| Title | : | Crooked Man (Tubby Dubonnet, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 |
| Publication | : | First published December 28, 1994 |
His clients are all renegades from the asylum, including a transvestite entertainer with curious medical issues, a buxom deadbeat blonde, a doctor who refers his own patients to a malpractice lawyer, and the driver of a Mardi Gras float shaped like a giant crawfish pot. He also has his hands full with an ex-wife and three teenage daughters, who are experts in the art of wrapping Tubby around their little fingers. And somehow, between work and family, Tubby finds time to sample the highs and lows of idiosyncratic Crescent City cuisine, from trout meuniere amandine and French roast coffee with chicory to shrimp po-boys and homemade pecan pralines.
Tubby is asked to take on a new client: Darryl Alvarez, the manager of a local nightclub, who has been caught unloading fifteen bales of marijuana from a shrimp boat. At their first meeting, Darryl entrusts Tubby with an ordinary-looking blue gym bag. But when Darryl is later found shot at the nightclub, Tubby realizes he must tighten his grasp on the gym bag - and its million-dollar contents.
Tubby can't just give up the cash. But if he gets caught, he'll be in jail. And if the wrong people catch him, he'll wish he was.
Crooked Man (Tubby Dubonnet, #1) Reviews
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Back in June 2014, I got this one free through BookBub - it sounded interesting and is the first in a series of seven, I believe. Set in New Orleans, the author is a New Orleans attorney, and the series has been nominated for both Anthony and Edgar Allen Poe awards. It's also relatively short - just 224 pages - and reader reviews are fairly positive. So what did I have to lose?
Not much, as it turns out. Right off the bat, one sentence made my day: "There were enough law books on the shelves to put new clients at ease." As a former legal secretary (albeit a long time ago), I get it. Really.
New Orleans lawyer Tubby Dubonnet, the "star" of the show, loves fishing, drinking and lots of other non-lawyerly things. His client list includes a transvestite entertainer and the doctor who has referred that same disgruntled entertainer to Dubonnet during a malpractice lawsuit (say what??). Tubby's also got the requisite ex-wife and a handful-minus two teenage daughters; now, he's got a new client, the manager of a local nightclub who, it seems, has been nailed for theft of a ton of marijuana. But right off the bat, the client insists on leaving a gym bag with Tubby - who discovers it's not full of marijuana.
The entire book is what I'd call laid back, with rather ho-hum dialogue and not much real action (although it does pick up a bit near the end. It's also a little tough to keep the characters straight, but that, too, gets easier as the story goes along. Perhaps the biggest issue is that the Kindle format is a little rough - no line spaces between paragraphs - but once I got used to that, everything moved along splendidly and the well-thought-out plot is quite enjoyable.
And that means yes, I plan to look into other books in this series; as short as they are, they're perfect for a quick "filler" read in between, say, a Stephen King and a David Baldacci. Good job, Mr. Dunbar! -
New Orleans lawyer Tubby Dubonnet is a simple man with fancy tastes. When a new client, caught with a load of marijuana, gives Tubby a gym bag full of cash for safekeeping, nothing is simple anymore. His client dies unexpectedly of lead poisoning (the projectile kind) and Tubby’s left literally holding the bag. If the cops catch him with it he could go to jail, but that’s not the worst of his problems—there are others who are willing to kill him for it.
Crooked Man by Tony Dunbar is the first book in the Tubby Dubonnet series. Full of local color, action, and plenty of laughs, this is a mystery with a cast of over the top characters that are totally entertaining.
Dunbar is a maestro at whipping you through the action like a bullwhip, hanging you over the ledge, and then dropping you into the middle of Tubby’s muddle. When you finally crawl out, you’re ready to go back and do it all over again. Three cheers for Tubby. -
I started this series out of sequence and fell in love with it.
I adore the setting of New Orleans and like the way Dunbar sprinkles food references in the story. He makes New Orleans itself as much of a character as the people in the story.
Crooked Man sets the stage for the rest of the series in a nice way, referring to the main character's divorce after the fact. We find out where Tubby Dubbonet went to law school, how many daughters he has, what kind of car he drives, what he likes to eat, etc.
I liked this book a lot. It's not a deep mystery, but like a lot of mystery novels, it's good enough that it's like potato chips, you can't stop with just one. I've got 4 more Tubby Dubonnet novels to read and I look forward to them. -
I accidentally purchased the first Tubby Dubonnet mystery, Crooked Man from an online site because of my fat fingers on my erroneously identified “smart phone.” In all fairness, I had intended to download the free trial because I had heard that these novels had similarities to some Elmore Leonard novels. To be sure, the homage to Leonard can be seen in some of the weird events in which this New Orleans defense attorney finds himself, but The Crooked Man just doesn’t have the verisimilitude of the Leonard oeuvre.
