Bronco Buster

A note to US-based customers: All Lit Up is pausing print orders to the USA until further notice. Read more

“Hammerhead” Jed is back! And this time, he’s gone a little bit country.
After a lumberjack games competitor is found floating face down in a pool with an axe buried in the back of his head, former pro wrestler-turned-P.I. “Hammerhead” Jed Ounstead is on the case. Investigating the Colossal Cloverdale Rodeo and Country Fair with his ne’er-do-well cousin Declan, Jed finds that he will need all of his skills to find out what happened to a man they’d just spent the previous night drinking with. Along the way, these two city boys will need to reckon with the raucous world of the rodeo, dodging homicidal clowns, betting on cowpie bingo, riding bucking broncos and more in their attempt to solve the case over the course of one crazy day.
Bronco Buster is the ferociously funny fast-paced fourth installment in A.J. Devlin’s award-winning mystery series.

AUTHOR

A.J. Devlin

A.J. Devlin grew up in Greater Vancouver before moving to Southern California where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from Chapman University and a Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from The American Film Institute. After working as a screenwriter in Hollywood, he moved back home to Port Moody, BC, where he now lives with his wife and two children.

Cobra Clutch, the first book in the “Hammerhead” Jed professional wrestling mystery-comedy series, was released in spring 2018 and nominated for a Lefty Award for Best Debut Mystery and won the 2019 Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. The sequel, Rolling Thunder, was released in spring 2020 and was featured in the Vancouver Sun, The Province, The Globe and Mail, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal, and on CBC The Next Chapter.

The third book in the series, Five Moves of Doom, will be published in fall 2022. For more information on A.J. and his books, please visit ajdevlin.com.

Reviews

Bronco Buster is HammerheadJeds most uproarious case yet and given AJ Devlins flair for offbeat characters hilarious dialogue and noholdsbarred action thats saying a lot Jeds adventures were raucous enough with the quirky world of wrestling as a backdrop Throw in a twistfilled day at the rodeo and youre saddling up for the wildest ride of the year Steve Hockensmith New York Times bestselling author of Holmes on the Range and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

If you read only one mystery featuring a banana milkshakeguzzling pro wrestlerturnedPI this year make it Bronco Buster Nobody combines slapstick comedy and hardboiled crime like AJ Devlin And if you want moreyou will after this riotous fourth entry in the hilarious Hammerhead Jed seriesgo back and read the rest And then read this one again Andrew Shaffer New York Times bestselling author of Feel the Bern A Bernie Sanders Mystery

Actionpacked with all the colour and gritty din of a smalltime rodeo alive on every page a sadder wiser but incurably romantic Hammerhead cant resist the lure of a lurid death drawing him back to his beloved detective work Dont even try to resist the whirlwind ride of clues eccentric characters and that Devlinesque twisty ending Iona Whishaw bestselling awardwinning author of the Lane Winslow mystery series

With Bronco Buster AJ Devlin proves hes the undisputed champion of hilarious and heartfelt mysteries A riotous and adrenalinepacked romp full of rodeo clowns lumberjacks and murderers the fourth book in Devlins awardwinning Hammerhead Jed series had me howling with laughter from the first line and crying by the last SM Freedmanawardnominated author of Blood Atonement Globe and Mails Top 100 Best Books of 2022 Crime Writers of Canadas Awards of Excellence Finalist

Bronco Buster is a wild outrageous and edgy mysterycomedy I absolutely loved it Jed must contend with rodeo clowns maddened bulls desperate hatchet throwers a Doukhobor cult leader and a cowgirl who lassoes like Wonder Woman Studded with witticisms crackling dialogue and raucous action this is Hammerheads best adventure yet A mustread MH Callway awardnominated author of Snake Oil and Other Tales