The Best Lousy Choice: An Ed Earl Burch Novel

An Ed Burch Novel #3

by Jim Nesbitt

Dallas private eye Ed Earl Burch is an emotional wreck, living on the edge of madness, hosing down the nightmares of his last case with bourbon and Percodan, dreading the next onslaught of demons that haunt his days and nights, including a one-eyed dead man who still wants to carve out his heart and eat it.

Burch is also a walking contradiction. Steady and relentless when working a case. Tormented and unbalanced when idle. He’s deeply in debt to a shyster lawyer who forces him to take the type of case he loathes -- divorce work, peephole creeping to get dirt on a wayward husband.

Work with no honor. Work that reminds him of how far he’s fallen since he lost the gold shield of a Dallas homicide detective. Work in the stark, harsh badlands of West Texas, the border country where he almost got killed and his nightmares began.

What he longs for is the clarity and sense of purpose he had when he carried that gold shield and chased killers for a living. The adrenaline spike of the showdown. Smoke ‘em or cuff ‘em. Justice served -- by his .45 or a judge and jury.

When a rich rancher and war hero is killed in a suspicious barn fire, the rancher’s outlaw cousin hires Burch to investigate a death the county sheriff is reluctant to touch.

Seems a lot of folks had reason for wanting the rancher dead -- the local narco who has the sheriff on his payroll; some ruthless Houston developers who want the rancher’s land; maybe his own daughter. Maybe the outlaw cousin who hired Burch.

Thrilled to be a manhunter again, Burch ignores these red flags, forgetting something he once knew by heart.

Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it. And it might just get you killed.

But it’s the best lousy choice Ed Earl Burch is ever going to get.

349 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 9, 2019

About the author

Jim Nesbitt is the award-winning author of five hard-boiled Texas crime thrillers that feature battered but relentless Dallas PI Ed Earl Burch -- THE LAST SECOND CHANCE, a Silver Falchion finalist; THE RIGHT WRONG NUMBER, an Underground Book Reviews “Top Pick”; and, THE BEST LOUSY CHOICE, winner of the best crime fiction category of the 2020 Independent Press Book Awards, the 2020 Silver Falchion award for best action and adventure novel from the Killer Nashville crime fiction conference and bronze medal winner in the best mystery/thriller e-book category of the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards. His fourth book, THE DEAD CERTAIN DOUBT, was winner of the best crime fiction category of the 2024 Independent Press Book Awards. His latest book, THE FATAL SAVING GRACE, was released in mid-December 2025. Nesbitt was a journalist for more than 30 years, serving as a reporter, editor and roving national correspondent for newspapers and wire services in Alabama, Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington, D.C. He chased hurricanes, earthquakes, plane wrecks, presidential candidates, wildfires, rodeo cowboys, migrant field hands, neo-Nazis and nuns with an eye for the telling detail and an ear for the voice of the people who give life to a story. His stories have appeared in newspapers across the country and in magazines such as Cigar Aficionado and American Cowboy. He is a lapsed horseman, pilot, hunter and saloon sport with a keen appreciation for old guns, vintage cars and trucks, good cigars, aged whiskey and a well-told story. Nesbitt regularly reviews crime fiction and history on his blog, The Spotted Mule, and his author web site, as well as Facebook, Amazon and Goodreads. He now lives in Athens, Alabama. To learn more, go to his web site at: https://jimnesbittbooks.com

Reviews

[Linda Strong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ed Earl Burch is a unique kind of guy. He's a former Homicide Detective, now a Private Investigator. Ghosts from prior victims, including an ax-wife and a partner, keep him company every night. About the only thing that keeps them at bay are alcohol mixed with Percodan.

But when he's working, he's sharp as a tack and his body doesn't hurt as much. The nightmares fade into the night.

When an older rancher and war hero is found burned to a crisp in his barn, the man's cousin hires Burch to investigate. Local police don't seem to want the job.

The rancher had enemies, no doubt about it. It all boils down to family dynamics, a lot of land, water, developers who want that land, relatives that want to sell.

The more he investigates, the more dangerous the job becomes.

This is a hard boiled Texas thriller that feature Ed Earl Burch. He's battle-weary, unconventional when it comes to handing out justice. He's rough and tough but he still attracts the ladies. There is unrelenting action starting at the very first and not letting go until the very last page.

Although 3rd in a series, this is easily read as a stand alone, but I highly recommend starting at the beginning of the series. Ed Earl is a character well worth reading.