What Crooked Man does have is a strange and varied cast. Where one has the predictable crooked politician that would make Huey Long look like the Lone Ranger, one has the crooked enforcer (and his more sinister Barney Fife accomplice) who is perceived as an actual police officer, though not one. Where one has the wealthy and seductive night club owner to be expected, one is rewarded with “Monster Mudbug,” an eccentric food truck (more like food trailer) purveyor of crawfish who continually runs afoul of regulations he doesn’t seem to understand. Where one has the expected genteel Southern attorney from an aristocratic background, this is balanced by the coke-sniffing, trick-turning, victim of a wife beater who turns out to be made of sterner stuff than she seems and the transvestite who seeks damages for a cosmetic surgery (not to be confused with “the” surgery) gone wrong.
Tubby surfs the crud atop the waves of both the legal system and the illegal scams going on in this version of a fictional New Orleans (I keep reading so many novels set there that I might need to go back there soon!) such that one isn’t quite sure whether the eponymous crook is one of the supporting characters or Tubby himself. Tubby certainly knows how to skirt the bounds of the ethics standards set by the bar, but he also seems to have his own code of ethics. Indeed, the book might well have been entitled Crooked People, but I guess that wouldn’t have been the right honey to draw mystery and caper fans. Of course, the novels of Westlake, Hiassen, and Leonard which author Tony Dunbar is clearly emulating are also full of characters with questionable ethics.
Crooked Man made for nice airport reading during a long layover and would work well as beach reading, but it’s not something I would keep on my shelf. -
Interesting characters.
Sometimes you can't tell who is your friend, who is your enemy. Tubby is lawyer but characters he deals make you smile. Like the ending, maybe you won't. -
Sandy Shandell is an entertainer and he’s suing his plastic surgeon, Dr. Feingold over a botched operation. Sandy, however, asked Dr. Feingold to recommend a malpractice lawyer to him.
Meanwhile, Monique has moved to New Orleans from her hometown of Evergreen, Alabama to escape her abusive ex-husband. She finally gets a job waiting tables at a restaurant. Soon after, she meets a restaurant owner named Darryl Alvarez at a party her boss threw and they start dating.
Daryl then offers her a job at his restaurant and she accepts. Sometimes when Darryl throws parties, he sets her up with his rich clientele. Monique has a four-year-old daughter named Lisa who lives with Monique’s mother in Evergreen. What little money Monique makes she sends home to help raise her daughter.
Then Monique is blackmailed by one of Darryl’s clientele, Mr. Casey, a rogue cop who’s threatened to rat her out to her probation officer back in Alabama. Also, he’s threatened to expose her to her ex-husband who wants custody of their daughter. In exchange for his silence, he wants Monique to keep tabs on Darryl and she agrees.
When Darryl gets busted for unloading fifteen bales of marijuana from a shrimp boat, Reggie, Tubby’s business partner asks Tubby to represent Darryl. Shortly after Tubby meets with his new client (who hands him a gym bag filled with money), Darryl is shot dead at his restaurant.
Of course Tubby didn’t realize the contents of the bag till he hears his client was dead. When he finally opens it, he finds wads of bills almost a million dollars. Tubby must decide quickly what to do about the money.
This is my fifth book by the author. Can’t seem to get enough. Love this Tubby Dubonnet series! -
The first in the Tubby Dubonnet series (I've read three others), and I don't think the author had hit his stride yet. This was a bit weaker than the others, but still quite entertaining. Since real places in New Orleans are mentioned, it's nice to be able to go online and see pictures of where the characters are going about their business. In this book, Tubby, with his sometimes dubious ethics, takes on defending a drug dealer who deposits $950K in Tubby's office safe, and when the guy is murdered, Tubby manages to help himself to some of the money before using the bulk of it to help out a couple pals (a doctor who messed up a treatment and can't afford the big fine, and his patient, an exotic male dancer who could use the money for a sex change operation.) Both are friends of Tubby's, so why not?
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Tubby Dubonnet is a complex and interesting character. The storyline is engaging, the line between good and bad is blurred as it is in the real world. Looking forward to the rest of the books in the series.
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Quirky story with perfect mystery. Engaging read
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I haven't read any books from this author before, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with how well I enjoyed this novel.
Tubby Dubonnet has quite a sarcastic sense of humor which resonates throughout the story. His partner, Reggie Turntide, asked him to take on a new client, Daryl Alvarez, and when he agrees to take Daryl's case, strange things begin to occur. For instance, Daryl stops by Tubby's office and asks if he can hold onto a large blue gym bag. Tubby takes law very seriously and doesn't believe in doing anything that would cause him legal woes, so when his client asks him a very basic question as to hold onto his bag, the first thing Tubby thinks is "what's inside?" Daryl tells him it's a bunch of paper and when Tubby goes to lift it up, he can barely do so. That action, in and of itself, gave Tubby pause.
