Busted Flush by Brad Smith

Busted Flush Reviews

• 
  Patty

  A comedic novel (supposedly. It's more low-key amusing than laugh-out-loud funny, even if you give it the benefit of the doubt) about Dock Bass, who starts out as a real estate agent married to a woman named Terri, whom he loathes for never-explained reasons. This is clearly supposed to make us sympathetic to a strong, independant man trapped by the rules of society.
  
  Dock and I did not get off on the right foot, as you can probably tell.
  
  Anyway, by page 15 Dock has quit his job (it made act like a hypocrite and Dock is too straight-forward for that, you see) and left Terri (not divorced, although that's his intention, literally "left", as in, "got in his truck and drove to another state without saying goodbye or having a fight". She is almost never mentioned again, so hopefully she filed divorce papers and lived a better life without Dock around to criticize her constantly). With nowhere else to go, Dock decides to answer in person a letter he recently received, informing him that he inherited a house in the town of Gettysburg from a distant relative. Once in Gettysburg, Dock fends off more evil real estate agents, who try to convince him to sell his property for less than it's worth so they can develop the area. Instead he decides to renovate the house on his own.
  
  (Dock spends the rest of the book rebuilding a house from 1841. Literally rebuilds, completely by himself, by hand. Everything from tearing out the roof all the way down to the rafters, making new rafters, installing those, then shingling the new roof. Then he installs new drywall, does the electric wires, the phone lines, the windows, the doors, the flooring – everything. This seems like an implausible amount of skill for one man to have, even if he did used to be a carpenter, especially since it's implied he also knows how to do all of this in accord with 1840s historical restoration. But I barely know how to change a lightbulb, so I could be wrong.)
  
  In the process of taking out the old walls, Dock discovers a long-sealed root cellar, which turns out to contain a huge collection of early photographs, including seven of Lincoln giving the Gettysburg Address, as well as an actual sound recording of the same event. All of this, of course, immediately gets huge news attention, leading to various adventures with elderly Hungarian professors, shady antiquities dealers, millionaire collectors, competing claims to the ownership of the house, and more.
  
  It's hard to decide what was my "favorite" part of the book. It could have been the main villain, Thaddeus St. John, who is a shockingly retrograde gay stereotype. He dresses like he's always at a costume party, wears makeup and perfume, lisps, has a barely-mentioned younger boyfriend who's clearly only there to establish the fact that Thaddeus like 'em young, is thin and weak and afraid of violence. Here's one particularly appalling line: They taped Thaddeus in front of the musket display – his suggestion. Apparently, he was going for as masculine an image as he could muster.
  
  My favorite part also might have been that the book somehow manages not to actually take a stance on the Civil War, one of the easier moral questions out there, but rather drips with obsequious sympathy for both sides. Here's Dock raging at the corruption of modern times compared to the purity of the past at the emotional climax of the book: There’d been something gnawing at Dock ever since he’d opened up the doorway to Willy’s shop. He realized he’d been subconsciously comparing his world to that of Willy’s, and wondering why it was that 1863 kept coming out on top. And finally it came to him. Everything today had to be easy. And if you had to screw over your neighbor or your brother or your friend to make it easy, then get to it. Easy was the way to go in the modern world. Easy was the new God.
  Yes, no one in 1863 ever cheated to make things easier, like, oh, say, OWNING SLAVES. What the fuck, Brad Smith. How did anyone let you publish this?
  
  Also, for all of our sakes, I have not copy-and-pasted the scene where Dock tells a black woman she doesn't know enough about the Civil War and needs to have more sympathy for Confederate soldiers. Because they didn't have shoes. Shoes, you guys! Dock sure showed her. Somehow they end the book by hooking up despite this.
  
  This is an unfunny, eyeroll-inducing book without a single sympathetic or enjoyable character to be found. On the other hand, it was a quick read?
  
  ....No, no, that's not enough to make up for the rest. Avoid at all costs.
  
  I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
• 
  Patricia

  Busted Flush
  Brad Smith
  Picador, 2005, 308 pps.
  ISBN: 0312425678
  
  
  History, humor, fraud and a mix of wonderful characters makes Busted Flush a fast read and a book I would highly recommend.
  
  Dock Bass is disillusioned with his life as a carpenter turned real estate agent and sick of his wife who has turned out to be a vast disappointment. Dock just gets in his pick up and disappears. He winds up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania at the office of Tommy Trotter, Attorney-At-Law. Trotter had written a letter to Dock and Dock is there to find out why Trotter has contacted him.
  
