Mango Bob is Not a Trip Worth Taking

Mango Bob by Bill Myers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really have to compliment whoever wrote this description:

"Walker's task should be simple: drive the Love Bus 1,200 miles cross-country to Florida and deliver a cat named Mango Bob to a woman he's never met. But things are never really as simple as they seem. An unsolved murder involving the Love Bus and the Mexican mafia, along with a major case of mistaken identity, complicate Walker's efforts. Add a crazy gun-toting senior citizen, Mango Bob's escape attempts, and the hot kayak chick, and you get a rollicking travel romp through the Sunshine State."

It really makes it sound like an off-brand Carl Hiaasen or Dave Barry type wacky crime thriller in Florida. But the actual book is almost nothing like that. Instead the first 25% is just a Walden-like account of Walker getting divorced, living in a tent, and then buying a motor home. The titular cat doesn't even show up until the book is almost half over.  Most of the book takes place in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama rather than Florida.

There's so much detail about RVing, the cat's habits, and kayaking while the crime story is paper-thin even on my Kindle. The carjacking and murder (or suicide) is dealt with so incompetently that I wish the author hadn't even bothered with it and just wrote a cozy romance about the love triangle of Walker, Sara, and Mango Bob.

I definitely don't have any interest in reading any sequels.  Oh, and naming characters "Johnny Walker" and "Jack Daniels" is so hackneyed.

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