Overall Content Rating: Restricted R
This Tubby Dubonnet mystery follows a New Orleans defense lawyer through murder schemes, corrupt officials, bar culture, and Mardi Gras chaos. Expect frequent harsh language—including very strong words—from adults in legal, police, and criminal settings, along with insult-driven arguments and occasional crude body talk. Parents should also know the story references prostitution and street exploitation, partly nude public revelry, and a serious sexual-assault case in legal backstory. Violence includes gunfire, knife wounds, domestic abuse mentioned in passing, and injured victims described with blood; LGBTQ+ and racist content are minor and brief. Customer notes disagree on profanity tolerance but often agree that sex and violence are noticeable yet not treated as nonstop explicit spectacle.
Reviews first uploaded September 29, 2026 4:46 am. Revised October 7, 2026 8:10 am. Page updated October 7, 2026 8:10 am.
These summaries are AI-generated from relevant Amazon reviews of this book.
Fbombs Heavy
52The strongest swear words appear often across the book in threats, interrogations, drunken mishaps, and confrontations among lawyers, deputies, and street criminals—not confined to a single chapter.
Amazon reviews mentioning swearing
Specific words
- fuck: 50
- fuckin: 2
LGBTQ+ Mild
3Brief mentions include a political endorsement group in a campaign thread and historical or prison gossip about same-sex venues or relationships—not a focus of the plot.
Amazon reviews mentioning lgbtq
Specific words
- queer: 2
- lesbian: 1
Profanity Heavy
255Swearing and insults run throughout this hard-boiled legal thriller set in New Orleans. Mild terms appear very often in dialogue; stronger insults and anatomical crudeness show up regularly in arguments, police scenes, and criminal company. Some readers found the level fitting the genre; others stopped early because of the frequency.
Amazon reviews mentioning profanity
Specific words
- damn: 74
- hell: 74
- shit: 32
- bitch: 21
- bullshit: 15
- ass: 14
- bastard: 11
- butt: 7
- goddamn: 7
Racism Mild
1A single racial slur appears in casual dialogue about storefronts.
Amazon reviews mentioning racism
Specific words
- raghead: 1
Sex Moderate
17The seedier side of the city includes prostitution references, partly nude parade and club imagery, crude body talk, and adult magazine displays. Sexual assault is discussed as past crime in a case, not depicted in detail on the page. Reviews note sexual content and the lead’s personal life but generally say it is not gratuitous or graphically prolonged.
Specific words
- nude: 4
- whore: 4
- rape: 3
- tit: 2
- boob: 1
- grope: 1
- hooker: 1
- porno: 1
Violence Moderate
71This is a crime mystery with shootings, stabbings, beatings, boxing, domestic hitting, and bloody injury described in spots. Action can be graphic for a moment but reviewers often describe violence as present yet not constant or overwhelmingly gory.
Amazon reviews mentioning violence
Specific words
- blood: 30
- kick: 14
- smash: 9
- bleed: 8
- punch: 7
- stab: 2
- gore: 1
About this book
COLORFUL CHARACTERS, MOUTH-WATERING CUISINE, AND NEW ORLEANS' SEEDIEST CRIME SCENES — AT A KILLER PRICE A simple man with a refined palate, maverick New Orleans lawyer Tubby Dubonnet has a penchant for fishing, Old Fashioneds, off-track betting, and fighting evil while passing a good time. Passing a good time, of course, includes dodging drug dealers, running from the mob, solving medical lab murder mysteries, thwarting hurricane season bank heists, and keeping a crime boss out of local politics. Now you can read his first five Anthony and Edgar-nominated thrilling adventures for a bargain price! Settle down — preferably with a hearty snack — and enjoy this hard-boiled but humorous mystery series that's as chock full of laughs as it is chills! CROOKED MAN Meet lawyer Tubby Dubonnet. His clients are all renegades from the asylum (aka Orleans Parish), including a transvestite entertainer, a buxom deadbeat blonde, a doctor who refers his own patients to a malpractice lawyer, and a Mardi Gras reveler who drives a float shaped like a giant crawfish pot. His new client is Darryl Alvarez, the manager of a local nightclub who's been caught unloading marijuana from a shrimp boat. At their first meeting, Darryl entrusts Tubby with an ordinary-looking blue gym bag. But after Darryl's unfortunate demise, Tubby realizes he must tighten his grasp on the gym bag — and its million-dollar contents. Tubby can’t just give up the cash. But if he gets caught, he’ll be in jail. And if the wrong people catch him, he’ll wish he was. CITY OF BEADS Tubby Dubonnet is bored. He wants to bill enough hours to pay his alimony and keep his daughter in college, with enough left over for an occasional drink and a good meal, but he longs for something different and exciting. Sure, researching licensing law for the new casino will keep trout meunière on the table, but what could be more tedious? (Unless, of course, the client turns out to be connected.) Meanwhile, there’s the estate of an old friend who controls some dock leases on the wharf. And he agrees to help his daughter’s environmental group stop illegal dumping in the river. Ho-hum, thinks our hero. But suddenly all three cases begin to converge in an entirely ominous way... NOW Tubby's doing something exciting — he's running for his life! TRICK QUESTION Medical lab janitor Cletus Busters is caught red-handed in a restricted area with the frozen head of Dr. Whitney Valentine, one of the lab's most prestigious researchers. Busters won't say much, except that he's innocent. But given his conspicuous record and past as a voodoo guru, all signs point to life in prison. Calling Tubby Dubonnet! SHELTER FROM THE STORM To out-of-town kingpin Willie LaRue, Mardi Gras seems the perfect time for a New Orleans heist – nobody, but nobody will be thinking about a single other thing. Parties, parades, chaos, alcohol – who could be concerned about a little thing like a bank job? Indeed, all might have gone well except for an out-of-season frog-flogger that threatens to flood the French Quarter – something even Hurricane Katrina couldn't do. Next thing you know the survivors – thieves and revelers alike – find themselves marooned together. As the LaRue gang plans its watery escape, raffish lawyer Tubby Dubonnet is obliged to take time out from his customary eating and loafing to thwart their murderous intentions. CRIME CZAR Tubby can't forget the last words that escaped an old friend's lips, and he can't get out of the way of a political campaign that's turning rough... Read more