  Much to his surprise he finds that he has inherited some land and an old farm from a deceased relative he didn’t know existed. He decides he will stay awhile and try to restore the place to its original beauty. When he starts his restoration he discovers a room that has been locked up for years. The contents of the room is full of Civil War memorabilia as well as a diary of a young man that lived on the farm during Lincoln’s time. Dock becomes fascinated by the diary of young Willy Burns and the life he led during the troubled times of the Civil War.
  
  Then we have Amy Morris who is a high profile television personality whose only interest is chasing down a political story but her boss sends her to Gettysburg to obtain a piece of the memorabilia for his own collection. Although disgusted with the assignment she eventually begins to feel the magic of Gettysburg.
  
  Dock soon finds that people from everywhere are interested in his find and some including the local self-proclaimed expert will go to any lengths to get their hands on the memorabilia.
  
  Grab a copy of Busted Flush and I don’t think you will want to stop reading until you reach the end.
  
• 
  Steven Howes

  Brad Smith is the author of one of my all time favorite books - "The Return of Kid Cooper." "Busted Flush" sounded intriguing so I picked it and was not disappointed. Like Nate Cooper, Dock Bass is a risk taker and pretty much tells everyone in his life to take a hike and tries to start over with a clean slate. After having inheriting a piece of property near the Gettysburg Battlefield he unwittingly becomes embroiled in the cutthroat world of Civil War memorabilia collectors and the mainstream national news media. While working through the complex situation he finds himself in, he develops strong relationships with the people who help him; and finds them much more valuable than the shallow ones he had in his previous life.
  
  While this is a work of fiction, the reader can learn a great deal about Civil War history, memorabilia collecting, and a bit about photographic and other technology available during the period. The premise on which the story is based is a bit far out but I found myself wishing it was true.
• 
  Mary Barrett

  5 🌟
  
  This book fascinated me from the moment I read the book description. The author's wicked sense of humor is expressed so well in his main character, Dock Bass, as well as the Hungarian professor and Amy, the beautiful journalists. Brad Smith wove a beautiful story of a courageous young inventor at the core of this book. Excellent story, and very enjoyable reading. I would recommend this book to anyone with a love of American history.
• 
  Amy Roebuck

  I like Brad Smith. I like him as a person; I really, really like him (speaking as a library programmer) as a visiting author, and I love his characters, his plots and his writing. I think my favourite of all his early books is Busted Flush--maybe because I'm a Lincoln fan-- and I recommend it to anyone who likes humour, gritty settings, flawed and very human characters in their fiction.
• 
  Charles

  Another winner from Brad
  
  Once I got into the story I couldn't put it down. The characters are so life-like that I thought I knew them personally. Dock reminded me of Virgil Cain. Tough, plain speaking, clever, hard working, honest, thoughtful, kind with integrity. The perfect protagonist that you are rooting for every step of the way.
• 
  Chi Dubinski

  Dock Bass suspects his wife is cheating on him with his boss. When Dock gets a letter from a lawyer in Gettysburg telling him he’s inherited a house, he packs his truck and heads off to take a look. “Busted Flush” by Brad Smith combines history, mystery and humor in this tale of a man who refuses to be bought.
  Dock discovers a secret workshop in his new house which may contain authentic civil war relics. In this history-mad town, everyone wants a slice of what Dock has found. That includes Amy Morris, TV news superstar who would rather be chasing down a hot political scandal in Aruba.
  Great cast of characters and a plot that includes a lot of colorful civil war history and Abraham Lincoln background.
  
• 
  John

  Great book. For sheer entertainment, Brad Smith has to be one of my favorite Canadian authors. His heros are cool, smart, working class Joes who take on slimy villans who frequently have oddball or dimwitted side kicks. This book along with
  All Hat: A Novel and
  One-Eyed Jacks are a great trio of books.
• 
  Karen G Clesen

  What fun!
  
  A man inherits an old home in Gettysburg, and decides to renovate it. He meets all sorts of people from Gettysburg, some bad. While working on the house, he discovers a sealed door on the hill side of the house. He rips it out only to find a treasure-trove of Civil War memorabilia. Finding a couple of professors at the college to help him out, they determine the memorabilia is worth thousands of dollars. The fun begins when the newscasters, antique authorities and lawyers descend upon the sleepy little town!! Fast paced and thoroughly enjoying!
• 
  Jessica

  A fun little corker with a surprising amount to say about the true meaning of historical artifacts with respect to our past. Worth reading for the opening chapter alone.
• 
  Aaron Levinson

  Not a major work of fiction by any means but a very amusing, mid slice of life crisis and triumph tome. The PA setting is fun too. Made me wanna go to Gettysburg.
• 
  Jessie Rodefer

  loved the characters! made for a quick great read!
• 
  Beverly

  Loved this one
• 
  Zippergirl

  Fabulous. Unusual.