs to an athlete - hello - use that in the ending) Instead, we were hit with some oddball answer falling out of the sky at the last minute. And when I hit THE END at 88% on my kindle, I am completely unimpressed with the balance of the 12 % remaining advertisement. Read the Tubby series only if you are looking for something to kill time.
October 14, 2019
An alcoholic lawyer finds himself in way over his head when he is called to defend a custodian who was found in a research lab holding the severed frozen head of one of the doctors. He calls on old friend Tubby Dubonnet to help him out in the defense. This is a good murder mystery with a slightly noir feel to it and the added interest of a New Orleans backdrop. If you're at all familiar with that city, you'll have fun recognising places mentioned in the book. I have nothing really bad to say about this book. I liked the characters and the plot wasn't too outlandish. Just enough to keep it interesting.
September 10, 2020
I found myself smiling a lot while reading "Trick Question" - who in the hell has a nickname 'Tubby' that no-one seems to notice, how does he end up in the oddest situations for the best reasons, the list goes on. It is unremittingly cheerful - Tubby certainly has a certain joie de vivre. It's a traditional mystery with great dialogue, interesting descriptions of New Orleans (mostly bars and restaurants) and a plot that is efficiently handled and more or less solved in a sentence.
Any books that puts me in good humour deserves its 4 Stars.
Any books that puts me in good humour deserves its 4 Stars.
March 15, 2024
This third volume in the series of Dubonnet's adventure falls a little flat ultimately compared to where volume 2 was headed. The overall story takes on the corporate world of pharmaceutical and whatnot. While the crime at hand and the intrigue are both pretty decent, the overall pace was lacking a bit and the approach felt a little unconvincing at times. Still read it, just because Dubonnet is a character you get slowly attached to, as you get to know more of his drive as a lawyer turned mystery solver :-)
August 1, 2021
Book #3 of a Box Set.
Characters from previous books and new characters make this story. All entwine to produce a good story. A lot of this story involves the court room and an accused individual, but there's other side stories that mix together. To a degree, the fairness of the judicial system is questioned. Has an epilogue in the near end, so there's no cliff-hangers.
Recommended read. Onto Book #4
Characters from previous books and new characters make this story. All entwine to produce a good story. A lot of this story involves the court room and an accused individual, but there's other side stories that mix together. To a degree, the fairness of the judicial system is questioned. Has an epilogue in the near end, so there's no cliff-hangers.
Recommended read. Onto Book #4
May 30, 2022
I never figured out what the trick question was but I thoroughly enjoyed reading Tubby and his crew's exploits. Faced with the hopeless task of getting Cletus off the murder charge when O'Rourke asks for help due to his terminal drunkenness stopping him defending to his best ability, Tubby rallies his team and saves the day along with sorting out Denise's boxing career and her boyfriend/trainer problems.
June 2, 2018
NEW. Orleans,specialized you've been there!b
I recognized sihhts,areas, has a good story line and is open to a series! Cast is believable and honest! Is avoid read into an area of today's life and dreams of some lesser privileged beings(m-f). Language is not very bad! Not potty mouthed! Good read!
I recognized sihhts,areas, has a good story line and is open to a series! Cast is believable and honest! Is avoid read into an area of today's life and dreams of some lesser privileged beings(m-f). Language is not very bad! Not potty mouthed! Good read!
June 23, 2019
Tubby now owns Mike’s Bar, takes on a client at the last minute. Add to his stories of unusual people the client is a voodoo priest. The body was in a freezer, when it fell out, the head snap off. Another unusual case, and Tubby always seems laid back, though he does find evident. Again it is rich in the sounds, and foods of New Orleans.
July 18, 2020
Terrific
I read the first of the series & thought “meh.” I love reading stories about New Orleans, having lived there my entire life, so I thought, okay, I’ll try the next one, cause the author knows New Orleans. I got hooked. This story made me smile, almost laughed out loud and I’m eager to keep reading. I salute you, Mr. Dunbar.
I read the first of the series & thought “meh.” I love reading stories about New Orleans, having lived there my entire life, so I thought, okay, I’ll try the next one, cause the author knows New Orleans. I got hooked. This story made me smile, almost laughed out loud and I’m eager to keep reading. I salute you, Mr. Dunbar.
June 2, 2022
Everything I Look For
Great read! Good mystery, well developed, interesting characters, fast paced and even more than one ending. My only critique: too many change of scenes where a break wasn’t placed. Always takes a few minutes to figure out what’s going on and where to start rereading again. But I loved it.
Great read! Good mystery, well developed, interesting characters, fast paced and even more than one ending. My only critique: too many change of scenes where a break wasn’t placed. Always takes a few minutes to figure out what’s going on and where to start rereading again. But I loved it.
June 3, 2022
interesting characters reminds me of the Lincoln lawyer
Story held my interest right to the. End. The scene in New Orleans brought memories of visit to that great city. The situations (
Plot) was fascinating . Couldn’t leave the story found it so intriguing. A great mystery story and one you all will love.
Story held my interest right to the. End. The scene in New Orleans brought memories of visit to that great city. The situations (
Plot) was fascinating . Couldn’t leave the story found it so intriguing. A great mystery story and one you all will love.
May 8, 2017
This is one volume in the "Tubby Dubonnet" series. Tubby Dubonnet is an attorney with problematic clients and an unresolved love life. I forget how I got this book on my Kindle list, but it was a fine read - not so compelling that I would seek out other books by this author, but fine.
June 26, 2017
Light hearted, easy read
Enjoyable beach read. Author knows a great deal about New Orleans, it's food, restaurants and customs. This was my first read of this series. Worth a look at the other books.
Enjoyable beach read. Author knows a great deal about New Orleans, it's food, restaurants and customs. This was my first read of this series. Worth a look at the other books.
March 20, 2018
A fun fast read done in a Mickey Spillane 'film noire' setting with Perry Mason character development. First one of this series I have read. I'll remember Tony Dunbar and Tubby Dubonnet the next time I need a break from longer more involved novels.
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