Review: Suburban Dicks by Fabian Nicieza

Suburban Dicks

by Fabian Nicieza

Release Date: June 22, 2021

2021 G.P. Putnam's Sons

Kindle Edition; 400 Pages

ISBN: 978-0593191262

ASIN: B08MBNRJW1

Audiobook: B08N5KSSXR

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Andie Stern thought she’d solved her final homicide. Once a budding FBI profiler, she gave up her career to raise her four (soon to be five) children in West Windsor, New Jersey. But one day, between soccer games, recitals, and trips to the local pool, a very pregnant Andie pulls into a gas station - and stumbles across a murder scene. An attendant has been killed, and the bumbling local cops are in way over their heads. Suddenly, Andie is obsessed with the case, and back on the trail of a killer, this time with kids in tow.

 

 

My Thoughts

Suburban Dicks is one of those books where I did think the title was brilliant. You have these two people, one who should have been a profiler for the FBI and the other should have been a big-time journalist and neither has achieved their dream, so they team up, accidentally, to solve a crime in the suburban area where they currently live. This had all the ingredients to work, but unfortunately, the humour fell rather flat for me and I started to lose interest about halfway through the book and it was a struggle to continue. 

 

First of all, the humour.  At first, I thought this was going to be rather funny and the thought of a woman who was seven months pregnant with four children would be rather fun as an investigator.  I also really liked Kenny, the journalist, and his perseverance as he realized something fishy was going on.  Eventually though, the humour really got to me and I got rather tired of Andie's rather pointed comments about her husband, to her husband, and how much she hated him and her children.  Sarcasm only goes so far until it just...doesn't.  It may have worked in Deadpool, but it fell rather flat here.  Especially the continuous comments to the children about her husband, especially with him sitting right there.  I got to the point where I was totally on Jeff's side and really came to resent Andie.   I'm not a big fan of using body shaming as slapstick comedy either.  Was there ever a woman who didn't feel fat during some point of their pregnancy? No matter how good they felt?  That being said though, the constant emphasis on how Andie 'accidentally' got pregnant got on my nerves rather quickly as well. For a woman as smart as Andie, how in the world would she have accidentally gotten pregnant more than once?  I understand the slapstick humour in what is being revealed here, but again, it just didn't work and fell rather flat for me. 

One of the themes running through this book is stereotyping and racism, and I didn't have a problem with how the author approached those subjects.  In fact, I thought this was the strongest part of the book.

The story at the beginning was rather interesting and I was intrigued by what was happening, humour aside.  While I didn't quite believe it was possible that anyone could hold a secret like that, especially with who was involved, it was interesting enough for me to continue with the book.  But with the plot so immersed in that humour, I did struggle to continue as I just didn't like the main characters.  However, there were some very interesting and intriguing scenes in this book; if more focus had been on the plot and developing the characters, I would definitely have been more invested.

Verdict

Suburban Dicks did have some things goins for it: there were some intriguing and memorable scenes, a relatively decent plot line, and a lot of creativity.  I wasn't a fan of the two main characters though, and the humour just didn't work for me.  And the ending? Not a fan.  This is one of those books you will just have to read for yourself and judge for yourself.