Consumption and Real Estate
Stuff to Die For: A Novel
Best friends James Lessor and Skip Moore are hardly on the fast track. While James works as a line cook at Cap’n Crab, Skip spends his days selling – or rather, attempting to sell – security systems to people who (a) have no money, and (b) have nothing they care to protect.
James and Skip aren’t upwardly mobile, but they’re about to get literally mobile when James spends a surprise inheritance on a white box truck. An investment in the future, he surmises, as these two are starting a business – solely devoted to hauling other people’s stuff.
But the fledgling business takes a shocking turn when James and Skip unload the contents of their first moving job and find some unexpected cargo – a bloody human finger.
James and Skip must scramble to stay one step ahead of the perpetrators of the gruesome crime in this witty, gritty mystery about big dreams, big ideas – and big trouble.
Instead of chasing the American dream, James and Skip will be running for their lives.
Rating: 
(out of 14 reviews)
List Price: $ 24.95
Price: $ 5.80
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#2 written by Ted Feit 1 year ago
Review by Ted Feit for Stuff to Die For: A Novel
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A couple of beer-guzzling, 24-year-old ne’er-do-wells, James and Skip, become embroiled in a deadly situation. James, a short order cook, inherits some money and buys a box truck. With Skip, a salesman of security systems who hardly ever makes a sale, they go into the hauling business. Their first job gets them into all kinds of trouble, and they have to run fast to keep ahead of the perpetrators of a developing criminal plot.While unloading their first cargo, they find a bloody finger and a ransom note. As a result, they become targeted by the criminals who fear the boys have learned details of the plot. And the chase goes on and on. The main characters are hardly believable and the story is a mish-mash. James and Skip can hardly get anything right.
Skip has a sometime girlfriend who turned down employment offers of $150,000 a year to work for her father. She is supposed to be bright, but what’s to account for her relationship with a dead-ender? James has visions of grandeur, remembering his father who was a perpetual failure. The story takes place in Miami and environs, where we find a cast of Cubans, CIA agents and a mysterious “Angel.” Enough already.
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#3 written by Midwest Book Review 1 year ago
Review by Midwest Book Review for Stuff to Die For: A Novel
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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! -
#4 written by Lily Courthope 1 year ago
Review by Lily Courthope for Stuff to Die For: A Novel
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Skip Moore and James Lessor are two delicious characters. They are best friends and brand new business partners in a hauling company that brings trouble in the form of a bloody finger bearing a ring that indicates the wearer was an old friend from school. With such wonderful characterization and a solid premise for a mystery/thriller I have to wonder just where this book went off the rails. The plot winds around and around, going nowhere. I figure Skip and James spent at least half the book wondering whether to call a guy named Fuentes, who was supposed to receive the mysterious finger in the mail. The denouement involved rogue CIA agents whose involvement was never really resolved, they felt like they were just thrown in to escalate the level at which the bad guys were playing. This wasn’t a horrible book, some parts were well done, especially the friendship between the two main characters, but other parts seemed gratuitous (the pregnancy of Skip’s girlfriend added nothing to the story; the girlfriend herself didn’t add much). I didn’t love the book, didn’t hate it. Skip and James were memorable but not much else. -
#5 written by Reader Views 1 year ago
Review by Reader Views for Stuff to Die For: A Novel
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Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (9/07)James Lessor and Skip Moore are friends from childhood. James is a charmer that is always looking for a fast way to make money. Getting a surprise inheritance of $12,000 he decides to invest in an older truck to start a hauling business. Skip is the more conservative of the two. He has a very wealthy, yet non-exclusively committed girlfriend, Em. Em gets them their first job. Em has a super-rich friend that wants her cheating husband’s belongings moved out of her Florida mansion. James and Skip are hired to do the job. Along the way, they accidentally discover a severed human finger in the ex’s belongings. This gets them involved in a case that turns out to involve a faction that is trying to overthrow Cuba. A mysterious character named Angel steps in to help these two bumbling characters. They discover that he has a lot more going for him than they realized.
The action, in this story, is fast-paced and the characters are entertaining in their eccentricities. There is also a beat-up, oil-burning truck that adds a great deal to the plot. If James would learn how to drive it correctly, it wouldn’t be as fun to read about. I would love to see more adventures based upon these characters. “Stuff to Die For” is an incredibly entertaining novel. If you like Carl Hiaasen or Elmore Leonard, you will love this book!
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Review by Lee Carper for Stuff to Die For: A Novel
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Book Title: Stuff to Die For
Author: Don Bruns
Oceanview Publishing
Release Date: September 1, 2007
Binding: Hardcover
Reviewer: Lee Carper
The latest novel by award-winning author Don Bruns, Stuff to Die For, features James Lessor and Skip Moore, a bumbling Laurel and Hardy duo who set out to do the right thing, but only manage to find themselves deeper and deeper in a comical web of intrigue.
Skip sells security systems, while James works as a cook at a local restaurant. They live in a worn-out apartment in a worn-out section of South Florida. Best pals since childhood, Skip, seemingly the level-headed of the two, tries to take his friend in stride, as James continually seeks new business ventures to make his fortune. In his latest endeavor, James inherits money from an aunt and purchases a box truck, declaring: “… Moore and Lessor, or Lessor and Moore. Have truck, will haul.” And so begins their adventure.
Skip’s girlfriend Emily lands the men their first job, hauling “stuff” for Jackie Fuentes. When Skip and James unload the cargo, they find a bloody human finger in an unopened mail envelope. Because this is a lucrative job and they want their money, they decide they’d better deliver this “mail” to the intended recipient, Jackie’s ex-husband Rick. Rick hires the men to investigate the case of the severed finger, and Skip and James end up knee-deep in a possible Cuban takeover, a kidnapping, and some very dangerous criminals. Included in their escapade is an enigmatic man named Angel, whom we never really get to know in great detail, but plays an important role nonetheless.
I’ll admit, as a reader I tend to lean more toward hard-boiled mysteries, but this novel couldn’t help but draw me in. Don Bruns succeeds in making this an immensely satisfying read.
If you enjoy interesting characters, and a combination of humor and intrigue, then Stuff to Die For, is stuff to die for.