In case you hadn't been introduced to the Right Reverend Honorable Doctor Lucifer Jones before, this is your chance. He's part Indiana Jones, part 9-year-old boy, part Bernie Madoff. He is charming though and doesn't truly wish people ill. If he could only get the money needed to build his church and a long list of beautiful and preferably naked virgins who needed their souls saved, then he would be happy. However he seems to find trouble no matter where he goes. Whether it is diamond thieves, jaguar people or lost continents, he can't seem to stay out of hot water. Fortunately all to our enjoyment. Resnick is able to capture the feel of pulp adventure stories while simultaneously mocking them. Lucifer Jones is able find adventure after adventure, falling into them with ease. But then his single minded, egocentric view of getting what he wants, leads each situation to become a funny disaster.

Resnick broke his book down into a different country for each chapter. It flows together as you read it because Lucifer is moving slowly across South America, but at the same time each chapter can stand alone. In fact, I was first introduced to Lucifer Jones in this manner. Subterranean Press would make the stories for their magazine available online; Resnick had multiple chapters published as standalone stories. It worked well for writing the book in stages but it also led to the only negative aspect that I have with the book. Each chapter follows the same pattern again and again. This was great and hysterical for the first half of the book. The second half got repetitive and not quite as funny. I probably should have broken up the pattern and read something by Bryan Smith or Edward Lee once things got mundane. I still found the book very entertaining and fun and would definitely recommend it. ( )