Reel Stuff

October 7, 2013
In Bruns’s lackluster seventh Stuff mystery (after 2012’s Hot Stuff), Skip Moore and James Lessor, the less-than-professional PIs from Moore or Less Investigations, land jobs guarding the filming of an episode of TV’s Deadline Miami, despite their shaky track record. Consequently, Skip is there when a staged fall off a building by guest star Jason Londell results in the faded A-lister’s very real death. Jason’s shaken costar, Ashley Amber, who claims he was in love with her, hires the pair of PIs to find out if Juliana, Jason’s wife and agent, was responsible. James stays in Miami while Skip and his girlfriend, Emily Minard (who is the brains of the trio), visit Hollywood. They pass off Em as an aspiring actress to get close to Juliana, but the ruse is so successful that it may make her an actual movie star. The abundant movie and TV references don’t overcome the uninspired feel of this Moore or Less outing.

November 1, 2013
Bruns' latest Stuff novel (Too Much Stuff, 2011) is a lean, thoroughly entertaining mystery. Florida private eye Skip Moore, who also narrates the story, and his partner, James Lessor, are spending a few days on the set of a TV series, as part of the producers' beefed-up security, necessitated by the guest-starring appearance of a famous big-screen actor. When the big-screen actor dies (rather spectacularly) during rehearsal for an action scene, it looks to Skip like it's suicide. But a ditsy actress, who claims the dead man was about to propose marriage, says he was murdered. The killer, she says, is the victim's former agent, who also happens to be his wife and the ditsy actress' sister. (Take a moment to absorb that.) Clues, laughs, and shenanigans abound. The Stuff novels aren't quite comedy-mysteries, but they're about as close as you can get, effectively mixing serious crime with plenty of humor.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)