Black Rosebud (Have No Mercy #2)

Reader reviewed by Warren Thurston

Racial prejudice is a part of the human psyche that produces senseless acts. It is a festering sore in a society that may never heal. All kinds of intolerance can be justified by this cruelest of human acts.


Since humans first appeared on planet earth, they have been wary of those who are different from them. It does not seem to matter that we all are the same at heart. That is, a person wanting to live in peace and harmony with the world.


Their will always be, it seems, those members of a society not prepared to allow those different from themselves to exist. In those members minds they are superior to those that they persecute. Therefore what they do to them is entirely justified and of no consequence to the law of the land.


This type of thinking is also aimed at those who are different not because of their race, but because they have a physical or mental problem. Unscrupulous people see them as easy targets, ready made to fit in with their own selfish purpose. These callous beings serve no other purpose in life other than bringing untold misery to their victims.


Darin Righter was one of those people who felt superior to those around him. He felt that Kidwell, Nebraska was below his station in life. Living on a farm in a rural community did not meet his vision of how he wanted to spend his life.


His ideal life style would be being surrounded by luxury and have others to do his bidding. To be able to achieve this ideal existence would he would need to get his hands on a large amount of money. The opportunity to do just this came along at the First Peoples Bank of Sharpin.

Dodds assistant. This was to be the first step on his path to misery. On this journey he would destroy peoples lives.


Farm Girl, a young teenager not wise in the ways of the world, would be his most innocent victim. Born into poverty and raised by a mother who wished her identity to be kept unknown. She stood little chance of seeing through Darins devious schemes.


His elder brother Frank doted on him, yet Darin despised him. Then there was old Jefferson Welk whose skin color held him down all of his life. Both of these men were to feel the venom of the evil that flowed in Darins blood.


Bobby and Kam Ruble have shown with this novel that they are on top of their craft. The story is a rich texture of wonderful characters that move the reader to feel their emotions. Throughout the tale there are no flat spots to detract from the intrigue of the various twists in the plot.


This is the best book of it type that I have read this year. Once started, the reader will not be able to put this book down. It is a book that I would highly recommend all lovers of good fiction to read.

Reader reviewed by Annette Gisby

Black Rosebud: Have no Mercy II
Bobby and Kam Ruble
Global Authors Publications


Farm Girl grew up on various farms, working as a farm hand with her
mother, who shields Farm Girl from the world. If their employers got
to nosy or hinted that Farm Girl might be better off at school, Mama
and Farm Girl moved on to the next place. Mama did not want any questions
on how she chose to raise her daughter, or about who Farm Girl's father
was.

Jefferson Welk is an elderly black gentleman living alone on his farm
ever since a past tragedy cost him his family, and he is surprised to
find Mama and Farm Girl on his doorstep one day looking for work. He is
glad to give it, even though Mama insists that they will only sleep in
the barn and not the house. They stay longer at the Welk farm than
they have anywhere else, but if they hadn't maybe things would have
turned out differently.

Darin Righter is a young man mad at the world, feeling that growing up
on a farm in rural Nebraska is not for him. He has bigger ambitions
in life, women, fast cars and drinking, he wants to be surrounded by
luxury. Getting a job as an accountant at the bank, he overhears
various conversations that set him on the road to ruin and he doesn't
care about the innocent victims he takes with him.

What a fantastic book! You just want to read more to find out what's
going to happen next. There is a sense of suspense all the way through
and you just know that something terrible is going to happen. But to
who? And why?

Black Rosebud is an epic sweep of a novel, it's a long book that
gives the characters room to grow, which may not have been possible
in a shorter tome.

Themes in the book include intolerance, envy, greed, regret and what
might have been. The baddies are bad, the goodies come in shades of
grey and you have to wonder at everyone's motives. Every time Darin
appeared on the page, I wanted to boo and hiss like they used to do
at the villain twirling his black moustache in silent movies, he was
so well written.

An excellent thriller that focuses more on the characters, and the whys
of the crimes, rather than the who.