The Mortal Nuts

Joe Crow #3

by Pete Hautman

Seventy-three-year-old ex-poker player Axel Speeter plays a final winner-take-all hand with a pair of crooks who are after the $260,000 he keeps squirreled away in his room at Motel 6. Reprint. Tour.

Genres: Mystery

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1996

About the author

Peter Murray Hautman is an American author best known for his novels for young adults. One of them, Godless, won the 2004 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. The National Book Foundation summary is, "A teenage boy decides to invent a new religion with a new god."

Reviews

[🐴 🍖]

woulda made a better s4 of fargo than whatever that season w/ chris rock was. loved the john donne-spouting skinhead thinking the donut stand guy's actual name was "tiny tot"

[Holly Ristau · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are from Minnesota, there's a very good chance you have been to the fair and there's also a smaller, but good chance that you have shown items there or worked at a stand. We Love Our Fair! I'm not kidding. You can catch a State Fair bus for free from lots of different sites throughout the Minneapolis and St. Paul area for very little or even free everyday. And I do! Anyway, I've also known people who have worked there. The tales of the gigantic amounts of money made by the food vendors are legend which is why this is such a fun read. Of course, the bad guy is from out of state and the food and smells are almost as important as the story, but if you've been to the fair, this story takes you there. Ok, imho, the f-b0mbs were a little too thick, and there was a bunch of violence that went over the top, but it was still a very enjoyable read.

[Lola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alex Speeter is making money hands over fists at his taco stand at the MN State Fair. Alex doesn't want to pay income taxes so he doesn't put his money in a bank. He's got a quarter of a million dollars in his room at Motel 6 in Folger's coffee cans.
He employs Sophie and her drug abusing daughter, Carmen. Carmen gets talkative when she's doing drugs. She tells the low life, James Dean about the coffee cans full of money. That's when trouble starts.
An excellent, entertaining book; be forewarned that it does contain foul language but it is fitting for the low lifes in the story.

[Addie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fun listen! Great narrator and likable main character. Humorous at times, especially as I am someone who moved to Minnesota...and an engaging story that I found myself telling others about and saying that they might like it as I read...not profound, but I really enjoyed it!

[Laine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boy am i glad I’ve never been to Minnesota! An exciting read with some very bizarre and not very likable characters in awfully stupid situations. Yet we don’t have to really like them to care about them.

[Rick Goff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good crime novel by Pete Hautman. This one is set at the Minnesota State Fair.

[Kevin Fitzgerald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Came up in a search for books about poker - was a book about drugs and taco stands that vaguely mentioned poker

[Anne Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book told a wild and at times humorous tale about Axel, who owns a taco stand at the Minnesota State Fair. Axel's friend Sophie helps him run the stand, and her daughter Carmen, usually high on drugs, helps also when she decides to come in or isn't sleeping. Carmine tells a creepy guy she knows, James Dean, that Axel puts all of his cash that he's made over the years in coffee cans and leaves them in the motel room where he lives. When Carmine and Dean get into his room and find no sign of cash, Dean gets determined to find where it is. It's kind of amazing how in 1996, when this book was published and probably took place, how the characters carry guns in the fair. Dean is carrying a gun, his friends are doing drugs out in the open, then Tommy the donut guy attempts to shoot Dean with his gun. Instead, another skin head Sweety, beats up Tommy among the crowds of people, Axel and Dean go at it, and Dean escapes. This is just an example of no police around. Instead, the two police officers mentioned are telling Carmen to put her shirt back on as she offers them some Valium to calm them down. All ends well as the fair comes to a close (except Tommy the donut man's passing) until next year.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

A taco stand owner prepares for his biggest two weeks of the year... the Minnesota State Fair. The daugher of his best co-worker returns from college to help run the stand. The girl is a strung-out Vallium addict who tells her lowlife boyfriend that the owner doesn't believe in banks and has hundreds of thousands of dollars hidden in coffee cans. The story follows the stand owner trying to make it through the fair while the girl and her boyfriend find different ways to steal the coffee cans full of money. A good story. Colorful characters and interesting situations make this a pretty good read.

[Ana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't finish. It was just too weird.

[Patrick Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good read with a nice assortment of characters that I thought were pretty weel fleshed out even though some were not deserving of any sympathy.

[Ralph Estes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old-timers, Minneapolis state fair. Good down-home writing.

[Bitsy Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

My grandfather would have loved this book. I bet any fan of Matlock or Baretta or Columbo would love it too. Old time guy's men-were-men feel.

[Minda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a former worker at the MN State Fair, I enjoyed the many small details this book got right about it. Enjoyable, fun read.