Check out this awesome cover for Big Numbers by Jack Getze. Jack is offering an ebook for the Giveaway, so be sure to enter at the end of the post.
Series: An Austin Carr Mystery
The author calls the Genre: A SCREWBALL MYSTERY
First in Series
Paperback: 204 pages
Publisher: Down & Out Books (June 2, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 193749554X
ISBN-13: 978-1937495541
E-Book File Size: 457 KB
ASIN: B00D3DJMJQ
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SYNOPSIS
Root for divorced dad Austin Carr, a funny, oversexed scamp who’ll use anything and everything to get his kids back.
Divorced father Austin Carr wakes up every day in a beat-up camper, parked on someone else’s private property. Why? Because his alimony and child support payments were established by New Jersey’s family court system when his income was double, and for the last two years he has failed to earn the legally mandated monthly nut. He’s had his savings drained, his Maxima repossessed, his salary attached, and his visiting rights suspended. He bought the twelve-year-old Chevy pick-up with the rusty camper for $800 last month because another landlord tossed his butt in the street. Will stretching the rules, his own morals, and the boundaries of common sense raise the cash needed to get his kids back? Or will his big mouth and bad behavior set him up for a nasty double-cross? Find out if Austin can redeem himself and win back his children.
Praise For Big Numbers by Jack Getze
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“Darkly comic, with an engaging protagonist.”
– T.J. MacGregor, Edgar Winner, Author of The Tango Key Mysteries
“Big Numbers is a gritty, sexy, violent, and funny book.”
– Liz Clifford at Reviewed by Liz
“Wonderful characters…well-written, entertaining…a good read.”
–Connie Anderson for Armchair Interviews
“Jack Getze started his career as a newspaper reporter. As a result, BIG NUMBERS is lean and mean, with not a word wasted. A truly fun, genuinely funny read.”
–Lisa Guidarini for Bluestalking Reader
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BUY LINKS
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EXCERPT
My name’s Austin Carr. I’m a stockbroker. The slick expensive business cards in my wallet say I’m a Senior Financial Consultant for Shore Securities, Inc., Members of the American Association of Securities Dealers, but I’m really just a salesman and I work for myself. Straight commission. If I don’t sell, I don’t eat.
“Another margarita, Luis.”
A lot of people in my line of work call themselves investment counselors. They wear two-thousand-dollar Italian suits, carry alligator attaché cases, think and talk about themselves as professionals like doctors and lawyers. In truth, we’re closer kin to used car dealers, only more dangerous because losing your life savings is a tad worse than getting stuck with a leaky transmission.
It’s hard to sport illusions about yourself when you live in a camper. And I’ve always treated my clients with honesty, to the point of aggravating every sales manager I’ve ever had. Even so, keeping my self respect, I have not been thinking about this job in a favorable light. In fact, in the years since the market crashed, ruining my sales numbers, my finances, and more recently, any chance of being with my two children, Ryan and Beth, I’ve been wracking my brain, trying desperately to figure another way to earn a living.
“Another double?” Luis says.
“Por favor.”
Although no solution to my dilemma has yet presented itself, I’ve discovered it helps to ruminate in a positive setting: Luis’s Mexican Grill on Broad Street in Branchtown. The decor reminds me of home, Los Angeles, and Luis has an authentico Mexican chef, Cruz. Best of all, Luis works the bar himself every day.
“You are not going to work today?” Luis says.
“Careful, Luis. Your query borders on insult. In fact, I have already called work, only to discover that my monster client delayed our scheduled discourse until this afternoon. I stayed here this morning to spend some quality time with you and Cruz.”
“I recommend this be your final cocktail,” Luis says.
Dealing with numbers all the time is an ache in the ass, definitely, but my biggest problem with being a stockbroker is having to spend all day on the money machine, dialing for dollars, calling busy people at the wrong time, apologizing because the back office screwed up a check, downplaying the risks of an investment to exaggerate the benefits, dancing investors from one asset to another so I can take part of their principal as commission. To be a successful stockbroker, you have to be slightly larcenous.
I lick the wet salt from the rim of my still empty margarita glass. Of course I never worried about little things like morality while I was netting five- to ten-thousand dollars a month. It’s only been since my income dropped by more than half, and mainly since I lost physical contact with my children that I search for the social significance of securities sales.
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MY REVIEW
I loved the cover, so I knew I wanted to be a part of this tour. Austin Carr cannot figure out what is going on and it took me a while to figure it out myself. There were plenty of twists and turns to keep me guessing. Who to trust? Who is crossing who?
The end of Big Numbers is the beginning. From the first sentence, I am wondering what’s happening. I was puzzled and I read on trying to figure out how Austin Carr ended up in such a dire situation. I was hooked. I like an early hook in books. It grabs me and sucks me in quickly.
Big Number is a novel that brings to mind the old detective novels, where the femme fatale is the detective’s downfall. But this is not a novel about a detective and his case.
Austin Carr – his business card says he is a financial consultant, but he is really just a glorified salesman. He works for himself, after losing everything in the market crash, including his family. Now he sleeps and lives in a small camper that he parks in the lot of a Mexican restaurant. His world is filled with lies and bullshit. He is a jerk of the highest caliber, but he is loyal and stands by his friends.
I kept wondering if he was always like that or if it was because of a series of events that were out of his control.
A bad boy is one thing, a scumbag another. But I believe the basics are already there, it is what you do when the shit hits the fan that defines you.
And it does, when she walks into his office. The femme fatale gets the dumb stockbroker to break all the rules. She makes an offer that would solve his money troubles, only to have him walk off the gangplank.