Many thanks to the author for the digital copy of this story about a man with a thirst for guns, booze, and women. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

[Kevintipple · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Best Lousy Choice: An Ed Earl Burch Novel begins with Ed Earl Burch hurting in more ways than one. Demons haunt his dreams and are a specter barely unseen during his waking hours. Narcotics and lots of whisky keep things a little bit at bay, though working is what works best for the private investigator that was once many years ago, a Dallas Homicide Detective, who believed in the law and that justice would rule the day. Burch knows better now and has the many physical and mental scars to show for it.

The year is 1989 and the legendary Dallas Cowboys barely exist in name only thanks to that shyster owner out of Arkansas. The Oklahoma Sooners suck and will always suck, as any true Texan knows, and Louie’s Bar is the best place for booze and Campisi’s on Mockingbird is the best for pizza. One often finds Ed Earl Burch in one place or the other, more often Louie’s, and that means those that know Burch know where to find him. One such person is Fat Willie Nofzinger, his lawyer, and a man that can’t be ignored. Nofzinger holds the note on Burch’s business and has the cards that, for now, have kept Burch out of the county jail. So, Burch has to listen to Nofzinger and do what he wants, but he doesn’t have to like it or make it easy on him

The last thing Burch wants to do is to go out to West Texas. He barely survived events out there last time and some folks would love it if he came back so they could settle scores. The fact that it is a divorce case, the type of case Burch absolutely hates, does not improve the situation.

Fat Willie Nozfinger has a rich female client by the name of Nita Rodriguez Wyatt. The very wealthy woman has heard of Burch, wants him hired, and knows enough to go through Nozfinger to get him on the case. A case from a while back and a talkative former client who was very grateful for the help means Wyatt wants him and won’t take no for an answer. Not that Nozfinger is going to allow Burch to say no as Nozfinger also stands to make buck off of Burch working the case. Refusal to take the job means severe consequences for Burch and ones he can’t accept.

Hating every second of it, all Burch can do is pack up and head out to West Texas. Plan is to do his five days of supposedly easy money and pocket his cash, while also separately slashing a bit of his debt to Nozfinger, and get back to Dallas without anyone being the wiser. That was before the gun play, public and not so public carnage, a possibly bent sheriff, an obvious and very bitter family feud, and more come into play. Ed Earl Burch is in a world of trouble before he hits the sun baked wilds of West Texas and things are only going to go downhill in an escalating violent way.

The Best Lousy Choice: An Ed Earl Burch Novel is the third in the series that began with The Last Second Chance followed by The Right Wrong Number. One expects before one opens the book that there will be plenty of action, carnal adventures, frequent carnage, along with plenty of observations about Texas history and some sarcastic comments about life in the great state of Texas. Things will be graphic and detailed in terms of settings, language, and violence. Author Jim Nesbitt meets and exceeds those expectations in The Best Lousy Choice: An Ed Earl Burch Novel.

This review is a mere West Texas mirage glimpsed on the distant horizon down a crooked two lane macadam roadway. The review just does not do the book justice and the read is an intense and a violent crime fiction read. A book that, like the series itself, is highly recommended. It would be best to read in order, but do what you will.


The Best Lousy Choice: An Ed Earl Burch Novel
Jim Nesbitt
https://jimnesbittbooks.com
Spotted Mule Press
July 2019
ISBN# 0-9983294-2-8
Trade Paperback (also available as an eBook)
347 Pages
$16.99

Material in the form of an ARC was provided with no expectation of a review.


Kevin R. Tipple ©2019

[R.G. Belsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ed Earl Burch is a terrific hard-boiled character – a beaten up, beleaguered, boozing ex-cop who also happens to be one helluva detective.

In Jim Nesbitt’s THE BEST LOUSY CHOICE (the third in the series) Burch is still having nightmares from the near-brush with death in his last big case. Working as a private investigator in 1989 Dallas, he’s forced to take cases he doesn’t want to pay off a big debt to a shylock. One of them – which at first seems to be just a normal divorce case – quickly explodes into a tangled web of drug deals, real estate fraud, corruption, arson, betrayal and, of course, murder.

But the real story here is the violent uncompromising world of Ed Earl Burch’s Texas that Nesbitt writes about so eloquently and dramatically. It’s a tough world, but Burch is even tougher – an unorthodox lawman with a classic sense of justice who uses both his intelligence and brute force to beat the bad guys time and time again, no matter how badly the odds seemed to be stacked against him.

