Book Review: Too Much Stuff by Don Bruns (Stuff Series #5)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fun story and more mature characters

Cons: Some plot elements not quite developed well

The Bottom Line:

Lost gold in the Keys

A stronger series entry

This one’s lots of fun

Will Skip and James Find the Key to Gold?

I know I’ve been lukewarm on the Stuff Series from Don Bruns, but it had been on my radar for so long that I was determined to finish it. So I picked up Too Much Stuff, the fifth in the series. Turns out I enjoyed this one. 

The series features Skip More and James Lessor, best friends and twenty-somethings just trying to survive in Miami. James is always trying to find a way to strike it rich and get them out of their dead-end jobs. Unfortunately, those schemes seem to find them involved in deadly dangerous situations. 

The duo have recently opened their own Private Investigator business, but they’ve only had one client so far. Skip’s girlfriend, Em, brings them another. The woman claims to be the great granddaughter of a man who was in possession of a shipment of gold in 1935 right before a hurricane slammed into the Florida Keys. In the resulting chaos, the gold was lost. Even if the client is telling the truth, can the duo find it? Oh, and there’s the small matter that the last PIs hired to find the gold vanished six months ago. 

Obviously, with the treasure hunt plot, this isn’t going to be exactly like a traditional mystery, although the book does have some of those elements as well. I’ll admit, the many storylines weren’t juggled as well as they could have been, leading to a few things being rushed. But I didn’t care too much since I was having fun. 

I get that part of the hook of the series is James and Skip’s immaturity. In other books, I’ve found that pushed too far. Here, I felt like the author got it right. They were quite as much caricatures as they’ve been in the past, which made it easier to root for them. 

It also helps that Skip, who is our first-person narrator, and James, to a lesser extent, make some good deductions and follow a logical trail as the book progresses. Yes, we still get a couple of leaps, but for the most part it worked for me. 

Skip’s girlfriend, Em, is the other main character in the series. I enjoyed seeing all of their relationships in a different light here. 

Also, there was a refreshing toning down of the foul language. There is still some there, but it’s not quite as gratuitous. 

These books were originally published in the early 2010’s which explains a couple of moments that are already dated. 

I’ve got two more books in the series to go, and this makes me look forward to read them. Too Much Stuff was one of the stronger entries in the series. 

Stuff your bookshelf with the rest of The Stuff Series.