Customer Reviews

Big Maria

If you are squeamish, don't like descriptions of body fluids, or swearing, this book isn't for you.

If you like rollicking adventure yarns with flawed desperadoes, pot-heads, donkeys, seniors on drugs, North American Indians, old lags and drunk soldiers, you'll probably love it.

Stay just on the side of possible, if not entirely plausible, Shaw creates an image of the South which draws you nicely into the viewpoint of his lead characters, mostly forgotten, ignored or reviled bt society. Convinced that they must make their own luck, they set off to find an abandoned gold mine in the middle of a live army range. Chaos, adventure and fun are the result.

A great fun read.

Second novel from Johnny Shaw. Must be honest and say I was really looking forward to another 'Jimmy Veeder' tale to carry on from Shaw's first novel 'Dove Season' which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. However, not to be and Mr Shaw gives us new characters to get involved with, and like 'Dove Season' it is possible to get tied up with the characters that Shaw portrays with all their faults and human weaknesses. No spoilers from me, but again, as with Shaw's first book I must warn potential readers there is an awful lot of bad language, some graphic violence and pretty disgusting scenes involving human bodies in various stages of death and decomposition.

The setting - Arizona's Chocolate Mountains, former gold mining territory, now the biggest artillery and bombing range in the world belonging to the U.S. Military.

The Goal - a shed-load of gold rumored to have been stashed away in a mine named 'Big Maria' over a hundred years ago.

The Home Team (the good guys?):
Harry - living on disability payments and drinking most of it. A disabled drunk!
Frank - has cancer, cardiac problems and a dominating, control freak daughter.
Ricky - younger than the others, a good kid trying to do right for his family. Operative word being 'trying'as half the lawyers in Arizona are trying to crawl up his backside.

The Away Team (the baddies?)
A Hell's Angel type biker with a thriving Meth business.
A soldier, with a very itchy trigger finger, AWOL from Uncle Sam's army and who thinks everyone should play 'Chicken' with him.
The U.S. Army who like to lob huge high explosive shells and bombs into the mountains, keeping everyone on their toes and suitably stressed out dodging the explosions..

The first few pages may turn your stomach a little but after that the slick Johnny Shaw dialogue takes over, snappy, cool with enough cynicism and humor that kept me turning the more than 370 pages until the end. Based on the classic themes of treasure, treachery, gold lust and trying to achieve the impossible I enjoyed it immensely and forgive Shaw for not coming up with Jimmy Veeder part two.

When you have tried all the really crazy ideas, then you start to put the stupid ones into operation! Just the sort of adventure that appeals to a lot of us so give it a read, well worth the time and trouble!

Gruesome and disgusting, and that's only the start of the book. I nearly put the book in the bin after the start. It seemed to be on the level of a Stag night with lots of description and after a while I wondered why we were getting all this as it seemed to add nothing to the story or the characters. I found it sad that a good story was smothered in this way. It gets slightly better as you progress, I also found that I'd more or less reasoned what the story and ending would be by a third of the way in. I know that others gave it five stars, but for me....One is enough..

Gold, there is something about that precious metal that makes people go a little bit crazy from the gold rushes of yesteryear to the bizarre cash-for-gold culture of today. It is the promise of gold that triggers the events of `Big Maria'. Maria is not a lady of large stature, but the name of a forgotten gold mine. Hapless threesome; Harry, Frank and Ricky have all had bad things happen to them in life and discovering a forgotten gold mine may just be the turning point they need. The only problem is that the map is buried under a flooded village and mine itself appears to be somewhere on a military firing range.

`Big Maria' is a comedy crime caper that works because it keeps things simple. Writer Johnny Shaw has created a solid idea and written three strong characters. Harry, Frank and Ricky are all well rounded and have differing levels of sympathy. Harry may be a little loathsome, but you know enough about him that you want him to succeed. The relationship between the three is probably the best thing in the book; they are an oddball group, but their friendship overcomes the barriers that should come between them. There are many chuckles to be had just being in the company of these three men and the slapstick situations they get into.

I really enjoyed `Big Maria', but there were one or two things that I found off putting. Some of the violence is a little crude, it tries to be funny, but I found it an uneasy. I was also a little put out by the introduction of `bad guys'. I think nature itself and the incompetence of the heroes was enough for them to overcome, without any new characters being introduced. Despite these issues, the book is a fun read that is almost up there with the best of Hiaasen.

Harry, Ricky, and Frank all have different problems and views of life, Harry drinks, but can't hold it, can't fight and is about to loose his disability insurance.

Ricky is in trouble with the law, after a traffic accident involving a bus load of senior citizens.

And Frank has problems with cancer, heart trouble and growing old. They all have one thing in common, the plan to raid an old mine, filled with ill-gotten gold. The things they have to do to reach there goal, would provide a film producer with a two hour comedy to rival anything ever written.

This is very funny adventure crime thriller, which involves, a treasure map, underwater ghost town, two donkeys, drugs, rogue soldier, a ferocious daughter and full scale war games. All this comes together in a very very good book.
Buy it, read it.

I just loved this! Such a brilliant story, really well written and hilarious too. Everything about this just all adds up to a fabulous read. It's a strong contender for my favourite so far this year.

Three lovable rogues. Harry, Ricky and Frank. Harry, Prison Guard on disability - trying to con disability payments from his employer. Ricky, unemployed - Drives the drug bus (driving the elderly from the seniors home across the border into Mexico to get cheap prescriptions) to make ends meet, and Frank, elderly Native American - rides the drug bus. They team up to try and find Big Maria, an abandoned Gold mine in the center of an artillery proving ground and it's just one catastrophe after another while they try to get there. The dialogue, the plot, the characters and secondary characters...it's just all brilliant.

This is just crying out to be made into a movie and I'd pay good money to watch it. I hope someone has the good sense to make that happen. It's very worthy.

If you like your humour on the dark site, don't mind frequent mentions of bodily fluids and copious amounts of swearing then this is definitely the book for you. It's a cracking read and so well done. I can't fault it.

I'l read anything Johnny Shaw writes from now on.

Once you get past the first few pages (there was a bit too much information) the story was compelling with enough intrigue to keep you gripped, making you feel sorry for the hero's of the story, hoping that the outcome of their adventure would be a good one.

Big Maria: Engaging, fast-reading tale that unites an unlikely trio comprising wise-cracking, fatalistic Harry (imagine the lawyer Saul in BrBa); faithful, believing Ricky and wise, dying Frank in pursuit of a long-lost stash of gold. The writing is such that you get to know, maybe even care for, the main characters and what becomes of them. In addition, Ramon, Bernado and their mother are brilliant characters that also help ‘make’ the story a success. The body of the book prompts you to go on…to travel through it quickly; it feeds you, but the rush to the end (last few chapters) could feel a little bit of a let-down. Like so many novels - a slight sense of the author running out of steam. However, overall, a cracking read, peppered with very identifiable, well-imagined/described characters and landscapes. Well written, moving and humorous in turn it offers a really satisfying read.

I loved this book, I felt as if I knew the characters. They were like old friends and I actually cared about what happened to them. Funny, quirky, entertaining read.

Brought tears to my eyes! Must make this book into a film ! Looking to see what other books Johnny has written-