Tubby went into his own bedroom and checked the drawer in the little table by the bed to see if his own pistol was still there. It was, and he picked it up. It was an old and heavy gun, a Smith & Wesson .38. When you ordered shells for it at the gun store it was like ordering a double bourbon at a bar. People gave you respect because you were old.

The second Tubby DuBonnet book in Tony Dunbar’s well-known series is City of Beads. The city, of course, is Tubby’s New Orleans home, where he practices law in a fairly desultory manner.

Tubby is settling into the routine of practicing law on his own, after his partner betrayed him in the last book. He’s upset to learn that an old friend, a man who made money exporting peanut oil for foreign aid programs, has been found dead in the hold of one of his own barges. But he didn’t drown in the oil – it was murder. It’s hard to figure out why anyone would kill the man, and Tubby promises the widow he’ll poke around.

At the same time, he’s been retained by a local casino. The money’s excellent, though they don’t seem to have much real work for him to do. But he’s enjoying the company of the beautiful blonde they appointed as his liaison.

There’s another woman too, though – an attractive black woman who just happens to have committed a revenge killing.

In addition, one of Tubby’s adult daughters is involved with an environmentalist group, investigating river pollution. Some people don’t like the questions she and her friends are raising, and Tubby agrees to help out just to keep an eye on her.

I’m still not sure what to make of the Tubby DuBonnet books. At the end of the last one I decided I should approach them as dark comedy, but I didn’t find City of Beads all that funny. And the hero, though he’s supposed to be pretty street smart, seems to me to survive as much on luck as on intelligence.

I wonder if I’d appreciate the books better if I’d ever been to New Orleans….