This novella is part of the Bubba Snoddy series, but it is a side trip that can be safely ignored. For my taste, I should have done so. I quickly suspected it was based on O. Henry's The Ransom of Red Chief; in the afterword the author confirmed it.

The colorful metaphors amused me, but reading practical joke after practical joke became tedious for me. I don't enjoy them played on me; I don't enjoy reading about them constantly. And those were what made up so much of the book. Unlike the other books where Brownie's antics were spread out through the whole novel, in this shorter novella the pranks were the focus. O. Henry carried it off in a short story -- I suspect that is because a longer version couldn't sustain the humor.

The best part of this novella is it prompted me to re-read the much better inspiration. ( )