Then, someone decided to wreak havoc on Tubby's law practice by destroying his office and going through files, to slicing up his art work and his favorite leather chair. Could that act possibly have anything to do with Tubby's case with Mr. Alvarez? The only way to find out is to read the story.
This is extremely fast-paced, which I enjoyed immensely and a short read, which made me love this story all the more. There are several little stories interwoven throughout and quite an enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series! -
Tubby Dubonnet is a New Orleans lawyer who tries to keep on the straight and narrow. He represents a wide range of characters in criminal court and when one of his clients gives him a gym bag to hold on to, things start to get interesting. Unfortunately, the client can't come and reclaim the bag.
This is the first in a series (and the second in the series that I have read). I liked this book because it was an engaging read with a good plot that has plenty of twists. The characters are introduced and enough back story is given to get the reader interested. I know from reading later in the series that this back story is more fully fleshed out in future novels.
Definitely recommended for those that like a good mystery/thriller without too much gore or violence (not that there isn't any gore or violence, it's just not gratuitous). I will continue to look for this series. -
An interesting plot with lots of surprises. I like Mr. Dunbar's writing style and how he develops his characters. This is the first of seven current books in the Tubby Dubonnet series, taking place in New Orleans. Tubby is an attorney with the usual protagonist issues (divorced, kids, drinking, gambling) and an assortment of friends and enemies and clients. Both the beautiful and seamy sides of New Orleans appear in the book. Amazon states that this is a humorous New Orleans mystery, but I found very little humor in it; however I did enjoy reading the story.
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Crooked Man
Good book. I really enjoyed reading a book set in New Orleans that the people and places were so authentic. You can tell that the author is from the city. The story was also good enough that I will be reading the whole series and I'm sure it can only get better from here. -
GAB This was an easy, fast read and a hoot a minute. The first the the Tubby Dubonnet novels by Tony Dunbar, I received this Kindle copy free from Amazon. It is the first Tubby I will read but certainly not the last.
received Kindle, 12.28.2020 Trilogy, BookCave with City of beads and Trick Questions -
The ending seemed a bit abrupt, but overall I enjoyed the book. It definitely made me laugh at some parts, which I enjoyed. I would probably read more of his books.
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My first Tubby Dubonnet mystery was actually the second in this series. Having read that one first inspired me to start reading this series from the beginning. Having read this - the first book in the series - second, I think, is the best way to do it. It is sort of like an epic where you are thrust in to the story line mid way with hints made to the character’s back story, and then this book fills in those backstory hints with actual backstory.
Crooked Man tells the story of how Tubby Dubonnet and his “missing” partner Reggie Turntide ended up with Mr. Turntide being missing. Unlike the second book in the series where the mystery happens around Tubby with him just being a casual observer, he takes a much more active and legally strategic role in this mystery… which isn’t much of a mystery. It is more of a thriller. There is really only one question, that being the question of who supplied some money, and that question was never answered. So, I don’t think it can be called a mystery.
That said, I did catch a continuity error! In the second book as well as in this book, Tubby talks with the praline woman near the jail and in both books he appears to learn for the first time that she’s hanging out nearby because her godson is in the jail. This has absolutely nothing to do with the plot of this book, but is just something recycled between books and reminded me a bit of the Space Odyssey series in the way that whole passages are placed in multiple books as if readers aren’t expected to notice. (minus one star; though I really should have taken the star from book two if I were following logic)
Also, I saw this lovely passage after finishing the narrative of the book:
I think this is a FABULOUS passage that ought to be provided to any and all eBooks whether self-published or not. How often do we readers comment about grammar or content errors in these book reviews for books we otherwise enjoyed? Imagine being paid to give future readers a better experience than we had? And with the book selling at around $5 a copy (although I got it for free via a kindle lend I nonetheless very much would pay this price), a $20 budget isn’t arduous. Aspiring authors … take note!
As for the end, I might have shopped around for better rates. -
I was born and raised in New Orleans. Well, born in NO and lived in Metairie, but whoever's heard of Metairie? I have no desire to go back in real life. Visiting in this book, however, has been a very enjoyable experience.
Maybe it's the murder.
Tubby Dubonnet is a not-really-seedy-but-not-totally-respectable lawyer in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has quite a few interesting characters as clients. One of them winds up dead in somewhat mysterious though not totally unexpected circumstances. The rest is too much spoiler for you.
Mr. Dunbar's style hooked me from the first paragraph. It's not the same, but it reminds me Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces in tone, or at least it reminds me of what I think the tone was from when I read it 30+ years ago (YIKES!). This is a fully-real city, and I can't deny the people might be straight off the streets. There is a good sense of who everybody is, even if it's just implied menace (and there's plenty of that to go around).
