Tubby Dubonnet is not a good guy hero type like A. Scott Fenney in Accused. Of course, he isn't exactly investigating a homicide either. There was a murder, the genre does rather require it, but the murder was none of his business. His main problem is how to get rid of the million in cash that the murder victim placed in his keeping - before becoming the murder victim, of course. He tries spending it, but decided that was too difficult. He tried spliting up and banking it, but found that the feds track large deposits. Poor guy - such problems he has.
The case he is actually working is a malpractice action for a transvestite stripper against a plastic surgeon who failed spectacularly to darken his skin.
The unsettling thing is that the people who should be good guys turn out to be bad, sometimes really bad, and the bad guys are just trying to make their way and keep milk and wheaties on the table for the kids. Maybe that's what I found uncomfortable about the second one of these - which was the first that I read.
Dunbar is developing a running cast of characters - Adrian of Monster Mudbug fame, the venial sheriff (I won't give you his name because I can't figure out how to make a French accent in Notepad), his greedy ex-wife and their three daughters, not to mention his secretary, CherryLynn. Most of them are characters in the sense that goes beyond mere people who populate the story. We are even introduced to Jerome and his godmother, the praline lady, who figure largely in the second story. An entertaining bunch.
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