Kirkus Reviews QR Code
BIGGIE AND THE DEVIL DIET by Nancy Bell

BIGGIE AND THE DEVIL DIET

by Nancy Bell

Pub Date: Nov. 1st, 2002
ISBN: 0-312-30184-7
Publisher: Dunne/Minotaur

Fiona Wooten Weatherford, called Biggie by her 13-year-old grandson J.R. (when he’s not busy looking around him and noticing girls for the very first time) and the rest of the meager population of Job’s Crossing, Texas (when they’re not busy saying, “Aw shucks,” or chowing down anything that’s fried), takes a deep breath, sheds a tear or two, and admits that a past indiscretion has come home to roost. The man of her teenage dreams, Rex Barnwell, has returned to the area with his pretty young wife Laura and opened the Bar-LB Ranch, a fat farm for husky adolescent gals. Biggie barely has time to tell the diabetic, bedridden Rex that their romance produced a son whose own son is now ogling his vet’s pretty daughter before someone on the ranch puts poor Rex out of his misery with a well-placed bullet. The possibilities include his greedy daughter and son-in-law, his ranch foreman, his lawyer, the Bar-LB dietician, and even one of those thick-waisted young heifers who seems to have a special relationship with Rex’s wife. Questions are asked. Barbecue is consumed. Horses are ridden in a show ring and beyond. And J.R., the young cad, invites two girls, one pretty, one not, to the prom. But not to fret: Biggie is up to all challenges.

As flamboyantly folksy as usual (Biggie and the Quincy Host, 2001, etc.), with a plot whose holes are big enough to drive cattle through.