STUFF TO SPY FOR is a welcome return to Don Bruns’ world of overgrown men who think they are the Hardy Boys. James Lessor and Skip Moore are back again with their box truck, and for the first time in the series, it’s not the center of the story.
This time out, our twosome has a legit job, installing security equipment for a company called Synco Systems. As easy as this gig might seem, our pals get into trouble faster than an e-mail going from one computer to another. The first problem facing Skip is that the woman who is in charge is Sarah, an old girlfriend from high school who needs him for another job that will pay a large bonus: to act as though he is her boyfriend.
It’s to throw off the wife of Sandler Conroy, the president of Synco with whom Sarah is having an affair. Skip has a slight hesitation about this, mainly because he already has a serious relationship and knows this will throw a wrench into that. But this is only the start of much larger problems that will face Skip and his layabout, movie-quoting pal James.
Once they get started on the job, our crew discovers the Synco VP under his desk, because of an apparent suicide. Adding to this already packed workload is Carol Conroy, the president’s wife, who thinks that was no suicide and wants to hire Skip to spy on her husband.
Those expecting a full-on mystery, what you really get is a light, breezy cross between SPIES LIKE US and the aforementioned Hardy Boys. Bruns has the plot cruise along so fast and furious that when the twists and turns happen, you won’t be able to figure out what’s really going on. The word “triple-cross” comes to mind more than a few times along the way, all while Skip worries that they are just about to be caught and James just walks around the whole situation, looking for a new date.
In other words, it’s more of the same from these two, whom I came to discover in the previous book, STUFF DREAMS ARE MADE OF. Bruns has fun placing these two in the spy genre, no matter how incompetent they might be for what they face, which just makes the novel more fun for readers. —Bruce Grossman
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• STUFF DREAMS ARE MADE OF by Don Bruns