This was a very enjoyable read. My only real ding is there is no break between sections. A new scene starts, but it's just the next line in the book, no vertical space, no horizontal line. It made things jarring far more than once. But don't let that stop you - it didn't me. Well worth reading, and easy, too (I only had to look up one word!).
Highly recommended!
[Side Note: Reading this as part of a collection of the first five Tubby Dubonnet Mysteries in one Kindle edition. Yeah, I'm marking each book separately, not as one big book.] -
I purchased a series of five Tubby Dubonnet books on a whim---loved the idea of a New Orleans series, and I used to have a fondness for Dubonnet "blonde" as an aperitif, so. . . . here we go. I think the books sat in my "to read" que for a few years until I started and finished the first volume in one sitting.
Dunbar may not be writing great literature, but he is writing an extremely entertaining and engaging kind of crime novel. I am a fan of film noir, and Tubby Dubonnet's first adventure was reminiscent of classic noir stories. Atmospheric. Layers and layers of bad guys. A good guy with just enough elasticity to make him interesting. And, a damsel in distress.
It is 110 degrees in the desert where I live and at this time of the year I am not searching for fine literature, I am looking to get lost in a fun book and that is precisely what Tony Dunbar offered me.
Now, I am off to open up volume two . . .. . . -
What this lawyer-turned-investigator caper story has going for itself is some colorful, non-stereotypical supporting characters and a good sense of place (New Orleans feels like a real-world city with a certain uniqueness, rather than the mysticism-laden, partygoer haven it so often gets limited to, as portrayals go). Tubby Dubonnet himself is not very stiffly defined, aside from being a professional (read: world-weary) lawyer who's more prone than most to actually help the neediest who come to him. I suppose I could give the second book in the series a try, at least to see whether Dubonnet gets fleshed out a bit more. But bear in mind I got the first two books as freebies and that fact certainly weighs in on the "reading time cost-benefit ratio".
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I'm missing something. Maybe a plot? Maybe some interesting characters? Humor? Suspense? Any of those would have been fine, with me, but I had a hard time finding them here. Perhaps for the first in a series, it's not so bad, but it also didn't make me want to read more. The characters all felt very stock to me, the loose threads that tried to gather into a plot didn't quite pull together, the setting wasn't all that richly done given the glory that is New Orleans, and the dark humor wasn't very - dark or humorous. Set against the like of Chandler, McDonald, Julie Smith, or any of the other dozens of similar writers I read, this series just doesn't seem to make the cut.
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Tubby Dubonnet is a lawyer in New Orleans. His partner passes a client on to Tubby. But Tubby doesn’t realise that his new client is a drug runner. When he is caught handling a large amount of marijuana, the client gives Tubby a bag to look after. When the client is murdered and Tubby’s office ransacked, Tubby discovers that the bag contains almost a million dollars. The question is what is he to do with it and retain his moral and ethical standing? The solution could resolve more than one case he is handling.
I found this to be an interesting take on the crime genre with a touch of humour. I gave it 3.5 stars out of 5. -
I'm filing this as a mystery, but only because I'm not sure what else to call it. It's certainly not a whodunit; people die, but there's no mystery about who or why. It's a very nicely done introduction to characters who will no doubt persist through the several volumes I have still to read. It has a film noir feeling, appropriate enough to the seamy-side-of-New-Orleans setting, but the grim bits are not too grim for queasy me. Our Hero, small-time lawyer Tubby Dubonnet, is amusing and, again, appropriately morally....ambiguous. Looking forward to reading more in this series.
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I got this book as part of a box set of the series from Amazon at a reduced price, and finally decided to have a read. I've decided to give a review to each book as I go along.
All up, it's a very good read. It has mystery, suspense and some humour, but I wouldn't call it 'cosy'. The author introduces each character well, and gradually entwines all the characters into each other very nicely. Well edited.
As far as I know, it's the first time I've read this author but, at this stage, I intended to continue reading the box set.
Recommended. -
An easy read. Interesting main character - a lawyer. Now, Tubby (that’s his name) isn’t exactly crooked, but he’s not exactly squeaky clean either. The story has a lot characters, and since most of them are crooked, it’s a little tough to keep them straight. A couple of Tubby’s clients, though not involved in the main story, consume a significant portion of the novel. Not that they’re a diversion, but provide background fill for the sense of New Orleans.
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This is the second Tubby Dubonnet novel I've read, & I plan to keep going. The New Orleans setting is great fun, & the characters & plot have an appealing whiff of Elmore Leonard -- that blend of suspense, sardonic humor, & gritty charm. Crooked Man features a bunch of crooked men, some lurking in the shadows & some fairly open about it, plus an up-against-it woman who doesn't realize how strong she is until push comes to shove.
