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Summary: Brilliant, funny crime caper with wonderful women galore.
Review: A brilliant and very funny crime caper about money and love. Pete Hautman just keeps getting better. This novel circles around Barbarannette and her mother and two sisters and the way Hautman handles his women characters is absolutely delicious. They are flawed and funny, sexy and sincere, and completely and warmly human. If you have not read Hautman yet, you are in for a real treat. Many missteps in this book, but not a false note among them. You'll be cheering by the end!
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Summary: Another great mystery/hilarious crime caper by Hautman.
Review: As a longtime Hautman fan I was thrilled when Mrs. Million was released. And I wasn't disappointed when I finished the novel. One of the main things I love about Hautman's work is the continuity of characters. Barbaraannette Quinn, the main character in this novel, is the half sister of Joe Crow (one of Hautman's most endearing characters) and daughter of Sam O'Gara (another Hautman mainstay). And even though none of the aforementioned characters appear in this novel, it is just as brilliant. Barbaraannette wins a powerball lottery of $9 million, and the first thing she does is offer $1 million for the return of her husband Bobby who walk out on her six years ago. This sets in motion many wacky scenarios involving, but not limited to, a petty criminal who solicates money from famous people via letters, a gay college professor, two good old boys who Bobby cheated out of money, and a woman named Phlox who is the current girlfriend of Bobby. The reader gets to know all these characters and many othersin rich detail. This is an excellent novel with many twists and turns. It is a must read for all lovers of great crime fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent, But He's Done Better
Review: As in his previous books, Drawing Dead and the excellent The Mortal Nuts, Hautman brings Carl Hiassan's tradition of wild and wacky characters to small-town Minnesota. When a 30ish single woman wins the Powerball lottery, she offers $1,000,000 for the return of her missing no-good husband, who disappeared six years ago. This is catalyst for shady shenanigans as he and his girlfriend head back to collect the money. Of course there are other people seeking to claim the reward themselves, etc... Everything ends true to formula, and it doesn't have quite the sharp bite that his other books do.
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Summary: Hautman's best yet
Review: I discovered Pete's Hautman's books about four years ago and have read everything of his since Drawing Dead. With this book Hautman goes beyond his usual cast of (mainly male) characters and does some his best work in creating a story built around well-drawn female characters and some non-traditional male ones. Pete's books are pure fun - there is plenty of action, and the Upper Midwest idiosyncrasies are (sometimes painfully) dead-on. I rate this book higher than previous ones since even though the plot was typical Hautman mayhem, it was never implausible or out of control.
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Summary: Funny and suspenseful
Review: I have read all of Pete Hautman's suspense books and enjoyed them very much, but Mrs. Million surpasses them all. It is very funny and suspenseful, but what I love most about it is how every character, no matter how small, is a fully developed person, usually quirky but still very real.
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Summary: Quirky, lighthearted, and very entertaining
Review: If you've read your way through Carl Hiaissen, Elmore Leonard, and James W. Hall but haven't discovered Pete Hautman, "Mrs. Million" is a great place to start. Reviewers who were expecting big action or complex plotting in this book were probably disappointed, but only because they missed the point. Hautman's work is very easy to escape into because it IS odd-ball. It doesn't have to make sense!The characters in this book, like in those in "Short Money," are very offbeat, but immensely likeable. Except for the villains, of course, who are equally offbeat but easy to despise. But like Hiaissen's villains, they always get what's coming to them. I've only read two of Hautman's books, but I'm using an Amazon gift certificate to stock up (and then fortify my local library). Keep up the good work, Mr. Hautman.
Rating:
Summary: Quirky, lighthearted, and very entertaining
Review: If you've read your way through Carl Hiaissen, Elmore Leonard, and James W. Hall but haven't discovered Pete Hautman, "Mrs. Million" is a great place to start. Reviewers who were expecting big action or complex plotting in this book were probably disappointed, but only because they missed the point. Hautman's work is very easy to escape into because it IS odd-ball. It doesn't have to make sense! The characters in this book, like in those in "Short Money," are very offbeat, but immensely likeable. Except for the villains, of course, who are equally offbeat but easy to despise. But like Hiaissen's villains, they always get what's coming to them. I've only read two of Hautman's books, but I'm using an Amazon gift certificate to stock up (and then fortify my local library). Keep up the good work, Mr. Hautman.
Rating:
Summary: Quirky, lighthearted, and very entertaining
Review: If you've read your way through Carl Hiaissen, Elmore Leonard, and James W. Hall but haven't discovered Pete Hautman, "Mrs. Million" is a great place to start. Reviewers who were expecting big action or complex plotting in this book were probably disappointed, but only because they missed the point. Hautman's work is very easy to escape into because it IS odd-ball. It doesn't have to make sense! The characters in this book, like in those in "Short Money," are very offbeat, but immensely likeable. Except for the villains, of course, who are equally offbeat but easy to despise. But like Hiaissen's villains, they always get what's coming to them. I've only read two of Hautman's books, but I'm using an Amazon gift certificate to stock up (and then fortify my local library). Keep up the good work, Mr. Hautman.
Rating: 
Summary: what a pleasure trip
Review: It was the first book of his I've read. I can't wait to read more of his stories. A nice light romp, espically after a difficult read.
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Summary: The professor has a mean streak
Review: Sam O'Gara appears in most of Hautman's novels. In this one he gets a bare mention. He's the father of Barbaraannette Quinn, who wins the lottery and decides to spend a million of it trying to win her husband Bobby back. He absconded six years before and she's never gotten over the good-looking devil.
Bobby, along with his girlfriend, Phlox, sees her offer on TV. They decide to claim the reward and then split, which strains credulity because people are looking for Bobby in Cold Rock, Minnesota. You see, before he left, he conned these two guys out of money to start a dude ranch, and he runs into them as soon as he sets foot in Cold Rock. Suddenly everybody wants the million dollars and Bobby changes hands more often than the Hope diamond.
There are a lot of quirky characters in MRS. MILLION, but probably the most interesting one is the college professor, Andre Gideon, who just happens to be in the right place (or wrong, depending upon how you look at it). He's more interested in JJ Morrow, another con man, who sends letters to celebrities to mooch money off of them. Gideon is unique because Hautman is working against type. Gideon looks about as violent as Shirley Temple, but he's got a mean streak as long as the English Chunnel.
There's a lot of internal monologue in this novel, which slows down the pace, but it speeds up when Barbaraanette collects the million in cash from her marathon-running banker, who just happens to have loved her forever. The funniest part is how often the money changes hands. You'll start counting heads when the money disappears. Everybody seems to be accounted for.
The eventual resolution is sidesplitting.
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