“Old Money” is the third book in Bobby Cole’s series about Jake Crosby. In this book, Jake gives up his career as a stockbroker to realize his dream of becoming a game warden in the hills of northeast Mississippi. He is assigned to an older, cynical, veteran game warden named Virgil to be trained for his new job. He soon finds out that being a game warden entails much more than simply enforcing hunting laws. Newbie Jake tackles his new job with enthusiasm and seems to consider his job on par with other security agencies working toward keeping the community safe.
The book’s theme is about various kinds of old money: inherited, stolen, rumored and missing money. The author did manage to do full justice to the title. A synopsis would probably leave you with the thought that money makes people stupid.
Here’s a summary of the plot: There is some old money hidden somewhere in the Mississippi county that Jake patrols. Convicted conman Bronson Bolivar, according to local legend, hid millions before he went to prison. Now he’s dead and his former cellmate, Harry Burns, and his two children are both determined to find it. The threesome pretend to work as a team. But the ruthless twins don’t plan to share the loot with either the old cellmate or each other. Each person has his own secret, greedy agenda. The ruthless twins plan to kill Harry and dump his body in the forest marshes. Further muddling the water is Jakes’s old girlfriend’s father, a federal judge who has plans of his own for the disposition of the money, assuming that it is found. The judge hires Jake under false pretenses to secretly keep an eye on things. There is also a subplot about a vicious robber who is specializing in preying on well-to-do sports hunters.
Despite being part of a series, this book works very well as a standalone novel. While Jake alludes to his former life, he doesn’t dwell on it. If the reader wishes to know more, he’ll have to read the first two books in the series.
The characters are well developed but often don’t seem realistic. While Jake is a brace and strong hero, he fails to intelligently make some simple choices in his life. And he’s not the only one who makes stupid decisions, which made me sometimes roll my eyes. Example: When you’re a con artist working with two other dangerous con artists who you have never met before, it would seem that you would be suspicious and decline an offer with a too-good-to-be-true, low-risk payoff. Another example of unrealistic behavior is when Jake plunges straight into illegal surveillance for the judge (despite the fact that he has supposedly finally landed his dream job). The negative characters were much better developed than the positive ones. The antagonists’ evil, flawed demeanor and their greed made them stand out.
The writing style is strong, but the layering of the story was done less skillfully. The narrative is free-flowing and although the pacing was somewhat slow in the beginning, the story picked up nicely with some adrenaline-rushing actions scenes that were sometimes quite edgy. The book had it’s flaws, but despite them, I found it to be a fund diversionary read that took be back home to my Mississippi roots.
Reviewed by David Beckwith, author of “A Demonic Conspiracy.”
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February 06, 2021 at 12:00PM
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