There’s lots of action, lots of tough dialogue and lots of people who die in this book – all in an endless quest for big money. Burch is one of the few left standing at the end. “I don’t have to worry about you shootin’ me…,” he says at one point, “I ain’t got no money.”

If you love that kind of attitude in a thriller (and I do!), you’ll want to read THE BEST LOUSY CHOICE and all Jim Nesbitt’s other Ed Earl Burch books too. Highly recommended!

[Carmen Amato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ed Earl Burch is up to his eyeballs in trouble again and every option—when he has one—is lousier than the one before. Hired to get some salacious photos to help a woman with a philandering husband, he ends up in the middle of a range war. Helped along by the various women in his life, a scheming attorney, a narco assassin, and a rancher who is even more hard-boiled than Ed Earl, he will uncover a nasty land-grabbing scheme and a family destined to remain forever divided.

The book is raw, lusty, rough-edged--and yet tremendously literary. Descriptions paint vibrant word pictures.
Every character has a backstory peppered with Texas vernacular. They are all tough enough to chew nails and spit rust, albeit flavored with Maker’s Mark. Just when I was thinking that John Wayne could have spit out half of the dialogue, pilgrim, there was a reference to Rooster Cogburn. A great line from True Grit also managed to sneak in: “One eyed fat man.”

Yep. Bold words.

[Linda Thorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not much of a Western reader, or hard-ball mysteries, but I bought this book at a book signing Jim Nesbitt had at the Killer Nashville Writers Conference in August of 2019. I just recently got around to reading it and, to my surprise, really enjoyed the book. I cringed with some of the hard-boiling, but if you can handle cracking bones and a guy who takes a lot of hammering, you'll like this book. It's everything the commenters at the front of the book say about it.

[John Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Best Lousy Choice, by Jim Nesbitt; Spotted Mule Press; $8.99, 347 pages, paperback

Take another plunge with Ed Earl Burch into the badlands of a tough, corrupt West Texas county where violence is a virtue and truth is hard to find. Ed Earl is a tough Dallas homicide cop bounced from the police force. Why he does what he does as a PI emerges slowly, as does his character. It's like watching a nervous rattler as it decides to strike, or not. Jim Nesbitt is a former newspaper reporter who personally covered this spikey, secretive, and brutal part of Texas. A real hard nosed investigator, Nesbitt knew truth was often buried with guns to protect even its grave. Here he offers another 'catch you by the belt to get your attention' Ed Earl Burch tale of bad men, scary women, and a countryside to match. A story where even doing right leaves you a lousy choice.
Ed Earl lives where justice might be what just blew a man's head off. This time, mystery wraps itself around a burned barn with an enemy ridden, tough Texan inside. Hired to find out what happened, Burch meets a cast drawn from a list you might find in a state maximum security prison. Could even the man who wants Ed Earl to investigate be the killer? You'll match wits as Ed Earl follows clues through tough streets of dusty towns, to fine offices of men who subvert the law, to broken up shacks where only bullets and buzzards speak. Throughout, you'll be rewarded because of the masterful writing Nesbitt deploys. You concentrate like Ed Earl, who has to figure out what lies, schemes and plots even the most trustworthy seem to be working. And all this before another back shooter blasts away.
Nesbitt makes you feel the hard, dry heat rising from the high desert rocks and the sharp thorns of the twisted scrub. You’ll find yourself in a land where the mysteries come like unexpected thunderstorms and the double-cross should be the brand of many a ranch. You’ll meet hard-bitten characters with secrets they murderously protect. As with all of Jim Nesbitt’s Ed Earl tales, you’ll be drawn to a Svengali with rattlesnake eyes, compelled to hold on like it’s your last good poker hand and won’t be let loose till the last bullet is fired and the final body falls; with characters you’re happy to meet and those you’d like to see dead. Nesbitt’s flair with believable dialogue and pounding action makes you want to know more -- and Ed Earl delivers. A cashiered cop reluctantly turned private eye, Ed Earl knows this trip west of Dallas is no joy ride. This gun-slinging crime thriller plays for keeps. Buckle up, you’ll like this.

[Sarah Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ed Earl is fighting more demons than a tele-evangelist at a fund raiser exorcism. Haunted by the drama of his last case, he is leaning hard on the booze (whiskey both with and without an 'e'), pills and periodic female companionship to get him through the day. He needs a case to distract him. His wish is granted but can Ed Earl fight through the pain (both physical and mental) to deal with this slice of life. The case is replete with shifty ranchers, drug cartel associates, shady lawyers, nasty women, unreliable lawmen and even a cheesy, greasy car salesman.

