Big Maria by Johnny Shaw

Review: Three down-on-their-luck guys — one an ambitious twenty-something man with a wife and young child; another a middle-aged perennial loser looking for a short-cut to success; and the third a retired widower just diagnosed with a new case of cancer — band together to search for gold in the mountains of southern Arizona in Big Maria, a stand-alone crime thriller by Johnny Shaw.

Ricky McBride is saving every penny to buy a new passenger coach, a step towards improving the the lives of his family. In the meantime, he's keeping an ancient school bus together with "baling wire, duct tape, spit, and prayer." Unfortunately he didn't count on a mule deer standing in the middle of the road on a trip back from Mexico, ferrying senior citizens getting their prescriptions refilled at a discount south of the border. He misses the deer, but crashes his bus into a ravine, killing several of the passengers. Harry Schmittberger, on the other hand, has no ambition whatsoever. A prison employee on disability, he overhears of a story from a conspiracy theorist that vast quantities of hidden gold are available for the taking … if only one knew where to look. He figures just a couple of pounds of gold will set up him for the rest of his miserable life. Meanwhile, Frank Pacheco, subsisting on a meager income from Indian casino royalty checks, has only cancer treatments to look forward to. Probably easier to die but he's too stubborn for that. When the three men meet up by chance in the hospital, they decide they have nothing to lose by searching for the gold … and everything to gain. If only it were that simple …

Potential buyers of Big Maria need to read through the first couple of chapters of this book, a feature conveniently provided by most online retailers. This is one of those comic crime capers for which the style and the tone of what is to follow is firmly set early. Readers who like what they see will no doubt enjoy the raucous adventure that these three men find themselves on. Those that do not most certainly will not. The characters are vividly drawn and range from the barely tolerable to the almost endearing, the storyline — which has a screenplay-like quality to it — exciting if often rather less than credible. Big Maria is good for what it is; it's just a little tricky trying to define exactly what "it" is.




Johnny Shaw’s Dove Season is an entertaining series of mistakes, bravado, self-reflection and bad situations. Told through Jimmy Veeder (the center of the fiasco for which the story is named) the story ranges over family relations, friendships, confrontations with the past, sex, guns, money and secrets. Driven by a strong narrative, and escalating danger, what emerges is an entertaining but still touching story of a man who takes a winding path toward inner peace.

Jimmy Veeder left the Imperial Valley of California as soon as he could. Never went back. Until he found out his pop was dying. Soon. While the towns and people were familiar, there’s little feeling of comfort. Didn’t matter much, as time with his father is his only reason for being there. Oh, and a favor. A weird favor. He asks Jimmy to find a whore. A specific whore in Mexico.

The search reunites him with his best friend, and stirrer of shit, Bobby. Together they travel across the border to Mexicali, and find themselves in the world of whores, border crossing, pornography and an old friend who runs the show. Good intentions and bad decision lead to escalating problems that drive the men, and the women and friends in their lives, into danger.

In addition to the characters, the book also creates a compelling image of the dessert and towns of the Imperial Valley. Set in a desert where live seems to go on out of spite, the towns and the people act on Jimmy and inform and change his character. Where at first, we see the Valley from the outside, the reader is immersed in its rhythms and people as Jimmy is re-immersed into his old home.

Dove Season is a book for those who enjoy a good bit of action, a sprinkling of humor, and just enough introspection combined with emotional repression and macho preening. Hopefully this won’t be the last Jimmy Veeder fiasco.