One brutal day in Cloverdale
Bronco Buster
by A.J. Devlin
Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2024
$22.95 / 9781774391020
Reviewed by Caileigh Broatch
*
In Bronco Buster, former pro wrestler and private investigator Jed “Hammerhead” Ounstead is trying to break free from the bleakness of his PI assignments. A weekend spent wrestling in the squared circle and reliving the glory days should offer a nice escape. The last thing he needs is another homicide, but even he’s unable to resist the lure of a new case.
Jed and his ever-present side-kick-cousin, Declan, quickly become entangled in solving the murder of a new acquaintance. Jed decides there’s just no preventing it: “Sabbatical or not,” Jed says, “I wasn’t just a licensed private investigator–I was also an Ounstead.”
Bronco Buster is the fourth book in Port Moody resident A.J. Devlin’s “Hammerhead” Jed Mysteries series. While the previous three books featured Jed scooting around Vancouver’s darkened alleys, roller rinks, and boxing clubs, this instalment in Jed’s wrestling and private investigator career is contained to a single day at the Colossal Cloverdale Rodeo. A lot can go right–and terribly wrong–in a 24-hour window. Jed contends with rodeo clowns, maddened bulls, and desperate hatchet throwers. For a brief moment he even dons a clown nose.
Like all the books in the series, the novel starts out with an homage to a pro-wrestling move, which also becomes the title. The “bronco buster” isn’t a painful move–but rather comical, quasi-sexual in nature. According to the definition at the beginning of the novel, it translates to “rough, rude.” Bronco Buster features a pretty little cowgirl who may or may not be lassoing together Jed’s broken heart. And, like all the books in the series, this one starts with a Devlin-esque hook: “I was grinding my spandex-covered crotch into my muscular opponent’s face when I first heard the blood-curdling scream.”
Bronco Buster moves on to explain that Jed is taking some time off from being a PI to recover both physically and mentally from the events of the previous novel. Performing at the rodeo as a wrestler to distract himself from those gruesome events, he’s put the PI badge behind him and set out for new friends and new experiences. Enter Jasper Adams, a lumberjack who is also performing at the rodeo. The two become fast friends, in part because they’re both keeping up with their sports for their families.
Unfortunately for Jed, murderers don’t care when private investigators go on vacation. His new-made friend is found face-down in the log boom pool, choked and axed in the back of the head.
Jed and Declan encounter their fair share of obstacles, including an interview that quickly turns into a brutal knife fight. In one incredible instance, Jed is strangled by a flank strap and dumped near an alleyway garbage bin.
And in no time at all, the suspect list has grown. There’s Jasper’s ex-boyfriend, rodeo clown Kelly, and the best axe thrower in town, “Hot Saw” McGraw. What sets Bronco Buster apart from the previous novel Five Moves of Doom is the lack of a clear antagonist. There are big muscle men–who are, of course, dumb as bricks–and while they offer some exciting flurries of fists, they’re not the big baddies we’re used to. Instead, this book focuses on quiet manipulation that Jed doesn’t see coming.
While the book’s surface-level events–a lassoing femme fatale, lockers filled with cash, even ostrich riding–might feel like a bull in a China shop, they provide necessary contrast to the underlying narrative. Beneath Jed’s formidable exterior, he’s grappling with an identity crisis. He confides, “I had taken a sabbatical from investigative work since my merciless throwdown with an underground, mixed martial arts club, led by the biggest badass I had ever encountered, a beast of a man who nearly managed to put me down for the count—permanently.”
Jed is surrounded by people who can’t be trusted. His life’s in danger, and the world he knew has been turned on its head. As things reach a critical point, he has to make a decision–to embrace the wrestling limelight once again, or reject it forever: “I realized that, just like the last time I tried to solve a murder,” Jed declares, “my efforts only managed to bring pain and devastation to everyone around me.”
While Devlin’s episodic series occasionally ventures into lighter territory, it still maintains the core of gritty Vancouver noir. The murders and intense fight scenes are hallmarks of the series, but it might not provide the same level of bone-chilling suspense as other noir thrillers. This is due to certain comedic elements, such as Jed’s eccentric, drunken cousin, Declan, riding around on the back of a mobility scooter for example. For me, these elements support the unique charm and appeal of the series, separating it from more conventional crime fiction.
Throughout the series, Devlin’s background as a script writer is evident. Not only in the action-packed scenes and the cinematic fighting, but also in the formatting of the chapters. They’re short, pithy chapters that either end with foreboding foreshadowing or cliffhanger. Exactly what’s needed in this era of binge-watching; you can’t look away and you can’t put the book down. The humour is fast-paced and witty, and it acts as a great counterbalance to the underlying murder investigation.
Bronco Buster comes after the serious and grittier Five Moves of Doom. In the “Hammerhead” universe, it could be considered the wham-bam episode. In some ways the fourth book in the series feels like a breather–Jed’s still solving a bloodier crime, but the rodeo is going to roll out of town and with it, the memories of the day. There’s a comfort in the closing; in the whodunnit guessing, because no matter how wild an idea you come up with, Devlin is going to top it. As a final note to loyal readers of the series: yes, banana milkshakes are ever present. In fact, Jed’s favourite drink gets an entire chapter dedicated to it.
*
Caileigh Broatch is a writer, editor, transcriber, and bookseller from Vancouver Island. [Editor’s note: Caileigh Broatch has reviewed books by Frances Peck, Katarina Jovanovic, Meredith Hambrock, Vince R. Ditrich, A.J. Devlin, Nicholas Read, Nancy Hundal & Angela Pan, Denyse Waissbluth, and Barbara Smith for BCR.]
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The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors, 2023-25: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, Maria Tippett, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
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