Rating: 
Summary: A delight from start to finish
Review: Read this book, you won't put it down. Buzz Monkey captured all of the elements of great writing. It was fast-paced and thoughtful. The language was tight and sometimes edgy, sometimes just funny. Some of the lines I've been repeating to friends.. The characters were people I would want to meet (as long as Benny the Blade was already my friend). One of the things I liked most was the author's subtle discussion of race in the South, all-the-while treating me to a great ride. Okay, bring on the next Top Kiernan and Benny the Blade adventure.
Rating:
Summary: A delight from start to finish
Review: Read this book, you won't put it down. Buzz Monkey captured all of the elements of great writing. It was fast-paced and thoughtful. The language was tight and sometimes edgy, sometimes just funny. Some of the lines I've been repeating to friends.. The characters were people I would want to meet (as long as Benny the Blade was already my friend). One of the things I liked most was the author's subtle discussion of race in the South, all-the-while treating me to a great ride. Okay, bring on the next Top Kiernan and Benny the Blade adventure.
Rating:
Summary: Snap, crackle and zip
Review: This character-driven debut thriller runs on the buzz of adrenaline - Top Kiernan's drug of choice. Narrator Top heads an Athens, GA, research firm, Polymath, founded as a tax cover for his real job - operative for Shaw's Mercantile, "the world's leading booking agency for mercenaries, bodyguards, and probably worse." Top, wound tighter than the tops he collects, is itching for a challenge, but Shaw's cuts him loose instead. "My heart lurched against the inside of my rib cage as if I'd stood on the brakes in the fast lane....'What do you mean there's no assignment?' " His adrenaline jones has made him too reckless, a liability. His severance package consists of a valuable heads-up. Shaw's just turned down a recovery-and-termination contract from a drug dealer who thinks Top has the money that disappeared when a courier, Dee Lane, disappeared. Dee Lane is one of Top's boyhood friends. The other is Bob John, a cop. All of them enjoy the buzz of adrenaline, though none so much as Top. And now he has a job. Find Dee Lane, find the money, stay alive. The latter may be difficult as the drug dealer is not the only one who thinks Top has the money. Suddenly he's beset by DEA agents, redneck thugs, ambitious freelancers and worse - treacherous friends maybe. Top is a delightful protagonist; witty, action-oriented and impossible to stump on a quote. His trusted employees, the quiet, knife-wizard Benny, and the beautiful administrator Gellie are always trying. How can you not like a widely read man who still throws up every time he sees a dead body? The southern setting - from backwoods shoot-outs to decaying small-town insularity and hair-trigger racism - is well done. Bennie, deep and determined, and fast as lightning, is a valuable asset; complex, private and African American. The plot, though occasionally hard-to-follow or over-the-top, zips right along, but who cares about plot when the characters are so much fun and the writing sparkles with wit. Smart, funny and unapologetic, Top Kiernan is a winner. Let's hope we see more of him, and Benny, and the big, rambling old elementary school where they live and work.
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