A stockbroker battles local and imported mobsters, a hitman he calls The Creeper, and a shotgun-toting, naked murderer. I stuff the DVD under my laptop and work hard to put on my three-o’clock-in-the-morning, full-boat Carr grin. Not exactly a simple trick. And definitely not sincere. I mean, how am I supposed to be calm and forthright when this DVD suggests last night’s love interest--the lady headed this way--could be a killer. Clever of me to wake her up. I gasp when I see her. Oh, my. And oops. Oh my because she’s wearing nothing but white athletic socks. Oops because she’s using both hands and all ten red-nailed fingers to grasp a pump action, single barrel shotgun. “You found the DVD, didn’t you?” Ms. Shotgun says. “DVD?” If it wasn’t for rhyming consonants, I’d be pretty much speechless. My gaze is tightly focused on her bare breasts and that shotgun in the same close-up. Visually and emotionally, it’s a lot to absorb.

Professional Reviews
Kirkus Discoveries
BIG MONEY
Author: Getze, Jack

Review Date: FEBRUARY 22, 2008
Publisher:Hilliard & Harris (236 pp.)
Publication Date: March 1, 2008
ISBN (paperback): 1-59133-238-9
Category: AUTHORS
Classification: FICTION

In this jaunty follow-up to Big Numbers (2007), a scruffy stockbroker returns to tangle with mobsters, women and his own big mouth.

The good news, as the story opens, is that the hero is in the company of a gorgeous naked lady. The bad news is that she’s pointing a shotgun at him. It’s a typical predicament for Austin Carr, a semi-shady New Jersey financial professional temporarily in charge of Shore Securities while his boss is on vacation. But market fluctuations are the least of Carr’s worries. He’s being extorted into opening a money-laundering account for local crime boss Bluefish; an auditor who was investigating his company has turned up murdered; a fetching state police captain figures he’s the key to her organized-crime probe; and his boss’s mother has been picked up for fixing her church bingo game. Carr is continually getting into trouble over his weakness for breasts, his penchant for self-incriminating statements and his vestigial moral sensibility, which, like an appendix, makes itself felt at inconvenient times. On the plus side, he’s got his noble Mexican buddy Luis, a boyish grin for placating angry females, an occasional glimmer of perceptiveness and a stock salesman’s gift for closing the deal, even with people who are preparing to throw his weighted body into the ocean. The way to read this book is to let the hectic, Byzantine, dubiously motivated plot just roll over you without wondering much about who’s doing what to whom, or why. That way you can relax and enjoy Getze’s punchy dialogue and colorful characters—Bluefish’s henchman Max is an especially pungent creation—and his hilarious hangdog protagonist’s dissolute charm.

If Elmore Leonard had gotten a securities license, this is the book he might have written.




ReviewedByLiz
Austin Carr returns in Jack Getze’s second book, BIG MONEY. Our favorite stockbroker has lost his securities license, but this doesn’t keep his boss, Vick Bonacelli, from leaving him in charge of the store while Vick takes a long vacation. Vick also makes Carr promise to watch over his adult daughter Carmela and his mother, Mama Bones. As soon as Vick’s boat sails, Carmela’s ex-husband shows up, Mama Bones is arrested, the regulatory audit turns up some potentially disastrous transactions in the company’s books, and the local mob boss politely requests that Shore Securities launder some money for him. Well, perhaps not so politely…

Yes, it is a typical day in the life of Austin Carr. Carr is the everyman who lives his entire life caught between a rock and a hard place - and watching him try to wiggle out is a delight. A despised ex-husband but devoted father, Carr is motivated to protect his small ownership stake in the securities company so he can provide for his children. But Carr is out of his league when it comes to the machinations of the local mafia and has to rely on the more worldly assistance of his favorite bartender, Luis, and the surprising Mama Bones.

I love it when an author’s second book surpasses a good debut, and Getze achieves this with BIG MONEY. Getze hits his stride in this book and tips us the wink on Carr’s true character. For all his posturing, Carr is always the most naïve person in the room (even when his children are present) and you end up both laughing out loud at his view of the world and rolling your eyes at his sexual impulses, which he has as much control over as your average 14 year-old male of the species. But because he is obviously the innocent in the piece, you end up cheering for him, as well. BIG MONEY becomes a real page turner as you find yourself desperately hoping that everything will turn out all right for Austin Carr in the end.

Favorite character? The Creeper has some wonderful and bizarre appearances in this book, but I have to go with Austin Carr. Did I guess it? Some of it. Will I read another? Absolutely.

Check out Jack’s web site at jackgetze.com.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2008

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