Thanks to Thomas and Mercer and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for this honest review.

Johnny Shaw’s latest book The Upper Hand is a very funny and enjoyable book and his first since the good, but somewhat disappointing (to me) Floodgate (2016).

Three very different Ucker siblings, Alex, Gretchen and Kurt, end up working together after the death of their mother Bertha. Bertha’s lawyer unofficially tells the three siblings that their mother left the house and what money she had left to televangelist Brother Tobin Floom. Soon thereafter, into their lives comes Mother Ucker, their father’s sister they don’t remember every meeting before. She brings other family members (more Uckers) and they all decide to work together to get back at the televangelist Tobin Floom. According to Mother Ucker, Floom is really an Ucker, their grandfather. The Uckers are a bunch of thieves just like Gretchen and her father. Alex has a real job but likes to plan crime jobs in detail that no one ever does. Kurt’s the good one that stayed with and helping his mother to the end. While not with his mother Kurt was with his rock band. Sound crazy? Well, yes, it is, but Shaw masterfully turns this crazy concept into one great romp.

Johnny Shaw pays homage to some of his crime fiction community friends primarily in the names of some of the characters. I’m sure I missed some of them, but my favorite was the comment about one of Joe Clifford’s books.

This is now the third book I’ve read by Johnny Shaw. I already own the other books I haven’t written and after this one, I’m really looking forward to reading the other three.

This is a fun read and a realistic view into the world of a gritty bottom feeding crime family. I loved this book for its realism and how the author crafted such amazing realistic charcters throughout the story. The author has a talent for writing crime drama and this is one of the best I have read.

This is the story of a journey into the world of con artists, confidence men, scam artists, and even televangelists. It delves into family dynamics as three mismatched at odds siblings ( the Uckers) who are thieves. They live in a lost town at the edge of the California desert and decide to work together to pull a con on a long lost uncle who stole their inheritance right under their noses. They are a strange band of miscreants but somehow they make the con work.
This book has it all for a dark crime drama, Everything from bands, swindles, touring preachers, backstabbing family , major trust issues of the family, rogue FBI , secret gypsy family meetings, and undercover work . It’s a gritty but fun crime fiction that had me laughing out loud and rooting for the family siblings to regain their inheritance. What a fun read and one of my favorite of the summer. I highly recommend this book. What a fun read ! I enjoyed it from page one to the very end. Well done to the author.

Thank you for the ARC which did not influence my review.

There is a talent to writing funny, and this guy has it. Some of the humor is obvious, and some works if you read the stuff out loud, e.g. Mother Ucker.

The search for loot, paternity and opportunity involves a large and disreputable family. There is an edge to this book that makes this unusual and entertaining read. Its nice to laugh out loud sometimes.

"Everyone calls me Mother Ucker.” “Oh, I bet they do.”

I have greatly enjoyed Johnny Shaw's books - and have read almost all of them. He is hilarious, irreverent, and a master of one-liners.

This is a stand-alone novel about con men conning con men. Axel, Gretchen, and Kurt are brothers and sister in the Ucker family. They've never been particularly close but find themselves working closely together with an expanded cast of Ucker family members to pull off an elaborate con.

The characters are fun and funny. The storyline is convoluted and crazy. Most of the book I either spent laughing or rolling my eyes.

Shaw's books aren't for the faint of heart but if you enjoy adult humor, I highly recommend this book.

I received this book from Thomas & Mercer through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

Published by Thomas & Mercer on July 3, 2018

The Upper Hand is the kind of crime novel that encourages the reader to root for the criminals. Those tend to be my favorite crime novels, at least when the criminal has a good heart. Most of the characters in The Upper Hand are guided by a basic sense of decency, even when they are also guided by criminal impulses.