Austin needs to invest in a hospital. He gets choked, shot at, hit by a car, buried in sand, suffers police brutality and that is not even the worst of it.
Could the crap get any worse? What do you think?
There is lots of violence, but plenty of humor too.
He writes of Austin wearing a speedo. Had me laughing as I pictured the event.
Quotes
“Sex is like salt and pepper to this woman. She sprinkles it on everything.”
“Like there’s some big joke everybody knows but me.” And the joke will be on him.
“Good evening folks. Allow me to introduce Austin Carr, this years winner of the Golden Dickhead Award. Presented….to that individual making the biggest fool of himself, by thinking with His Penis.”
“Stealing is stealing, right?’
“Prosecutors tend to use Big Numbers against you.”
4 STARS – Would Highly Recommend To Others
I would like to thank for giving me a copy of Big Numbers in return for an honest and unbiased review. I enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more of his work.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Former Los Angeles Times reporter Jack Getze is Fiction Editor for Anthony nominated Spinetingler Magazine, one of the internet’s oldest websites for noir, crime, and horror short stories. Through the Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Syndicate, his news and feature stories were published in over five-hundred newspapers and periodicals worldwide. His two screwball mysteries, BIG NUMBERS and BIG MONEY, are being reissued by DOWN & OUT BOOKS, with the new BIG MOJO to follow. His short stories have appeared in A Twist of Noir and Beat to a Pulp. Getze is an Active Member of Mystery Writers of America’s New York Chapter.
Author Links:
http://austincarrscrimediary.blogspot.com
http://jack-getze.blogspot.com
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18050373-big-numbers
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To grab your copy of Big Numbers by Jack Getze, click on the cover below.
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TOUR PARTICIPANTS
September 30 – Socrates’ Book Review Blog – Review, Giveaway
October 1 – Turning the Pages – Review
October 4 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – Review, Giveaway
October 9 – StoreyBook Reviews – Review, Giveaway
October 9 – fundinmental Review, Giveaway
October 10 – fuonlyknew – Guest Post
October 11 – Reviews By Karen – Review, Giveaway
October 12 – Shelley’s Book Case – Review, Giveaway
October 13 – Kaisy Daisy’s Corner – Review, Giveaway
October 14 – rantin’ ravin’ and reading – Review, Guest Post, Giveaway
October 15 – Celticlady’s Reviews – Review
October 16 – Brooke Blogs – Review
October 17 – Turning the Pages – Review
October 18 – Rose & Beps Blog – Guest Post
October 18 – Queen of all She Reads – Review, Giveaway
October 19 – Books and Needlepoint – Review, Giveaway
October 21 – Omnimystery – Interview
October 22 – Darla King Series – Review, Giveaway
October 24 – Community Bookstop – Review
October 26 – readalot – Review, Giveaway
October 27 – Jane Reads – Review, Giveaway
October 28 – THE SELF-TAUGHT COOK – Review, Giveaway
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GIVEAWAY
Jack Getze is offering for the giveaway, 2 ebooks. Enter now to get one for your very own. Easy entry. Just leave your email and answer the question:
What do you think of the cover?
Giveaway ends October 28, 2013.
WINNERS!!! The winners are Barbara and Emily.
Congratulations and happy reading. I hope you enjoy Big Numbers as much as I did!
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Look on the right sidebar and let’s talk.
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Boy this subject matter hits too close to home! But the cover reminds me of the movie Jaws in a way. Sounds like a good read. Lots of love, Emily
Made me think of Jaws too. It is a humorous “tail” of how life can go so wrong. ^_^
I am not loving the cover. I don’t understand from the blurb or excerpt what a large fish (with thorns?) has to do with the story.
acm05atjuno.com
As Jack Getze says, it is a murder weapon. Covers capture me and anything with water or trees I automatically check out further. This is a murder mystery with some humor thrown in. The things Austin goes through made me wonder how he could survive.
That’s a giant bluefin — a kind of tuna — on the cover. The New Jersey record catch is around 1,500 pounds. The bad guy uses the fish as his murder weapon.
I’m not sure the cover says “funny mystery” — but that’s the genre this book falls into. Thank you, Sherry, for reading and reviewing my work. I’ll check back later to see if there are more questions.
I loved the beginning. I didn’t know whether to be creeped out or laugh. I laughed. I loved the book and funny mystery is a very apt description. Thanks for allowing me to read and review the book for the tour and for stopping in to share with me and my guests.
The cover looks enticing as it looks like a huge fish with spines and yet it is a mystery. I don’t recall any huge fish with spines so that is why it looks interesting to me as since the synopsis doesn’t really go with the cover, it has my curiosity.
It is a giant tuna. LOL It is the murder weapon and is revealed in the beginning of the book. I felt the same way as you, what does a fish have to do with a stockbroker that has lost everything? It caps off all the pits that Austin seems to fall into. And that’s all I’m saying. ^_^
I’m not sure about the cover. I don’t understand what it has to do with the book storyline.
The beginning of the book connects the cover to the story. I had thought the same thing, but I love the cover, so I went with it. I was shocked and laughed at the same time.
Nice Tuna! Trying to figure out how the guy used it to kill someone. It’s not like he could smack someone with it! LOL Maybe he poisoned them? I know. You can’t tell me!
Great review Sherry. Makes me wish I would have been able to read it for the tour. I just had too many others waiting their turn. I like a flawed character that leaves me ambivalent about his qualities or lack of.
LOL. Mum’s the word. I know what you mean about so many books and too little time. I’m still trying to figure out if I like Austin or not. LOL
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