Busted Flush: A Novel - Hardcover

Smith, Brad

4.26

203 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805076506 ISBN 13: 9780805076509

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co., 2005

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Civil War buffs and con men collide in this wickedly funny, Hiaasen-esque story of old-time relics and modern greed

Dock Bass is a carpenter-turned-realtor in upstate New York. He has a social-climbing wife he doesn't love (or even like), a job he hates, and a rapidly crumbling sense of self-respect and self-worth. Like a lot of people, he yearns for a change. Like very few, he decides to leave his life behind, hit the road, and go looking for it.

He finds it in Pennsylvania, of all places. Summoned to Gettysburg by a law firm, he learns that he's inherited an ancient house from a deceased relative whom he never knew existed. Renovating the place, Dock stumbles upon a treasure trove of Civil War memorabilia squirreled away in an old root cellar, including pictures and possibly even a recording of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg. And in a world where John Kennedy's golf clubs are worth $750,000, what dollar figure does one place on items connected to the greatest American president at the venue of his most inspiring and memorable speech?

Plenty, Dock soon finds out, as he's forced to defend his new find from the onslaught of collectors, history buffs, and media hounds descending on his doorstep. Fortunately, like Honest Abe himself, he's the right man for the fight-independent, funny, loyal, and stubborn as a Missouri mule. When the scallywags and opportunists-including an easy-on-the-eyes television reporter with one hell of an attitude-start crawling out of the woodwork, he'll need all of that.

And maybe a little more.

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About the Author:

Brad Smith lives in Dunnville, Ontario. His novel, One-Eyed Jacks, was nominated for Canada's Dashiell Hammett Prize. His American debut, All Hat (0-312-42317-9), is available in paperback from Picador.

From Publishers Weekly:

Fleeing a soured marriage and the general turpitude of modern life, Dock Bass retreats to a newly inherited Gettysburg farm where he discovers a trove of priceless Civil War artifacts, including a possible recording of Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg address. He is soon besieged by media vultures, an opportunistic rival claimant to the treasure and a number of shady antiquarians trying to cash in on the find. Fortunately, Dock is just the man to defend Lincoln's legacy. Indifferent to fame and money, Dock stoically restores his farmhouse while denouncing or physically battering every avatar of contemporary crassness; at one point he even recites the Gettysburg Address by heart, punctuating it with crashing hammer blows. Finally, assisted by an eccentric history professor and a glitzy investigative reporter with a heart of gold, Dock squares off against an evil gay antiques dealer and his henchman. Smith (One-Eyed Jacks) concocts a frothily entertaining satire of the corrupt Civil War memorabilia industry, but the fun is somewhat dampened by the figure of Dock, a tower of laconic manliness whose censorious mission is to reclaim the project of historical commemoration from all traces of vulgarity and materialism. The incongruous result is what you might expect if Gary Cooper were to ride into town to clean up The Antiques Road Show.
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