Review Detail

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.