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Jack Flippo #1

by Doug J. Swanson

"Big Town" is Dallas, perched precariously between could-be and has-been. Big Town is Doug J. Swanson's relentlessly taut, darkly hilarious debut novel. It shines a brilliant light into the dimmer corners of Dallas and introduces an extremely unlikely, extremely engaging hero, Jack Flippo. Jack Flippo was the hottest ticket in the Dallas DA's office until an affair with a drug dealer's wife ended his legal career and his marriage. Now he lives above a garage in a Dallas neighborhood that went from bust to bust without booming. He pays the rent by snooping for Hal Roper, the sort of attorney who runs ads in the TV listings. Hal assigns Jack to tape one of the many strange sexual interludes of motivational speaker Buddy George Jr., who's a fixture of late-night infomercials and Rotary Club breakfasts throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area. But when Jack hears Buddy threatening his partner for the evening, he rushes to her aid, throwing a scare into Buddy and throwing Sharronda, the tough-talking innocent at Buddy's mercy, into his own reluctant care. He's also unwittingly foiled the plans of Buddy's icy yet steamy assistant, Paula Fontaine. With the aid of wannabe thug/talk-show host Teddy Tunstra II, Paula devises ever-more-byzantine schemes for fleecing Buddy, one of which results in the demise of Sharronda's spectacularly scruffy beau, Delbert, in the motel room just vacated by Buddy. The police run to Buddy for an explanation, Buddy runs to Paula for advice, and Paula sees a way to bleed him after all. Meanwhile, Jack realizes that Paula's at the center of this web only after she's snared him in it with a little liquor and a lot of sex. To save Sharronda from Paula's wrath - and himself from being implicated in Delbert's murder - Jack must find the killer and, harder still, outscheme Paula. Big Town is latter-day noir with a Texas twang, memorable for its pitch-perfect dialogue, its dead-on evocations of Dallas, and its large cast of quirky, convincing persona

Genres: Mystery

Paperback Shinsho

First published February 1, 1994

Reviews

[James Thane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Flippo is a young man with a bright future. He's married, living in a nice home and is a rising star in the Dallas, Texas DA's office, where Jack is employed as an Assistant DA. Then he makes the age-old mistake of sleeping with the wrong woman, who, unbeknownst to Jack, is actually the wife of a drug dealer currently being prosecuted by the DA. Suddenly, Jack is divorced, living in a crappy excuse for a house, and attempting to eek out a living as a wedding photographer and part-time unlicensed PI.

A sleezeball attorney attorney named Hal is retained by a woman claiming to be the wife of Buddy George, Jr., a motivational speaker who's making a pile of money encouraging people to improve their lot in life. The woman gives the attorney the room number of the hotel where Buddy will be entertaining a Sweet Young Thing named Sharronda following his evening's motivational presentation, and the attorney hires Jack to take the room next door and get the recordings that will enable the voluptuous Mrs. George to sue for divorce.

Jack is up for the challenge and sets up his equipment. But then things suddenly go wrong on a number of fronts and Jack finds himself under serious threat from the police, from the aforementioned Mr. George, from the lawyer's stunning client, and from a would-be tough guy and aspiring talk show host named Teddy Deuce who serves as muscle for Hal, the attorney.

It all makes for a very entertaining romp. Even though Jack's life is in the crapper, he still has his standards; he's still smart and funny as hell, and you can't help rooting for the guy. The supporting cast feels like it stepped out of a Carl Hiaasen novel by way of Elmore Leonard, and the story moves along at just the right pace.

First published in 1994, this is the first in what would ultimately become a six-book series featuring Jack Flippo. All in all, it's a fun read that will appeal to large numbers of people who enjoy their crime fiction on the somewhat lighter side.

[Falko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big Town ist ein Krimithriller im Stile der Filme der Coen-Brüder. Ganz viel Dummheit/Plumpheit der Akteure, mega witzig dabei.
Jeder hat zig Pläne, jeder weiß es besser, und eins nach dem anderen geht schief. Blut fließt, wo es nicht soll, Geld wechselt den Besitzer, wie es aber gar nicht gedacht war.

Ich wurde sehr gut unterhalten!

[Twistedtexas · Rating 3 out of 5]

4.5/10 - I mostly enjoyed Swanson's debut novel. It read like one of Elmore Leonard's lesser works, which is still pretty damned good., but a little overly derivative for my liking. I'll def. give the author another shot soon.


...She put more ice in the glasses and poured in the gin. "I'm out of tonic," she said.

"Better than being out of gin."

[Michael Norwitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly good double-crossy mystery. The characters never pulled me in all that much, but the plot was interesting enough to keep me reading.

[Regine]

Coarse.

[Berta Kleiner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread this after a long long time. Still got a few chuckles at of it, still liked the dialogue. Weak plot, though.

[Pam]

purchased used 10/24 MOTB