Intrigue meets piracy in this tropical tale of murder and international crisis. Pat Ruger is a retired detective who joins his ex-partner, Jimmy Stewart, and his wife on a cruise in the Caribbean. Once on board, a woman he met is murdered and Pat and his partner are asked to investigate. How will Pat and Jimmy survive Caribbean pirates and a naval standoff?
I have truly enjoyed all of the Pat Ruger novels and am anxiously awaiting the next one. I’m a fan of Pat Ruger because he’s a real life, flesh and blood character. Sure, he’s tough and smart, but he’s also vulnerable (when his wife died, he did grieve), he’s sure of himself, but not cocky, he can handle a gun but he’s no bully. And, he’s sexy!!!
Hurry up with the next adventure!
Pat Ruger: Caribbean Shuffle #2 – This story picks up a few months after For Hire ends. Still with the male fantasies, but some are explicit now. Unfortunately, this story is not as well thought out or researched; it reads way too much like a D-rated Hollywood movie. Research would have shown how to communicate between ships instead of what was done; also, there is not a Naval man that calls his ship a boat. While the ideas were good, the lack of realism makes the story silly. Still needs editing. 3*
Pat Ruger: For Hire #1 – This is my first read by this author and I found myself immersed until the last page and then picked up the second book. Well written, but needing some editing – none distracting, with interesting and intriguing storylines. This story could have been written by Joseph Wambaugh. The main characters are developed enough to be interesting; I’m sure as the series goes, we’ll learn more about them. They have good dialog and work well together. The pace was continuous, never slowing down while the storylines merged into an intriguing, substantial read. I did laugh about the sex scenes, not explicit, since they came off as male fantasies; all the sudden this old dude has all types of women, haha. But he is a decent person and I like him, a good main character. I found the sixth book of this series on HiddenGems and discovered I had several Ruger books in my library. 4*
Pat Ruger: Native Species #3 – This story picks up in the same scene where Shuffle ends. As bad as Caribbean was with the Hollywood copying, this story is pathetic. Formatting is inconsistent, which makes reading it difficult. There is an extra space between each sentence, even in the mid of one person’s dialog, which is too Hollywood. AND, every female, especially the young ones, wants sex with Pat. Give me a break. What happened to the guy who wrote For Hire? Get him back, two out of three books that are poorly written and silly make me sorry I found Oblivion on Booksprout. I couldn’t finish this drivel. 2*
Pat Ruger: Oblivion Highway #6 – After reading two flops by this author, this book is similar to his first book, For Hire, which was pretty good. The writing style is similar to FH, unlike the two others, which were too juvenile and Hollywood. The storylines were good. Pat is still a caring, helpful person that almost gets himself killed. There are a couple of new characters that will probably show up in the next book; both are great, a sex therapist and a Lab. The pace is fast and I found the book interesting. Hopefully, the author continues in this vein and doesn’t return to the writing style of the second and third books. I found this book on HiddenGems. 4*