Max Jackson and Tom Harris are not just best friends, but “retired” thespians always looking for a pub or two for a great night out all over London. Their new drinking hangout is Deadbeat, a cozy jazz bar that Tom bought a few years back after retiring from the theatre business. Some novellas may want you drinking a nicely brew coffee or tea with biscuits, but for this Guy Adam’s pulp fiction novel, you may just want to grab some beer and chips and enjoy the rollicking adventure.
The two buddies spent years in the theatre circuit with Tom directing various plays and Max acting in various plays to make ends meet. They meet this time at a funeral home for a “theatre class reunion” of sorts and find themselves witnessing a strange event. During the reunion, a group of men started moving a coffin with a live body into a transport van. As the boys get more and more curious, they start doing their own detective work and find out who the dead but alive victim. Max and Tom may have stumbled onto something bigger than just a life insurance scheme as they face life and death situations trying to solve the case.
Guy Adams has definitely created two really fun characters in Tom Harris and Max Jackson. I enjoyed reading the flashback antidotes of how they meet and became friends and it develops their characters as to who they are now. They are like a mix of the “Odd Couple” and “the Hardy Boys” all rolled into one and best of all, they use their acting skills to find answers. Deadbeat is not just a bar that Tom owns, but a meeting point for their ragtag team of friends: Thackeray the doc, Douggie the bouncer, Stevie the PC whiz and Len the bar manager. All theses supporting characters add to the banter and action. And each chapter takes a different POV, so we get into what Tom or Max are thinking and feeling. And I’ve been known to travel the world and having stayed in London for a couple of weeks, I like that the city of London is in the mix and the guys do take the Tube to get around. Now I’ll just have to wait for Adam’s next Deadbeat: Dogs of Waugh.
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Paperback: Deadbeat – Makes You Stronger
Author: Guy Adams
Publisher: Titan Books
MSRP: $7.99USD
Available: Now
For Mature Readers
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