A deliciously witty caper through the idiosyncratic landscape of New Orleans, where crickets sing in the weeds that grow up through the curbs and St. Patrick's Day paraders toss crawfish and potatoes from floats. Tubby Dubonnet is a lawyer who likes fishing, beer, and off-track betting. His clients include a cross-dresser referred by the very doctor he's suing for a botched skin-creolizing.

Another client is a lakefront bar owner who has held onto a nearly $1 million payoff after a shrimpboat marijuana bust. The bar owner hands over the money locked in a gym bag to Tubby, then is murdered, leaving behind a death scene portrayed with jarring comic understatement.

Tubby grapples with the temptation of riches and the threats of claimants, and, as he sorts out the rogues from and among the buttoned-downs, he dispatches the villain and finds a home for the cash in a conclusion that's as cleverly convoluted and amusing as the rest of this tale.

Tubby Dubonnet is a New Orleans lawyer without a lot of ambition or illusion. He wants to bill enough hours to pay his alimony and keep his daughter in college, with enough left over for an occasional drink and a good meal.

When he's offered a job researching the licensing requirements of the city's new gambling casino, he doesn't care if he's working for the Mob. Meanwhile, he becomes involved in executing the estate of an old friend who controls some dock leases on the wharf, and he agrees to help his daughter's environmental group stop illegal dumping into the river.

As one might expect, the three cases begin to converge: the toxic dumping, the dock leases, and the too-good-to-be-true casino job lead Tubby to the conclusion that he's been set up to be the fall guy in an effort by the casino to expand its operations. The endearing Tubby is street smart, but he's no tough guy and is sometimes betrayed by his desire to see the best in people.

SHORT STORY

A high-rise office, a gourmet palate, a stable of colorful clients—New Orleans lawyer Tubby Dubonnet’s got it all. Including an unknown enemy or two. A short story to introduce the seven-part mystery series, ENVISION THIS is the clever tale of a quirky inventor's visionary gadget and Tubby Dubonnet's attempt to protect it—and its maker. The ongoing New Orleans travelogue, with its tempting fine dining descriptions, will make readers of regional mysteries salivate for more.

The FOURTH sly adventure in the Tubby Dubonnet Series, Tony Dunbar's witty yet hard-boiled foodie-noir mysteries. “Nothing… will have prepared you for Dunbar’s uniquely laid-back approach to natural disaster… Just enough nefarious plotting to punch up the drolly understated tableaux till you can’t help laughing, and just enough menace to make you feel you aren’t really missing anything by picking Tubby over the special-effects spectaculars at the local flick.” -Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “By far the best of a very good collection.” -Book Page “Slick prose, upbeat characters, and the particular wonders of the French Quarter will commend this to any Skip Langdon or David Robicheaux fan.” -Library Journal THE SEAMIER SIDE OF THE CRESCENT CITY... To out-of-town kingpin Willie LaRue, Mardi Gras seems the perfect time for a New Orleans heist – nobody, but nobody will be thinking about a single other thing. Parties, parades, chaos, alcohol – who could be concerned about a little thing like a bank job? Indeed, all might have gone well except for an out-of-season frog-flogger that threatens to flood the French Quarter – something even Hurricane Katrina couldn't do. Next thing you know the survivors – thieves and revelers alike – find themselves marooned together. As the LaRue gang plans its watery escape, raffish lawyer Tubby Dubonnet is obliged to take time out from his customary eating and loafing to thwart their murderous intentions. The body count rises as the tempest subsides, and Tubby finds himself fighting not only for his life, but (it seems to him) the very city itself. A wry, compelling tale of The City That Care Forgot.

“By showing the damage that several days of hard rain could cause to the city’s fragile ecosystem, Dunbar makes the reader really care about its fate. He does the same for Tubby, a lazy, corner-cutting, slightly shabby, occasionally reckless but totally decent man.” -Chicago Tribune

New Orleans Attorney Tubby Dubonnet is getting tired of his slow-moving, indolent city—with all its dirt and dancing, its colorful characters and corruption. For Tubby, a change of scenery might be in order, until a moralistic crusading prosecutor tries to destroy the career and reputation of Tubby's favorite judge.

Suddenly Tubby has a good reason to get out of bed in the morning—because a little matter of office sex has turned into a nasty mystery of murder, rape, and suicide, real and imagined. And with more than a fair share of femmes fatales around him and some dangerous criminals masquerading as reputable businessmen, Tubby suddenly has a lot more to do than avoid his next bottle and plot his next meal: he needs a lucky break—just to stay alive.

Just when he thought it was safe to come back to New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina boils up a rich gumbo of trouble for lawyer Tubby Dubonnet. He rides out the storm okay, but then the levees break, the city floods, and he ends up with thousands of other refugees in the hellish Convention Center.

In the chaos, an escaped psychopath assaults and then stalks Tubby’s daughter. The police are no help, and Tubby must use his wits and his connections to protect himself and his family while trying to restore his home and help bring his beloved city back to life. The fast-paced story includes incisive vignettes of the dangerous days just after Katrina hit and of the frustrating weeks that followed.