Axel Ucker plans crimes as a hobby. His sister Gretchen burgles homes as a hobby, usually stealing valuable comic books from collectors. Axel’s brother Kurt is law-abiding but a bit nerdish. Their father was a professional thief until he was killed after a jewelry heist. Axel works for a bank that has just promoted him to a position of con man, selling investments to customers that won’t meet their needs but earn the bank a ton of money in hidden fees. That’s a kind of criminality that is just too dishonest for Axel.

Axel’s girlfriend Stephanie (he thinks her name is Priscilla) scams him out of his house and then dumps him, the first of a series of personal crises that play out over a couple of days, including the death of his mother and the loss of his job. The crime plot begins at the funeral of Axel’s mother, where a large woman identifies herself as Axel’s aunt (“Everyone calls me Mother Ucker”). The aunt wants to bring the Ucker children back into the fold of their father’s family. They have few options, since their mother’s will left the family home to a televangelist.

Scamming is a central theme of The Upper Hand. The Uckers have a natural talent for scamming, as they prove when they decide to scam the televangelist. Another theme is family, or more precisely, “a family is what you make of it.” What the Uckers will make of their newly-discovered extended family (and how the Ucker family should be defined) is a key plot point.

A bit of romantic comedy runs through the novel, with a stronger emphasis on comedy than romance. As in life, some romantic relationships work out and some don’t. Other objects of humor (if not outright mockery) include Christian rock and prosperity theology (“sermons were high-energy events that felt like a mash-up of a rock concert, a self-help seminar, and a time-share pitch.”).

The plot delivers a few surprises and a steady supply of chuckles. The main characters are likeable, despite the larcenous natures that some of them embrace. Even the villainous characters are too amusing to be unlikable. Readers who don’t understand that prosperity theology is all about enhancing the prosperity of preachers at the expense of their followers will probably dislike The Upper Hand, but open-minded readers who can relate to kind-hearted criminals should enjoy it.

RECOMMENDED

A crazy family of criminals. There's a lot going on in this fast read about the Ucker family and their effort to regain the fortune their father stole and their mother gave away. It's a fast, sometimes silly, read that might make a good movie. Thanks to net galley for the ARC.

Axel was conned and dumped. Gretchen is a low level thief. And Kurt is the proverbial slacker son who still lives at home and is part of a Viking metal band. Add to this a deceased father who ruined the family's name in the community and a mother who leaves everything to a televangelist. Doesn't sound like the start of the humorous and campy book that this is, but it is! The three siblings decide they need to get back what they feel was stolen with them and antics ensue, including a Christian version of that Viking metal band. The best part is that during the adventures, the siblings reconnect with each other and learn what family is all about. Perfectly timed, this book will be a great addition to a vacation, beach, or lazy summer afternoon.

My god is Johnny Shaw a hell of a storyteller.

Think Ocean's Eleven meets Matchstick men. Only with dumber people.

A conmen/women comedy where the forthright repartee of the 3 main characters (The Uckers Brothers and sister) is only matched by their tunnel vision in a world where everyone wants to con them out of something.

I went through the whole novel in one sitting, which doesn't happen often given my slow reading habits and lack of time, but to use an old and overdone cliché, The Upper Hand is a hard one to put down.
For the fans of the genre, there's also a few easter eggs, from characters named Beetner and Lauden, to the Mensa edition of playboy, to the Booby Trap in Mississippi and a few more i'm not telling you about, or I didn't catch.

I discovered Shaw with Big Maria a few weeks ago and I'm just glad that I've got a couple more novels of him to go. The Upper Hand will leave the fans that have already read the whole Shaw catalogue waiting for more. Give the people what they want, damnit !!

I received a free copy for review from the author.

Having a group of thieves and con men as your extended family sounds kind of cool, but you’d better keep your hand on your wallet at the reunions.

The three Ucker kids have drifted apart since their father died and was shown to be a thief. Axel has a good job at a bank, but his hobby is drawing up elaborate plans for robberies that he never pulls. Gretchen makes her living by stealing valuable comic books from nerds. The youngest, Kurt, stayed in their old hometown to take care of their aging mother and keep playing death metal with his friends in a garage band.

