‘Hammerhead’ Jed Ounstead is back. Bronco Buster is the fourth book in the award-winning series written by Canadian author, AJ Devlin. Jed stands out from your typical crime fiction lead characters. In addition to being addicted to banana milkshakes, he is a prize-winning pro wrestler, an effective private investigator and the son of a highly regarded former police officer. He has both brawn and brains. But the trauma of what happened in Five Moves of Doom has left him feeling overwhelmed and Bronco Buster picks up the story several months later.
So Jed has taken a break from being a private investigator, gotten back into shape and back into the ring. His latest squared-circle event at the Colossal Cloverdale Rodeo and Country Fair in Surrey, British Columbia, on the outskirts of Vancouver. In addition to your standard rodeo and country fair events, wrestling and lumberjack competitions are on the bill, which fits the territory. The setting is clearly Canadian with cultural references to local icons like Ernie Coombs, a children’s entertainer known as Mr Dressup, and Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart, a retired professional wrestler and a member of the Hart wrestling dynasty.
The prologue begins with Jed in the ring performing a comedic wrestling move known as a Bronco Buster. It’s played for laughs and is generally a crowd pleaser but the audience is very distracted. Everyone has heard a scream from the adjacent tent featuring various lumberjack competitions. As soon as Jed can leave the ring, he goes to investigate and finds a dead lumberjack floating in the log boom pool. There’s an axe embedded in the back of the man’s head. When a log bumps its handle, the body flips over. It’s Jasper Adams, a new drinking buddy of Jed and his cousin Declan.
Although Jed has gone cold on being a PI, he finds himself wanting to investigate Jasper’s death as he felt a connection with the man. All the Hammerhead Jed books are fast-paced, humorous reads, but the action in Bronco Buster is even more amped up than usual. The book covers one crazy day at the rodeo and this short time frame creates a great deal of tension with an electric pace. There are some wild, crazy and frankly unbelievable elements to the plot but if you suspend your disbelief it will keep you entertained cover to cover.
Devlin has a Masters of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from The American Film Institute which obviously influences his writing. He inserts hooks at the end of chapters that will keep you reading. Equally the author is adept at scripting dramatic action and cueing up visual humour, even in words. The two elements don’t always combine easily but Devlin makes it work with the support of a unique cast of characters.
If you’re new to the series, Declan is more than a cousin to Jed. He is also Jed’s sidekick who provides backup muscle during investigations. As a former member of the IRA, his fighting skills come in handy. It’s amazing that Declan can fight, let alone walk, with the copious amounts of alcohol he consumes. This time around he hooks up with an older woman who ends up assisting the men in their search to find the murderer of Jasper.
Declan is not the only familiar character from the series. The quirky bookmaker Mr Sykes has moved on from his goat yoga venture. He is now running a cow-pie bingo with a cow that has been trained to defecate on command. As a bookie, Sykes likes having an edge on those making bets.
In addition to the series regulars, there are several new characters from the logging, rodeo and country fair world, including a little bit of love interest for Jed in the form of lasso expert Annie, whose father is one of the people running the rodeo. Jed and Declan have no suspects for the murder so their focus is to gather information from key players in the community. They have memorable encounters with a rodeo clown, a new age spiritual guru and Jasper’s distraught boyfriend. There’s bribery, corruption, lots of fighting, an ostrich ride and further victims on the way.
Bronco Buster has it all. Devlin delivers with this entertaining series that he likes to describe as a mix of mystery, action, adventure and comedy. If you feel that you need an escape from everyday life, this novel is a very enjoyable distraction.
Some of Bronco Buster’s gonzo elements, as well as how the fighting is described, are reminiscent of Joe R Lansdale’s Hap and Leonard novels.
NeWest Press
Kindle/Print
£9.28
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