“The Best Lousy Choice” is the third in the Ed Earl Burch series and I recommend reading them in sequence. This is not a book for the feint-hearted or those adverse to an excess of guns, foul language and a Tarantino level of violence. It is a true hard-boiled, Texas Noir style novel that hold no punches. The plot moves quickly, and with a multitude of characters colliding in every scene you need to be on the ball to enjoy this ride. Hold on to your hats.

[Peter Earle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Take good note of the genre-tag: Hardboiled. This, the third in the Ed Earl Burch series, is that in spades. If you can’t take the flow of bodily fluids in all its forms, in sickness and in health until death do they depart, so God help you.
Having followed PI Ed Earl Burch’s Texas boot prints from Dallas late nineteen-eighties to the harsh beauty of the West Texas border country all the way from THE LAST SECOND CHANCE through THE RIGHT WRONG NUMBER to THE BEST LOUSY CHOICE, I see no reason to grind out the spoiler details. But concentrate; there are a lot of characters, well painted with a master’s brush that blends them beautifully with the sunburned rocks, mesquite, horses and rattlers.
Someone said Burch has the Old West sense of justice. I’d go with that. He doesn’t hold much truck with modern law, except to adroitly avoid it. He’s middle-aged, physically cracked, psychologically damaged and survives on a sharp brain, a sure .45, lots of whisky (with or without the “e”) and painkillers, and a bit of carnal care. If and when he can keep the nightmares at bay, like when he’s on a survival adrenalin high, he will probably make it through to help Jim Nesbitt provide us hardboiled junkies with a couple more unputdownables.
Loved it, especially the voice; the hard flowing chopped commentary, and the sardonic humour.

[ukkindlecustomer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Violent Whodunit

Brutal, no holds barred, murder mystery. Exceptional descriptions of ageing hard men in particular but also women, who are still far from a peaceful retirement reliving the violence and brutality of their settler ancestors on the Texas Mexico border.

[Gerrit H. Stuurmans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard Boiled

Great to read not political correct old fashion tough guy. Like Mike Hammer will be reading more of this guy.

[Jacquelyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gratuitous sex and profanity. Written like the old-codger main character.

[Darel Krieger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Premise & characters of the book were good and believable. However, the self-speak between the character and others and between the character and himself got to be a bit tiresome.

[Sean Fleming · Rating 5 out of 5]

My second and Book 2 of the Ed Burch series. Endlessly interesting and gripping, I found it impossible to put down. Not entirely sure what the appeal is, the action, the characters, the locations and their historical contexts but it grabbed me for sure.

[Ruthie Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Folks have a bad habit of underestimating me—I'm still standin' and most of them ain't."

The Best Lousy Choice by Jim Nesbitt is one rough and tumble ride. This third Ed Earl Burch novel can stand alone, but don't miss out on the first two. Ed Burch is an ex-cop who plays by nobody's rules but his own. Detective for hire is his game now, but he's no ordinary gumshoe who chases down clues and wraps up the case without any bloodshed or bashed-in noses. Oh, no. Ed Burch is coarse and crude and strung out on opioids and whiskey, with or without the 'e.' He's a mess of the first order, but that doesn't mean he isn't one of the best protagonists in all of West Texas. Burch continues to battle old demons, but he can still get the job done, bad knees and all. His gun skills, cunning, and hefty dose of bravado know no bounds, but will he finally go too far and find himself on the wrong end of that bullet? Only one way to find out. Watch out for that ending, though. It's a humdinger.

If you're easily offended by strong language, sexy sex scenes, and bloody violence with a high body count, then you're out of luck. But don't hightail it too fast. West Texas in the late 1980s meets the Wild Wild West of yore, and Burch is hired to put two and two together on a barn burning gone awry and other murderous mischief in and around Favor, Texas. The story is raunchy, crazy, hilarious at times, gruesome at other times, and downright entertaining and interesting all the way through. But seriously, it's not for the faint of heart or the prude with no sense of humor. 

Jim Nesbitt has a unique and catchy way with words, and he laces the characters' speech with West Texas drawl, some Spanish, and many phrases and lingo that spice up an already hot and spicy novel. The plot is complex yet fairly easy to follow, but the characters are what make the novel. All of them jump off the page and act like real people, that's how fully dimensional they are. Every single one of them is well developed, even the expendable bit players that come and go rather quickly. Every character may be a scene stealer, but Ed Burch steals the entire show.

