Big Maria, Johnny Shaw
Big Maria, Johnny Shaw
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Big Maria

Author: Johnny Shaw

Narrator: David de Vries

Unabridged: 9 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/25/2012

Synopsis

There’s gold in them thar hills—or more precisely, in Arizona’s Chocolate Mountains, where one hundred years ago a miner stashed a king’s ransom of the stuff. But times have changed. The world has changed. And now the Chocolate Mountains are the home of the largest military artillery range in the world.Harry’s living on disability and getting liquored up and beaten down. Frank’s a feisty old-timer battling cancer and a domineering daughter. And Ricky’s a good kid in a bad spot, doing everything for family. Together they’re staking what little they have left on a dangerous quest to the Big Maria Mine—and the gold that can offer them a new beginning.Unfortunately a meth-dealing biker wants a piece, a trigger-happy AWOL soldier wants to play chicken in a live minefield, two stubborn burros want to go home, a starving mountain lion wants his dinner, and the US Army wants to rain on our heroes’ parade with real bombs.When you’re all out of crazy ideas, you’ve got to try the stupid ones.

About Johnny Shaw

Johnny Shaw is the author of the novel Dove Season: A Jimmy Veeder Fiasco and editor of the online fiction quarterly Blood & Tacos.Johnny received his MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA and over the course of his writing career has seen his screenplays optioned, sold, and produced. For the last dozen years, Johnny has taught screenwriting. He has lectured at both Santa Barbara City College and UC Santa Barbara.Johnny lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, artist Roxanne Patruznick.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kemper on February 02, 2016

Three men who are down on their luck go looking for gold in the mountains of a desert. “Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!” No, no, this isn't The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The characters in this have far more in common with Donal......more

Goodreads review by James on February 08, 2013

This is Johnny Shaw's second novel, following his excellent debut, Dove Season. Again Shaw demonstrates his gift for weaving pathos with drop-dead humor and his ability to create memorable characters who are very sympathetic even though most of them are total losers. Big Maria basically amounts to Tr......more

Goodreads review by Blake on March 14, 2016

For me, there are several variations on the "amazing reading experience." 1. When you can't put a book down due to perfect plotting. 2. When you find yourself caring deeply about its characters. 3. When those characters are people who in real life you would shudder to have as neighbors and yet you stil......more

Goodreads review by Josh on January 08, 2013

BIG MARIA is a humorous adventure that bands three unlikely acquaintances together. The novel has some of the funniest and down to earth characters I’ve had the pleasure of reading including, old man Frank saluting death with a middle finger to the sky, Ricky a non conventional beef cake with a hear......more

Quotes

“Johnny Shaw has an incredible talent for moving from darkness to hope, from heart-wrenching to humor, and from profane to sacred. His latest, Big Maria, is an adventure story that’s equal parts Humphrey Bogart and Elmore Leonard, with just a little bit of the Hardy Boys thrown in. I loved every page.” —Hilary Davidson author of The Next One to Fall“I loved every page of Big Maria. You don’t often read a gutbustingly funny book that manages to maintain its fundamental seriousness and bad-ass sense of plot. This proves what many of us suspected after ‘Dove Season,’ that Johnny Shaw is one of the majors already.” —Scott Phillips author of The Ice Harvest and The Adjustment“…Imagine the following: pretend the late Donald Westlake sketched out his wildest, craziest, funniest Dortmunder novel, and then instead of writing it himself, asked gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson to actually write it. You would then have Big Maria, one of the funniest, wildest, comic-caper adventures we have stumbled across in a long time.” —Suspense Magazine

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