Big Shoes (Austin Carr Mysteries) - Softcover

Getze, Jack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1943402051 ISBN 13: 9781943402052

Publisher: Down & Out Books, 2015

Synopsis

Jersey Shore broker Austin Carr wants out of the stock and bond business but un-hooking from his mobbed-up partner won’t be painless. Angelina “Mama Bones” Bonacelli is best known for professional consultations that deteriorate into criminal violence, breakfast appointments raided by the FBI and one particular Power Point presentation to a Jersey state racing commission that ended in automatic weapons fire. Good thing she likes Austin. She just won’t let Austin out of the business. Plus Johnny “The Turk” Korsay is on a rampage and had his crooked cops arrest Luis, the bartender Austin’s best friend. Why? Because Austin saw The Turk kill Heriberto. And now he’s gunning for the stock broker. It’s another brush with violent death and a sexy redhead for Austin Carr when Mama Bones and her rival Jersey associate of a fading New York crime family battle for the future of imported sex slaves, boardwalk tourist business and surprising horse racing secrets, past and present. “Big Shoes is a five-star romp.” —Rick Bylina, best-selling author of One Promise Too Many

About this title

From the Author

Once upon a time, author Getze let the character Austin Carr interview him.Austin: I understand a character like myself wasn't really born, omniscient one, but where exactly did I come from? And why stick me with a silly name like Austin Carr?TFA: You are a product of my distaste for a certain environment - telephone sales as experienced inside a third-rate investment company on the Jersey Shore. The people were nice, the primary product municipal bonds a decent investment, but this joint was as far from Wall Street as the University of California at Berkeley. I wanted a slightly shady character who succeeded with his mouth and his charm, not his fists, and I created him from a room full of guys on the telephone, pleading and begging for a sale.A: I'm shady?T: You break rules and regulations for that rich pretty redhead, remember?A: What about the name?T: Your name is a fluke. I thought I made it up, but turns out Austin Carr is a famous basketball player from the 1970s and 80s. All-American for Notre Dame. First overall draft pick. Still has a radio show about basketball in the Midwest. I would never say this in front him -- a six-foot-ten athlete -- but I was looking for something a little silly, and my brain must have regurgitated Austin Carr from the old basketball headlines. Luckily, names are like titles when it comes to books.A: Do you make a lot of mistakes?T: At least one bad error a day. Agreeing to let you ask me questions was obviously today's.A: And which day was the mistake made about me being a stockbroker? After the market crashes of 2001, and 2008-09, the Wall Street-led surge in joblessness, how on earth did you imagine a series with a broker protagonist might work?T: Pretty dumb, huh? Refusing to read my manuscript, I've heard editors actually laugh at the idea. One said in an email she'd be fired if she bought any manuscript with a stockbroker protagonist. The thing is, Austin, telephone securities sales was something this writer knew well - and more than that, something I wanted to write about. Working on 100% commission is a terrible way to give financial advice, but funny in application because of the people involved, and symbolic of our system's worst parts. Also, of course, I wanted to cause you the most suffering. A: Suffering? Gee, what a nice guy. Do you mistreat animals?T: I love animals. I have a dog named Maddy, a cat named Miss Kitty, and I carry spiders outside on a sheet of paper. But you, sir, are a fictional character, and good fiction is about conflict. My job as a writer is to work you over, scare you, test you by putting you in difficult situations, all the while entertaining our readers. Don't worry, you handle everything -- everything except that giant bluefin at the climax.A: Did you tell Dru BIG NUMBERS is not exactly a cozy?T. I sent her a copy.A. That's not the same thing. Maybe you'd better describe the parts of BIG NUMBERS that stick out a little from that cozy mold. Ha ha.T. The three sex scenes are played for laughs - and short, like my real life. People actually die on the page, but the violence is minimal and not gory. There are a handful of four-letter words scattered throughout because I refuse to have a low-life criminal say, "Oh, fudge." It's almost a cozy.A. Almost a cozy? Are you kidding me? Your new book description on Amazon says, "Root for divorced dad Austin Carr, a lovable, oversexed scamp who'll use anything and everything to get his kids back. Think Bugs Bunny with guns and a penis."T. That's been changed now. Jeez. I'm so glad I agreed to this interview. You're killing me, Austin. Killing me! But honestly, you're the one who's always thinking about sex, making suggestive remarks, falling in love with every redhead you meet. Why can't you grow up?A. Me? You're the one who writes this stuff. I'm a fictional character!T. OK, that's it. I'm out of here.

Review

"Darkly comic, with an engaging protagonist."-- T.J. MacGregor, Edgar Winner, Author of The Tango Key Mysteries

About this edition

• Publisher: Down & Out Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1943402051
• ISBN 13: 9781943402052
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 198