Lonely Street

by Steve Brewer

Book Overview

In this first outing for private investigator Bubba Mabry, Bubba is hired to act as a bodyguard for a visiting celebrity. Well, the celebrity turns out to be none other than Elvis, the King himself,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671747347
• ISBN13: 9780671747343
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Length: 213 Pages
• Weight: 0.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Not Your Mama's Private Eye

I've never been a big fan of the crime mystery genre. Heck, I've never been a big fan of the mystery genre as a whole. But, Steve Brewer moved into our northern California community several years ago, and I discovered him through his weekly newspaper column. (His columns are the meat of his book "Trophy Husband: A Survival Guide to Working at Home.") I became a fan of his funny observations about family life and his career as writer and stay-at-home dad. After meeting him a couple of times, and learning that his first Bubba Mabry book had been made into a movie, I read this book, the first in the Bubba Mabry series. Bubba is a fun protagonist. He's gullible, seldom the sharpest tool in the shed, and he gets beat up regularly. He's sort of an antithesis of the remarkably perceptive, borderline-superhero private eye to which we're accustomed. Still, despite his lapses of self-discipline, he's doggedly determined. I identify with Bubba a lot. Maybe I should be concerned. I soon devoured the entire Bubba Mabry series. Steve Brewer was a journalist for twenty years before becoming a novelist, and that's telling in the way he writes. Journalists turned novelists seem to divide into two groups: There are those who maintain a spare, cut-to-the-chase style, and those who take too many liberties with their creative freedom and produce writing best described as bloated. Steve Brewer belongs to the former group. His writing is tight, and his character development economical without being skimpy. Steve Brewer strikes me as a fine writer, but really, I lack the background to judge the craft of writing. But I sure recognize great storytelling when I see it, and Mr. Brewer, in my estimation, is a damn fine storyteller.

The Reader Makes the Book Come Alive

I enjoy listening to audio books when I am in my car or when I am doing chores at home. I especially enjoy them when I am sewing. I am very critical of the readers and many times I will take a book back to the library based on the fact that I do not like listening to a certain reader. Gene Eugene, who is Bubba Mabry in this story, has a very cool Southern drawl and exceptional timing that makes him come alive as Bubba Mabry. Mr. Brewer gives him a wealth of hilarious one liners to make it very humorous. I really think this book would make a great movie, based on the easy going layed back character of Bubba. Finding an actor to play Bubba as well as Mr Eugene plays him would be the catch.

Hilarious bloody fantasy/mystery

I'm not sure anyone would want to emulate private eye Bubba Mabry's investigative style, but journalist Steve Brewer takes a delightful look at Albuquerque, New Mexico's beauty and dark side in this thriller. Brewer throws in a bit of the unrealistic by bringing Elvis Presley back to life -- although he shows readers a pretty good depiction of what the King would be like were he still alive. Several murders add enough blood for the morbid-at-heart, and the language makes up for a somewhat shaky plot. The characters, other than Elvis, are pretty ordinary -- the tired private eye looking for some dough, tabloid reporters out for the story of the century, a curvaceous Marilyn Monroe-type blonde who will either sleep with a man -- or threaten to shoot him -- in order to get information, and a couple of hulky thugs. But the combination of all the elements makes for a fast-read full of laughs, even in the face of horrible death.