Stuff to Die for: A Novelvolume 1

Set in Miami, "Stuff To Die For" is the story of Skip Moore and James Lessor, two guys who grew up in poverty watching other people travel in their the luxury cars, going to fancy clubs and elegant restaurants, and enjoying their money. Now in their twenties the two decide on a new get-rich-scheme (they've had a lot of them in the past). But things start going strange when they discover a severed finger in an envelope along with a ransom note. As they involve themselves into solving a kidnap caper, the two become enmeshed a world of family secrets, Cuban thugs, a gun-toting philosopher, a CIA agent, and a group of shadowy people plotting the overthrow of the Cuban government. Highly entertaining and enthusiastically recommended for personal reading lists and community library collections, "Stuff To Die For" is a superbly crafted, action-packed story of mysteries, explosions, car chases, gun battles, a quick eye for a buck, and two somewhat flawed heroes trying to figure things out and not get killed in the process!

James Lessor and Skip Moore have been friends since childhood. James has always been scheming on ways for the two to make a fortune in business and Skip has followed along into each venture. Some schemes had gotten them into trouble, some hadn't, but none of them had really worked. The latest plan James has hatched has them going into the moving business. "Have Truck Will Haul" says their new business card and according to James, who has purchased the Chevy one ton box truck by using the monies he recently inherited, this idea will lead to a financial hauling empire. Not only should he have used the monies to pay on his student loans, Skip also thinks that James should have noticed the fact that the truck drinks oil like it is water. James is obvious secure in his belief that the only way to make real money is to spend the money he has and this time, he is going to spend it on his hauling stuff business idea. Skip's girlfriend, Emily isn't thrilled with James or how he manages to lure her mid twenties boyfriend into one dream after another as Skip sort of drifts through life. Sure, he sells a security system now and then on commission, but he really isn't going anywhere and she believes he could do so much more. One possibility is that Skip could go work for her Dad's construction firm but Skip knows, for a number of reasons that all aren't under his control, why that idea would never work. As it soon happens Emily leads the guys to their first client, Jackie Fuentes. A wealthy and sexy woman living behind the gates of a nearby exclusive community, she needs some stuff hauled away as quickly as possible and is willing to pay well. Her husband Rick has taken off with a far younger woman and she wants his things out of her house. It should be a simple job for a few hours of work. It would have been a simple job if James, while backing up the truck at the storage facility, hadn't hit the building. If, the load which includes mail for Rick, hadn't shifted and spilled. If they hadn't noticed the fact that one of the envelopes was leaking. Or, if having noticed it was leaking, tossed it back with the rest of the mail and had never opened it. But, they did notice and did decide to open the envelope. From there, things go from bad to worse at breakneck speed. James and Skip find themselves getting deeper in a mess with every move they make while agents of the CIA, Cubans bent on arms smuggling, and a host of other shady characters with multiple motivations, keep among other things, shooting at them. All that and Emily really needs to talk to James about the future of their relationship. Part humor, part mystery, part thriller and definitely all suspenseful, this novel takes off and just keeps going barely letting the reader catch a breath on the way. Author Don Bruns brings all the characters vividly to life and yanks readers directly into the maelstrom that is their chaotic world. What could easily have gone the way of caricature and been the ty

Don Bruns just wants to tell a good story, but he's also got a message underneath the twists and turns of his latest mystery, STUFF TO DIE FOR: why do people have all this stuff? It piles up and up and leads to no good, particularly in the case of James and Skip, two Florida guys, struggling to make it in dead-end jobs. They start a moving company with the plan of making it big, but on their first job, get more than they bargained for: a blood-stained envelope, the contents of which turn out to mean a great deal to Skip, the narrator. Soon, the two are up to their necks in a uniquely Floridian scheme, trying to save an old friend from the clutches of a large group of very angry Miami Cubans with revolution on their minds. The boys learn very quickly that easy money is rarely as advertised. A sharp, funny read with a surprisingly effective emotional undercurrent.

Don Bruns' STUFF TO DIE FOR cracks along at a runner's pace, breathlessly taking us and the two main characters, a couple of Florida slackers with big dreams and small bank accounts, into a world of corporate and international intrigue. The two young men, one with his head in the clouds and another with a deep-seated secret, through dumb luck and curiosity, find themselves in possession of more knowledge, money and severed body parts than they should have. What starts as a gruesome discovery quickly spirals out of control into a plot involving double-crossing government agents, millions of dollars, and a shadowy group of Cuban-Americans with an ax to grind. Add the mind-numbing Florida heat to the mix and you've got a hell of a mystery.

STUFF TO DIE FOR by Don Bruns puts the reins in the hands of a couple of Florida losers with grand ambitions and not much else. The two guys take on a simple moving job with a truck they've bought that's going to be the answer to all their prayers. In the process of wrecking the truck, they find something they shouldn't have found...a severed finger. Soon, money and promises are flying around, buildings are blown up, people are shooting at them, and the two are embroiled in intrigue hotter than a Miami afternoon. The book for anyone who's been tempted by the "easy score."