Too Much Stuff is part of the Stuff Series by Don Bruns published by Oceanview Publishing, an independent publishing company who is putting out some interesting mysteries and thrillers. I have read one other book in this particular series.

Skip Moore and his best friend, James Lessor, once more are trying to get rich quick. They have had many dead-end jobs in the past but now they are trying their hands at private investigation. They are hired by Mrs. T to find gold. Her great grandfather had loaded one and a quarter million dollars of gold bars on a train that disappeared when a storm in 1935 killed 500 people and destroyed much property. No has found the gold and Skip and James want to try their hand at it.

As usual, these two are broke so they jump in with both feet without thinking everything through. And once again they find themselves in over their heads. Thankfully, Skip’s girlfriend, Em is around to help them but James' girl is married and that causes issues for Skip and Em. With other folks also searching, a dead body showing up and a mysterious boat carrying folks ashore there is a lot going on for these two private investigators. Bruns has written a humorous series with likeable characters. I found myself rooting for these two quirky guys who manage to bumble along solving mysteries and along the way they find out a little more about who they really are. I recommend this book especially for those who enjoy a lighthearted adventure story. ( )

4 STARS
This mystery case is solved by two P.I.s who are not the most on the balls. James Lessor and Skip started More or Less Investigations after collage. They graduated at the bottom half of their class. They watched a lot
of old movies instead of studing. They are always quoting old movies and the other one is g uessing.
They have been hired to go to KeyWest and try to find 10 boxes of gold that was on a train in 1937 that was destroyed by a hurricane that killed over 500. The Flager railroad took 6 years to build but destroyed by hurricane.
Mary Trueblood had hired 6 months ago other P.I.s that had vanished their number disconnected and internet site down. She found a letter that her grandfather had sent in code that he survived the hurricane. Where he might stash the gold for his company he would leave a clue their. He was afraid he might not be able to get back each box weighed around 200lbs worth around 44 millions dollars in todays market.
James & Skip before they get too far in the investigations find a dead body in thier hotel room. Emily Skip's girl friend back home recieved a death threat to James, Skip and Mrs. Trueblood.
So Emily comes down to join the boys. James has found a couple of girls in the mean time.
They keep running into danger and making not the smartest moves especially James.
I was given this ebook to read in exchange of honest review from Netgalley. ( )

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I received Too Much Stuff by Don Bruns from the publisher. It turned out to be a fun surprise. If Laurel and Hardy became good ol’ boy mystery detectives in the 21st century, they might look like the two bumbling 20-something detectives in Too Much Stuff. Although Too Much Stuff is part of a series, I found that I didn’t need to have read the other novels for this one to make sense. Read the rest of my review & enter our giveaway to win an ARC at http://popcornreads.com/?p=2460. ( )

Too Much Stuff
by Don Bruns
2 stars

Too much…something

I had been looking forward to reading Too Much Stuff, my introduction to Don Bruns’ work. I love both comic novels and treasure hunts, so I thought this would be a sure-fire winner. Ever the optimist, in this case I was mistaken.

Too Much Stuff is, I believe, the fifth novel in Bruns’ Stuff series. While it’s true that I have not entered this series with the characters’ full back stories and histories, I have a very difficult time imagining it would have made a difference in my enjoyment of the novel. The protagonists at the center of the series are 20-somethings Skip Moore and James Lessor. They’re high school grads that have been bumbling their way through a series of menial jobs. Now they’ve decided they’re going to be private detectives. They got the licenses and placed the yellow pages ad. This leads to their improbable first job, helping track down a fortune in lost gold in the Florida Keys.

The blurb from Mystery Scene Magazine promised me “witty dialogue and likeable, wacky characters.” Well, I suppose that first person narrator Skip was ok, but violent, cop-hating, married woman-chasing James left me rather cold. As for the dialogue, it was about as far from witty as I can imagine. Sophomoric is more like it. In fact, that’s really the best description for these two characters. They are so unbelievably unsophisticated (emphasis on the unbelievable) that the prospect of valet parking throws them completely for a loop. I get it that these are working class characters, but, what? They’ve never seen a movie? I simply don’t find stupidity, ignorance, and a lack of sophistication to be a recipe for hilarity. What it is is tiresome.

And perhaps I could have gotten past the cast of not very interesting or likable characters, and the decidedly unfunny comedy, if only there had been a great mystery plot. But the simple truth is, I was bored. The pages plodded, the dénouement was telegraphed, and surprises were rare. It was a short novel, but it was work to get through it.

The publisher recently offered the first novel in this series as a Kindle freebie and I downloaded it, but somehow I doubt I’ll be revisiting this series. I’m glad others have enjoyed the novels, and goodness knows that humor is subjective. This stuff, it seems, is not for me. ( )