Title: City of Beads by Tony Dunbar
Kindle Price: $4.99
Author's Website: booksbnimble.com
Author's Website: booksbnimble.com
Author on Facebook: click here
Reader Review:
"Dunbar weaves together the many strands
of his highly entertaining tale with much skill and wit, as well as some
relaxed local color."
--Publishers Weekly
Book Description:
New Orleans lawyer Tubby Dubonnet is bored. He
wants to bill enough hours to pay his alimony and keep his daughter in college,
with enough left over for an occasional drink and a good meal, but he longs for
something different and exciting.
When he's offered a job researching the licensing requirements of the city's new and lucrative gambling casino, he doesn't care if he's working for the Mob. Meanwhile, he becomes involved in executing the estate of an old friend who controls some dock leases on the wharf, and he agrees to help his daughter's environmental group stop illegal dumping into the river.
As one might expect, the three cases curiously begin to converge: the toxic dumping, the dock leases, and the too-good-to-be-true casino job lead Tubby to the conclusion that he's been set up to be the fall guy in an effort by the casino to expand its operations.
Suddenly Tubby is doing something different and exciting -- he's running for his life... The second in the Tubby Dubonnet mystery series.
When he's offered a job researching the licensing requirements of the city's new and lucrative gambling casino, he doesn't care if he's working for the Mob. Meanwhile, he becomes involved in executing the estate of an old friend who controls some dock leases on the wharf, and he agrees to help his daughter's environmental group stop illegal dumping into the river.
As one might expect, the three cases curiously begin to converge: the toxic dumping, the dock leases, and the too-good-to-be-true casino job lead Tubby to the conclusion that he's been set up to be the fall guy in an effort by the casino to expand its operations.
Suddenly Tubby is doing something different and exciting -- he's running for his life... The second in the Tubby Dubonnet mystery series.
Excerpt:
Down by the river, Potter Aucoin was putting up a
hell of a fight, but he was losing it quick.
He got in a solid clip on one of his attackers, right above the ear, with a rusty black iron jack handle. The man careened backward across the room and slammed against the wall, tipping over a filing cabinet. The other assailant, the smaller of the two but still linebacker size, leapt up behind Potter and wrapped his arms around him in a bear hug. He was blowing hot gusts of garlic into Potter’s face, yelling for his partner to get off the floor and help him.
Although he was pinned, Potter managed to jab the sharp end of the jack handle into a soft part of the man holding him from behind. It dug into flesh, high on the thigh. He did it again, and a painful howl roared out of the mouth by his cheek. Potter’s arms came free, but not soon enough. The beefy one on the floor, his yellow paisley tie tangled up in his blue polyester shirt, had stopped seeing stars and got up. His meaty fist was armored by an old-fashioned ring of aluminum knuckles, and it swung in a wild haymaker that landed hard on Potter’s forehead. Potter’s last picture of humanity was of a stranger’s face, the mouth knotted in rage, before blood covered his eyes. Then the view in Potter’s fading mind changed to a sandy blue seashore, and he collapsed with the taste of fresh mangoes and papayas on his tongue.
“Jesus Christ,” the man with the chain-link knuckles cursed as Potter slumped down into the arms of his gasping partner, just another stranger, who held the weight for a second, then let the limp sweaty body drop to the stained concrete floor.
He stepped back with a curse, and said something like a prayer, before he gave the limp and bleeding form a tentative kick.
“I think he’s dead,” he said.
“Ah, no,” the bigger man complained. “That shouldn’t have killed him. Good God almighty, what a mess.”
He got in a solid clip on one of his attackers, right above the ear, with a rusty black iron jack handle. The man careened backward across the room and slammed against the wall, tipping over a filing cabinet. The other assailant, the smaller of the two but still linebacker size, leapt up behind Potter and wrapped his arms around him in a bear hug. He was blowing hot gusts of garlic into Potter’s face, yelling for his partner to get off the floor and help him.
Although he was pinned, Potter managed to jab the sharp end of the jack handle into a soft part of the man holding him from behind. It dug into flesh, high on the thigh. He did it again, and a painful howl roared out of the mouth by his cheek. Potter’s arms came free, but not soon enough. The beefy one on the floor, his yellow paisley tie tangled up in his blue polyester shirt, had stopped seeing stars and got up. His meaty fist was armored by an old-fashioned ring of aluminum knuckles, and it swung in a wild haymaker that landed hard on Potter’s forehead. Potter’s last picture of humanity was of a stranger’s face, the mouth knotted in rage, before blood covered his eyes. Then the view in Potter’s fading mind changed to a sandy blue seashore, and he collapsed with the taste of fresh mangoes and papayas on his tongue.
“Jesus Christ,” the man with the chain-link knuckles cursed as Potter slumped down into the arms of his gasping partner, just another stranger, who held the weight for a second, then let the limp sweaty body drop to the stained concrete floor.
He stepped back with a curse, and said something like a prayer, before he gave the limp and bleeding form a tentative kick.
“I think he’s dead,” he said.
“Ah, no,” the bigger man complained. “That shouldn’t have killed him. Good God almighty, what a mess.”
About the Author:
Tony Dunbar is a lawyer and the author of the
Tubby Dubonnet mystery series set in New Orleans. The seventh episode, Tubby Meets Katrina, was the first novel set in the city to be
published after the storm.
He is the winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award,
and his mysteries have been nominated for the Anthony and the Edgar Allen Poe
“Edgar” Awards. He has also written non-fiction books about the South and civil
rights and has lived for more than thirty years in this beautiful and
complicated city.
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