After their mother dies the three siblings are shocked to learn that she left everything, including her house to her favorite TV evangelist, Brother Floom. Antoher surprise comes when they meet their aunt, an imposing woman who calls herself “Mother”. (Yeah, that’s right. She’s Mother Ucker.)

Mother informs the three that most of the extended Ucker family are criminals, and she introduces all of them. Then she reveals that Brother Floom is really their grandfather who assumed another identity years ago. This is all part of Mother’s pitch to teach them the family business with the ultimate goal of ripping off Floom.

Johnny Shaw always delivers a great mix of crime and humor, and this story plays to his strengths with this comic caper that involves a variety of schemes, double crosses, elaborate robbery plans that never quite work, and a family with more than its share of dysfunction. It’s a romp with a plot that’s constantly moving and a varied cast of characters that has a genuine laugh on almost every page. It’s also got enough heart and brains to it to keep it from being more than just a collection of gags and goofy situations.

My one complaint is that there are so many moving parts to the plot that some things just don’t end up making any sense, and Shaw even acknowledges that in the wrap up with one character shrugging off inconsistencies by saying that they were ideas and improvisations that weren’t needed in the end. That’s a bit of a cheat, but it didn’t really bother me because stories built around elaborate cons and schemes are frequently designed to keep things from the audience, not necessarily to make sense within the story. See the scene in Oceans’s 11 when George Clooney is questioned about why one of their own crew wasn’t told about a key piece of the plan. Clooney’s response is to essentially wink at the camera and say, “What fun would that have been?”

It’s a similar thing here. If you like the story, it works. I liked this just fine, and it worked for me.

Full disclosure – I once contributed an unpaid review to Shaw’s Blood & Tacos e-zine.

What a rip-snorting rollercoaster ride of a story! One family's legacy of con-men and women full of quirky characters and just the right amount of humor to go along with the twists and turns of an edge of your seat thriller. Nobody can trust the Ucker family....not even the Uckers! Great book!

I accidentally clicked "Seed Feedback." I thought it was the other book. Life is a bit messy lately I did things wrongly. I send review once I finished with the book. Review coming soon.

THE UPPER HAND by Johnny Shaw is his 6th full length novel, of which 3 are in the much-loved “Jimmy Veeder Fiasco” series (definitely among my favorites), and the excellent novel “Big Maria”.

Axel Ucker is the brother of Gretchen and Kurt, a family with a difficult past after the death of their father years before due to his involvement in the commission of a crime, thereby branding the entire family as undesirables within the community in which they live.

Soon after finding out how he’s been swindled by his supposed girlfriend, he arrives back home in a drunken state after trashing the house he bought as part of his girlfriend’s scam.
Waking up the next morning, he and his siblings find their mother died in her sleep, and shortly thereafter a local lawyer arrives to give them a heads-up that she’s left everything (including the house that young Kurt lives in) to a television evangelist.

Attending the funeral is an unknown strange and vocal woman who later informs the siblings that she’s their aunt on their late father’s side, introducing herself as “Mother” Ucker, and invites them to a family gathering where they meet several alleged relatives that they’ve known nothing about, while also learning that the entire extended family are a group of modern day grifters, which both Axel and Gretchen have been in some ways, leaving Kurt apparently the only innocent one among the bunch.

Mother Ucker convinces them that the television evangelist who will receive their inheritance is actually their grandfather, and is responsible for the death of their father setting into motion a plan to exact revenge against him and steal back from him what’s been taken from them, if not more if possible.

Hilarious exchanges throughout the book, including bizarre events taking place are exactly what those familiar with a Johnny Shaw novel would expect, and he does not disappoint in this rollicking caper-filled story that shifts gears several times along the way.

While taking potshots at Christian ministries and music industry has been overdone nowadays, Shaw does it in a way that makes the story work, and it does not come off as a thinly veiled (or unveiled) agenda driven attack, which is the norm in books by other authors that I’ve read in recent years.