Jim Nesbitt pulls no punches and delivers a hard-core, well-written novel that just won't quit, and you certainly won't want it to.

"Stay chilly, partner.
Only way to play it."

The author provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Michael Ludden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ed Earl Burch is former Dallas cop with bad knees, an unhealthy attitude and a seemingly unquenchable thirst for guns, booze and women.

If he were on the high seas, he'd be a pirate. But this book isn't about plunder. It's about survival. And Burch is fighting long odds.

Called in to investigate the murder of a rancher, he's up against a vicious cartel and a corrupt sheriff. And they are not alone. There are others who want Burch dead and they are frighteningly good at what they do.

In his third noir thriller, Jim Nesbitt takes us back to West Texas... "an ageless and unforgiving land of stark and barren beauty, harsh choices and sudden violence... "

Nesbitt knows the state and its traditions. And Burch will come to know its depths... and its ghosts. If he expects to be left standing, he will need what Nesbitt calls "internal iron" and a willingness to do anything. There is almost no one he can trust, except, perhaps, Carla Sue Cantrell. And when it comes to Carla Sue, trust is something you can worry about in the morning.

Burch no longer wears the badge. But he's smart and tough. And he knows when to duck.

"The solitary boom from a Browning Hi-Power sounded like a thunderclap. The slug wiped smile from Lopez's lips and turned the back of his skull into a bloody pulp as the bound body and chair tipped backwards and thudded to the dirt floor."

Nesbitt loves Texas and his descriptions take us there.

"The Devil's Backbone ran northeast to southwest for about fifteen miles, petering out to become a ragged jumble of arroyos and small hills about five miles north of the Rio Grande... along the ridge's western flank, the drainage for a creek that was dry most of the year, swollen only by the winter rains that caused the creosote brush to turn a shiny olive green and waft the scent of old railroad ties and telephone poles..."


Will Burch survive another round against enormous odds? Time will tell. For Burch, and for us, the Best Lousy Choice is a bracing dose of the West as strong and smooth as a long pull of good whiskey before breakfast.

[Baron R. Birtcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

JIM NESBITT’S BEST LOUSY CHOICE BRISTLES WITH SO MUCH REALISTIC TEXAS GRIT, YOU’LL HAVE TO EMPTY OUT YOUR BOOTS WHEN YOU FINISH READING

Suffice to say, that The Best Lousy Choice brings all of author Jim Nesbitt’s considerable talents to bear and puts them on display in crisp, wide-angled focus.

It is Texas, 1989, and Ed Earl Burch, the self-described de-frocked cop and walking paradox is back. A man both clever and intelligent, he also possesses a timeless Western-style sense of justice, unburdened by too much regard as to the methods he employs to keep the scales in balance. As steady, relentless, and as tough as they come, Burch is a man at much at war with his personal demons as with the narco-traficantes, land schemers, and double-dealers that threaten his corner of the Lone Star State, one boot heel planted firmly on each side of the border, and the law.
Make no mistake, this is an action thriller, a story that rears out of the chutes from page one, and is written with uncommon confidence and bravado.

Nesbitt uses vivid descriptions and sharp dialogue to expertly capture the tones and textures of his settings and weaves in an abundant knowledge of Texas history, all of which conspire to create a narrative that crackles with wit and realism and action scenes that are bold, sometimes outrageous, and strike out at the reader with terrifying (and entertaining) suddenness.
As the author so elegantly and aptly states, Ed Earl Burch’s Texas “is an ageless and unforgiving land of stark and barren beauty, harsh choices and sudden violence.”

If you like your mysteries hard-boiled, your characters rough, and your dialogue tough (like I do), then not only is this the book for you, but it will have you running back to read the others in this series, and pretty much anything else by Jim Nesbitt.
(Baron R. Birtcher, LA TIMES Bestselling author)

[Rich Zahradnik · Rating 5 out of 5]

