Honest Lizzie Borden has never in her life taken a thing that didn’t belong to her. But now the Florida swamp girl/budding rock star (robbed of her music by a record company) has two million dollars, a dead mobster, a live amateur mobster who wants his money back, a detective she’s falling for-and a chance to get her music back. On Florida’s beautiful-and bizarre-Emerald Coast, anything can … happen. Especially the things you don’t want.
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I won this kindle e-book in a Goodreads Giveaway. It was a fun read with interesting characters set on the Florida Gulf Coast. There was a lot of humor; some of it dark; but it worked well with the plot. What is not to enjoy? There are mobsters, a rock star working as a hotel maid, murder, a detective from the area, his younger partner who recently came from Chicago, an alcoholic boat Captain, small town corruption and so much more. The action is fast-paced, the story is well-written and fluid with plenty of action. The plot is entertaining and witty. Who lives and who dies? How does the “Free Money” from the title play into the story? Read it to find out.
This was a very fun and engaging mystery from the author of one of my favorite darkly funny finds last year – MAD Librarian. In this latest book, we find ourselves in Gulf Coast Florida, where a long-time resident detective and his partner, a recent transplant from Chicago, find themselves embroiled in a mystery that is equal parts serious and seriously ridiculous. It’s a great combination in the hands of a talented storyteller, and Guillebeau is that in spades. The characters are a delight and the setting is unusual (at least it was for me) and lent itself to a lot of hilarity and dark humor that played really well with the plot. Lizzie Borden is a very fun and funky character and her attempts to bring her musical career back on track offered just the right blend of “regular person who won’t take it any more” sass that I loved about MAD Librarian.
This was a very fun and very quick read and the ending seemed to leave open the possibility for more books/stories in the future. I sincerely hope that’s the case because this was a world that was too fun for only one visit!
NB: On that note, I did a little research, and Guillebeau has some short stories set in this world already – despite my not generally being a big fan of that format, I will definitely look for them though, because the characters in this Florida swamp of a world are intriguing and a great melange of personalities, quirks, and foibles. I actually think they’d lend themselves well to a short format; it would allow for a lot of character presentation and development in gator-bite-sized morsels, and when you couple that with Guillebeau’s easygoing and engaging writing style, I can only imagine the result will be fun.
I received my review copy through NetGalley.
Emerald Coast: Free Money by Michael Guillebeau
An over-the-top spoof-like comedy of a story with the gruff older detective and his younger sidekick, a few rather eccentric characters, mobsters with nefarious intentions and a rock-star-working-as-a-maid who is the strongest character of all. Not necessarily keystone cops but but there was a feeling of the surreal to this story. I can almost see it as a graphic novel with at least one page with a guy in the water with big red reptilian eyes nearby and snakes in the trees. This was a fun quick easy read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Madison Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.
3-4 Stars