Black Rosebud
Have No Mercy, No. 2
By Bobby and Kam Ruble 

Married Partners Team Up
To Tell Midwest Tale

     Black Rosebud is a story that could only be written by authors who live and breathe the Midwest. Bobby and Kam Ruble bring us characters and a plot that feel right for the setting, but are also memorable in their own right. I shall never forget an innocent named "Farm Girl" and her "Mama." My infatuation with these two is not only based on their originality, but also because they are so multi-dimensional.

     That this book is a mystery is incidental, compared to the individuals who people it, which is as it should be. I never really enjoyed a mystery-or book, for that matter-with cookie-cutter characters.

      Bobby Ruble brings the knowledge of a lifetime in law enforcement to this story. Kam Ruble brings the sensitivity of a poet and mother to the work.

      I feel compelled to tell readers that his novel would not have suffered if it had been whittled down by about one-fourth. It is a very fat volume of 561 pages; it includes much back story that, though interesting, could have been omitted in the tradition of page-turners like Grisham's new Bleachers. Still the characters in Rosebud remind me of the beautiful characters in Grisham's A Painted House, and that is saying a lot. And some might argue that whoever buys this book will certainly get a lot for her money!