West Texas is a harsh mistress. She’ll snake-bite you, shoot you, stampede you. Or-plain-old burn you up inside your own barn. Jim Nesbitt brings these dangers and the beauty of this harsh land to life in “The Best Lousy Choice,” the third book in his series featuring private eye Ed Earl Burch. Burch is the perfect character for mystery readers seeking hardboiled stories, more bad guys than good and unrelenting action. Nesbitt’s confident writing carries the reader through a tale of drug trafficking, land swindling and a family of black and white sheep at war with itself. As the story starts, Burch already knows well the dark and awful dangers of West Texas. His last case involving a psycho cartel assassin left him home in Dallas with nightmares of torture and cold sweats only cured by four (or five) fingers of whisky and casual sex. Though the last thing he wants to do is go back to West Texas, finances force him, and on the very sort of case he hates most—divorce. But that one little investigation becomes the least of worries. A shootout with narco gunmen, a dirty sheriff and a murder over land remind Burch why he wanted to avoid this tough land—and force him deeper into the criminal world on the border with Mexico. Burch, tough as those he faces, is as interesting for his nightmares as he is for his sharp mind and sharper tongue when on the job. “The Best Lousy Choice” is a great choice for readers looking for a thriller filled with action, atmosphere and unforgettable characters.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This third crime thriller in the Ed Earl Burch series is an interesting and gripping thrill ride.

Dallas PI, Ed Earl Burch, keeps his nightmares at bay with whisky, Percodan, and work. He takes jobs he doesn't want to keep a loan shark off his back. His latest assignment turns from an easy divorce case to a dangerous hunt for the killer of Texan Rancher, Bart Hulett. There's no end of people who wanted Bart dead, and as Burch investigates, those same people want him dead too.

Burch is a hard-nosed and intelligent investigator, determined to unravel the complicated case, and is no stranger to dangerous situations.

The cast of tough and believable characters were easy to keep track of, and most of them had a good back story to help you get to know them and the reasoning behind their actions.

The dialogue and descriptive writing pulls you into the story and stands you in the middle of the action, which is virtually non-stop from beginning to end.

Even though this is the third book of the series, it works well as a stand-alone, although this book has piqued my interest and I will likely read the first two books.

[John Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Take another plunge with Ed Earl Burch into the badlands of a tough, corrupt West Texas county where violence is a virtue and truth is hard to find. Nesbitt makes you feel the hard, dry heat rising from the high desert rocks and the sharp thorns of the twisted scrub. You’ll find yourself in a land where the mysteries come like unexpected thunderstorms and the double-cross should be the brand of many a ranch. You’ll meet hard-bitten characters with secrets they murderously protect. As with all of Jim Nesbitt’s Ed Earl tales, you’ll be drawn to a Svengali with rattlesnake eyes, compelled to hold on like it’s your last good poker hand, and won’t be let loose till the last bullet is fired and the final body falls. With characters you’re happy to meet and those you’d like to see dead. Nesbitt’s flair with believable dialogue and pounding action makes you want to know more -- and Ed Earl delivers. A cashiered cop reluctantly turned private eye, Ed Earl knows this trip west of Dallas is no joy ride. This gun-slinging crime thriller plays for keeps. Buckle up, you’ll like this.

[Steven Howes · Rating 4 out of 5]

After having just read an anthology of Truman Capote stories, I needed something a bit more exciting. This book fit the bill and if you are turned off drugs, violence, and sex, it is probably best to avoid this one. I found it to be well written and hard to put down. It involves an aging and disgraced former homicide detective who becomes involved the corrupt political and drug-related dealings on both sides of the US-Mexican border. While the primary character is somewhat "over the hill," and operates a bit like Dirty Harry or Andy Sipowicz on NYPD Blue, he does exhibit a number of redeeming character traits and I found myself pulling for him throughout the story. There is a great deal of Spanish slang tossed around but one doesn't need to be fluent to figure out most of its meaning.

I normally don't like to read books that are part of a series if I haven't read the prior ones. However, this one provided enough information that I had no problem determining how previous events influenced this story.

[Gary L. Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

West Texas Noir As Harsh And Unforgiving As The Landscape

Jim Nesbitt in his three Ed Earl Burch Novels has created a compelling character. Whose haunted by demons of his past, whose bruised and battered body and psyche can take whatever comes his way and live to walk away. He faces crooked cops & politicians,narco kingpins, sicarios, stone cold killers & psycopaths. I have read all three books in the series and haven’t been disappointed for a second. One piece of advice, read them in the order they were written. I am already looking forward to the next book by Mr. Nesbitt.

[Erica (The Literary Apothecary) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really interesting story with so many twists and turns that I couldn’t put it down. I am highly anticipating book 4 because this was so much fun to read.

Read my full review at The Literary Apothecary

[Bruce Coffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Texas tough and rattlesnake mean, Jim Nesbitt’s The Best Lousy Choice pits fallen lawman Ed Earl Burch against a veritable gauntlet of outlaws. A fast-paced romp though terrain as untamed and lethal as its inhabitants. A well-written hard boiled thriller.