Pat Ruger is a retired detective in Denver, Colorado, who does freelance PI work. An old friend, Angel, is a long-time weed dealer who refers a case to Pat- a missing woman suspected of being kidnapped and radicalized by Islamic extremists. Pat’s new client and her best friend are young women of the street and they eagerly help him recover from mourning over his late wife. When Pat uncovers a … terrorist plot, can he find a large explosive device set to kill thousands of people and disarm it in time?
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After reading and reviewing a later book in the Pat Ruger series by Jack Huber, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this first book and finding out how P A L detective agency and Pat Ruger came into being. I also enjoyed the quirky and fun banter between the main characters as they faced a myriad of cases with different clients all while searching for the solution to the major case, the missing person case that started the book. The characters are entertaining and slightly unpolished which makes them even more human to the reader. And, of course, with any private detective, there are women involved, and possibly one of them leading to a real romantic love interest. Looking forward to reading the next books in this series. This is a voluntary review of an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from Hidden Gems Books.
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: Caribbean Shuffle #2 – This story picks up a few months after For Hire ends. Still with the male fantasies, but some 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: 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*