Review: The Big Show Stopper by Ken Dalton

ISBN #: 9780578054599

Page Count: 285

Copyright: 2010 by Ken Dalton

Summary:

(Taken from back cover)

Brady Blackstone, America's richest and favorite concert performer, dies in a tragic accident while Bear and Flo, along with thousands of northern Nevada's music lovers, look on in horror.

However, before Bear can maneuver Flo back to their apartment to complete her birthday celebration, they stumble across a clue that makes them question if Brady's death was an accident.

In The Big Show Stopper, Pinky, a sleazy but successful defense attorney, and Bear, a street-wise ex bartender, mix madness with mayhem as you meet Brady's less than grieving widow - a trigger-happy Carson City cop names Ice Conner - travel in first-class luxury with Pinky as he follows a questionable lead to an exotic location and suffer with Flo in Bear's pick up while they drive to another of America's armpit locations where they discover Brady Blackstone's killer.

My Review:

I was contacted by Tribute Books about reviewing The Big Show Stopper and hosting a blog tour date.  I have posted my blog tour, which you can read by clicking here.

I also wanted to mention that I am changing my review format.  I am breaking it down into four sections and hope it will be more effective.  Here we go ... =)

Cover:  I always look at the cover because, to me, the cover gives you a sense or a preview of what's inside.  This cover on this book is a great photo shot by the author's son (of which the process is told about in the back of the book), but I don't know that it gives you a sense of what's written inside.  It does exemplify that the show has stopped, though, so I guess that's something.

Plot:  This is a little difficult for me to explain, but I'm going to try ... I thought the story moved along in a steady pace and kept the reader interested.  In addition, I thought that the storyline focused more on the lives of the three main characters instead of the murder.  The main characters, and their personalities and interactions with each other, seem to stick in my memory more than the actual murder storyline, even though they were investigating the murder for the entire length of the novel.

Characters:  The three main characters were Pinky, Bear and Flo.  Pinky, or J. Pincus Delmont, is a greedy lawyer who isn't too concerned with what's right as long as he's being paid enough.  He's a slick talker and arrogant.  I didn't care for Pinky.

Bear is proclaimed to be street-wise in the summary.  I couldn't help but think that Bear was written as slow and ignorant.  The way Flo and Pinky spoke to him and treated him confirmed this for me.  When he was questioning potential suspects he could come up with lies in an instant, but put him in a conversation with Flo and/or Pinky and he was very dim-witted.  It was aggravating to see this contradiction as I liked Bear and wanted to see him treated with respect.

Now Flo ... Flo is a different story ... she was a college graduate and smart.  Flo was a bitch though (sorry ya'll, but there's just no other word for her).  She mistrusted Bear every time he turned around.  She threatened to leave him over any little incident.  She was high-maintenance and wrung Bear financially dry every chance she got.  It is safe to say that Flo got on my nerves.  I was ready for Bear to just dump her at her house and leave her there.

Overall:  The story was well-written and had a noir vibe to it.  It kept the reader interested and evoked emotional responses, both positive and negative.  I would recommend that adults read this rather than young adults due to some of the language and sexual references.