Well this was a weird one. Frank Burly travels across time and space, frequently getting the shit kicked out of him, attempting to solve the central Time Machine-based mystery. It’s more of a gag-a-minute piece than a cohesive narrative (unsurprising since the author, and I believe self-publisher, is a former writer for the Simpsons).

A fun little diversion. A good choice to spend your Amazon digital rewards dollars on.

He went on and on about how delicate space and time was, but frankly I didn’t buy it. I mean, if you think it’s so easy to change the course of world events, try it. You don’t need a time machine. You’re already living in somebody’s past and somebody else’s future. Just step on a bug or something and see what that gets you. See if now you were never born, or suddenly now there’s fifty Hitlers in your bathroom, crapping all over everything. It ain’t going to happen. Anyway, that’s what I figured.

Frank Burly is a private detective who gets hired to find a stolen artifact from a multi-millionaire-crazy-homeless-person. As the title of the book tells you, the time machine did that, and Burly has to clean up the time mess.

It's fun and quick and random, I don't want more from a middle-of-the-pandemic-take-me-away book. Lots of reviewers comparing Burly to Homer Simpson, I don't share that. When you have three Golden Retrievers, two are smart and bring in the newspaper and carry shoes around, the third one is a derp with a heart of gold who'll try carrying the shoes but ends up eating them. That's Homer Simpson, a derp with a heart of gold. Burly, on the other hand, is more like a rottweiler, he's dumb and mean and he cannot rest a case because he's too dumb to know how.

This is absolutely a book that should only be approached with a certain degree of seriousness.

Other reviews say this is just a bunch of jokes strung together by a loose plot as a drawback; but just lean into the goofiness of it all! It is absolutely just bunch of jokes strung together by a loose plot. It doesn't make perfect sense, it isn't always super coherent, but most great comedies aren't!

If you're an enjoyer (on any level) of pulp detectives, goofy puns, and over the top but not too technical goofy science fiction nonsense, this is a quick easy read that is a lot of fun along the way.

SciFi readers are ruthless when it comes to critiquing an author's handling of the paradoxes of time travel. Swartzwelder decided to make every one a fodder for humor in this novella.

3.75 - It's not going to change your life but it was a funny little pulpy thing that was great for a 'snack'.

I had a great time with this book and it is exactly my sense of humour.
It’s a short book and a quick read but I still only read a chapter or two every other day for a couple of weeks. I could see how people reading this all at once might find it exhausting.
Can’t wait to read another in this series.

I first heard of this book from the fan podcast "Talking Simpsons," as its author, John Swartzwelder, spent over a decade working on The Simpsons, and I'm quite glad that I decided to check it out. This tale is no subtle parody of the hardboiled private eye, and neither is it an unsubtle parody either. Instead, this is a wild ride that begins with the ridiculousness levels cranked up to full blast, and the proceeds to amp it up from there as the story progresses. It's just sheer nonstop stupid absurdity written in the smartest, cleverest way possible.

funniest book ever!

This book showcases a certain type of absurdist humor. Whereas the legendary Swartzwelder employed it perfectly in the most iconic episodes of the Simpsons that he wrote, the style of the detective noir novel is a weird way to use his talents for comedy.

Nevertheless, once I accepted what the book was going to be, I did enjoy it. It’s a quick read and some moments literally made me laugh out loud.

A funny mashup of hard-boiled detective novel and time-travel science fiction from John Swartzwelder, the single most prolific writer from the writing room of The Simpsons. It’s mostly just a loose framework on which to hang a series of jokes, but the jokes are funny enough, and the book is brief enough, that it’s not really a problem.

Really fun. Reads quick, and so dense with jokes that the bad ones go down easy. Burly is just Homer Simpson, but that’s not a bad thing. Homer’s cool. I like Homer. I’m always impressed when a writer achieves that level of total stupidity with a character. It’s like scoring 0% on a multiple-choice test—actually pretty tricky to pull off. Gotta read more goofy stuff like this. I forget how fun reading can be when there's no humanity or meaning of any kind.

I would describe this book as underwhelming. When I read an article about the reclusive John Swartzwelder, one of the all time great Simpsons writers, and learned of his humorous detective series, I thought it would be right up my alley. Almost purchased every book in the series, sight unseen, but luckily walked it back and just got the first one. I'm glad I did, because this book was not great. Its pretty silly and at times induces a chuckle, but not once did I laugh out loud. I was expecting much better from someone with such an excellent comedy pedigree. Maybe the series gets better as it goes along, but I don't think I'll venture beyond the first.