I really liked this one and can recommend it, although the books in the “Jimmy Veeder Fiasco” series and “Big Maria” are Shaw’s best novels in my opinion, yet this one approaches them and has certain elements of those aforementioned books that make this work quite well, and it’s understandable that an author wouldn’t want to be pigeonholed into only one series or style of writing.

Still, I’ll be anxiously awaiting the next “Jimmy Veeder Fiasco (Mavescapade)”.

4 stars.

Shaw’s the Upper Hand 🤚 is a hilarious offbeat journey into the world of con artists, confidence men, bunch artists, and televangelists. It explores family dynamics as three mismatched siblings ( the Uckers) who are thieves and dweebs in a lost town at the edge of the California desert join together to pull a con on a long lost uncle who stole their inheritance right under their noses. Punk bands, real estate swindles, touring preachers, live at first sight, backstabbers, trust issues, rogue FBI agents, secret gypsy family meetings, and undercover work fill out the bill. It’s gritty crime fiction but kind of like the Blues Brothers getting the band back together, half serious, half hilarious.

3.5 stars

I love Johnny Shaw's writing. If you haven't read him you need too. Yes, I'm bossy about it. Go read one of his Jimmy Veeder Fiasco's. They are the best! This one is still really good but I think that Bobby Maves from the Veeder books is my boyfriend. I judge accordingly.

Axel, Gretchen, and Kurt Ucker lost their father at a young age. The whole town has made the family live under a cloud of suspicion because daddy turned out to be a thief. They and their mother stayed in the area and put on their best faces. Axel plans crimes out but never acts on them because he had been busy falling in love with a con artist and buying a house he could never afford, Gretchen has been stealing rare comic books and the closest to normal one Kurt has a band and still lives at home with mom. Then mom dies. (Not really spoilery so calm down)

Then the kids are contacted by their long lost aunt. Mother Ucker.


And the rest of the family...who all happen to be crooks. It's an Ucker tradition.


Mother Ucker tells them that they can get revenge for their mom giving all her possessions to the TV preacher she watched all the time and the kids decide to live up to their family tradition and jump on board with the plan.


Stuff happens.

Booksource: I was contacted by the author and asked if I wanted this one. To which the answer was "hell yeah". I'll read anything this guy writes. Even if it's alien spacebots sexing up Bart Simpson. *I'd probably five star that one*

When their mother dies and leaves everything to a televangelist, Axel, Kurt, and Gretchen Ucker are left out in the cold. A long lost aunt, Mother Ucker, shows up and introduces them to their long dead father's family, a family of con artists and thieves. The Uckers soon set their sights on Reverend Floom, the man their mother left everything to...

Even though I'm getting to the point where I refuse almost every ARC, I got this from Netgalley after Johnny Shaw hit me up. Totally worth it.

The Upper Hand is a hilarious tale about what it means to be a family, even if that family is entirely criminals. When the story begins, the Ucker kids aren't really talking to each other. Kurt still lives at home and wants to be a rock star. Axel just broke up with his girlfriend and lives in a house he can't afford, one that she talked him into buying. Gretchen is a burglar specializing in rare comics. When their mother dies, they are forced together out of necessity.

There's a lot going on in this. The dialogue is trademark Johnny Shaw: hilarious, Joe Lansdale by way of southern California. Much like Lansdale, I would have highlighted half of the book if I was keeping track of all the funny lines.

I really liked how the Uckers were brought into the fold and taught the family business by Mother Ucker and Fritzy, although we all knew how things would eventually go down. The Uckers run a few cons, both as a group and individually, crime bringing them together and eventually break them apart. And together again. It's like The Sting, only hilarious.

While I didn't like it as much as the Jimmy Veeder fiascos, The Upper Hand was hilarious and at least as good as Big Maria. Four out of five stars.