Put it back on the shelf without finishing. It's fun, it's competent, it's quite clever, but I suspect I'm simply in the mood for something with more meat. Will try again one beach-sandy day. ( )

Busted Flush, by Brad Smith is one of the most refreshing books I’ve read in quite a while. There are physical confrontations, but they are not long drawn out affairs and the violence is not gratuitous. There is a beautiful woman for a heroine, but there is no sex scene with her in it. In fact, the only reference to a sex scene is about a sentence long and it is left entirely to the reader’s imagination to decide if anything actually happened.

About now, many people are thinking “Boring!” Wrong! By not wasting his words on these tawdry scenes that have become de rigueur for modern best sellers, Brad Smith has concentrated on telling us a wonderful story filled with some great characters and Smith uses the his skill with words on almost the lost art of dialog.

Dock Bass, the main male lead, is portrayed as a man that would do better in another era. He comes into inheritance of a house outside of Gettysburg, PA, about the same time he justifiably leaves his job and wife. To say more would ruin too much, but it does make for a good setup for what follows. The beautiful female lead is Amy Morris, a TV news personality. She turns out to be a lot more than just a talking head at the news conglomerate she works for. A lot of the aforementioned great dialog takes place between these two, but there are certainly no love sick words exchanged between them.

There are other well described characters here, but the real star is the town of Gettysburg itself. The author does a very nice job of providing some educational diversion by introducing the reader to the area and filing us in on the history of the region. While not exactly comic relief, the timing these interludes are introduced provides some relief for the tension that builds between the characters and helps set up other conflicts. This is what helps set this book apart from the merely average and shows that the author is capable of being a true storyteller.

I would hesitate to cal this historical fiction as it still takes place in modern times. Despite this, there is enough history introduced that historical fiction fans may enjoy this work. If you are looking for cheap thrills on paper, look elsewhere. It may be a little too slow paced for hard-core action / adventure fans, but it has the flavor of a really good adventure story. Highly suggested for fiction fans or fans of the Civil War era. ( )

http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/2006/05/busted-flush.html ( )