Book Review: Scooter Nation by A.B. Funkhauser

Title: Scooter Nation
Author: A.B. Funkhauser
Genre: Humor / Noir
Age Group: Adult
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.

Aging managing director Charlie Forsythe begins his work day with a phone call to Jocasta Binns, the unacknowledged illegitimate daughter of Weibigand Funeral Home founder Karl Heinz Sr. Alma Wurtz, a scooter bound sextenarian, community activist, and neighborhood pain in the ass is emptying her urine into the flower beds, killing the petunias. Jocasta cuts him off, reminding him that a staff meeting has been called. Charlie, silenced, is taken aback: he has had no prior input into the meeting and that, on its own, makes it sinister.

The second novel in the UNAPOLOGETIC LIVES series, SCOOTER NATION takes place two years after HEUER LOST AND FOUND. This time, funeral directors Scooter Creighton and Carla Moretto Salinger Blue take centre stage as they battle conflicting values, draconian city by-laws, a mendacious neighborhood gang bent on havoc, and a self absorbed fitness guru whose presence shines an unwanted light on their quiet Michigan neighborhood.

When I started reading Scooter Nation, I had no idea what to expect and quite frankly, I’m still a bit shocked by how much fun the book turned out to be. The book starts by introducing a bunch of characters, and finally settles on Scooter Creighton and Carla Moretto Salinger Blue as the main characters. They’re funeral directors, but handling funerals is only one of the struggles they have to get through during the course of the book.

The book is full of surprises. The characters are three-dimensional and entertaining, in particular Scooter, but it takes a while for the readers to really get to the bottom of a character’s personality and connect with them. The writing flows nicely, and it’s quite fast-paced. The plot is filled with surprises, and I honestly had no idea where the book would go next or what direction it would take. A lot is going on at the same time, and there’s always one conflict or another, making it a very entertaining read.