Hard Justice in the City of Angels (The Ruthless crime thriller review)

Have you ever seen a preview for a show (trailer for a movie, etc.) that really hooked you… but when you tuned in to watch it, found yourself not enjoying it so much as wandering about in the middle of an already long-running series, hopelessly lost? 

Yeah, that. That’s what happened to me for much of February [insert the crying-buckets-face emoji here], as I struggled with (then put down, then picked up again, and rinse, repeat… multiple times) David Putnam’s The Ruthless… which I only found out afterward was book number eight (yep, EIGHT!) in an ongoing series. Oy.

So, I’ll be breaking this experience down for you a bit differently than my norm.

_______________

Bruno Johnson is a Sheriff’s Deputy with the Los Angeles Police Department, and has been, for… well, a reasonable amount of time, I’m guessing. 

But… some utter shit has (apparently) gone down in Bruno’s life shortly before The Ruthless begins: namely, the abduction (and assumed—by Bruno—murder) of one of his young twin grandsons, and the fatal overdose of the twins’ mother, Bruno’s teenage daughter.

Bruno has ideas, it seems, as to the “whodunit”; he pretty much has a hard-on, in fact, for his daughter’s drug-dealing boyfriend (whom he has very good reason to suspect) as the baddie.

But [there’s always a “but”, isn’t there?]… Bruno faces a few problems between now and accomplishing any justice.

One, he’s been working a major stolen-goods sting operation, and has been deep undercover for the past several months. (Not even his elderly father, who lives with him, or any of his [former] coworkers, know that Bruno is actually still with the sheriff’s department; everyone thinks he got in trouble and was fired, after which he picked up a menial job at some sketchy warehouse.)

Another problem is that Bruno’s (dead, remember) daughter’s ex-boyfriend—nasty piece of work that he is—is pretty much untouchable, at the moment, since a court case that he was involved in has just been set aside.

Then, when a judge whom Bruno had worked under for a couple of years—and the judge’s wife—are brutally slain, and Bruno’s violent ex-partner pulls some strings to get Bruno “reinstated”, his focus is suddenly torn in three separate directions… on three jobs, each important in its own way. 

But Bruno didn’t grow up—and then choose to remain—in a tough, South L.A. neighborhood for nothing; he will do literally anything to put those responsible for his grandson’s (and his daughter’s, too, since he refuses to believe she left this earth either an accidental overdose or a suicide) death(s) behind bars for a very long time… no matter the personal cost to himself. 

And, if he can somehow finish the big sting operation and help solve the judge’s murder, too? Maybe then he can find some peace.

_______________

If you’re wondering right now why I had so much trouble reading what sounds like a pretty intense ride, I get it, and you’d be right: The Ruthless is a complex, interesting story.

But… remember how I said I was dropped into a continuing saga, by picking this up? So, yeah… this is apparently the fourth book in the prequel portion of what is now an eight-book (and counting) series, but—in a Star Wars kinda way—it seems the middle portion was begun first, and then the author went back in time for some prequel action. [insert confused, head-exploding emoji, here]

In short, I found it way harder than I really wanted to, to keep up--coming into it at such a weird juncture, in the greater scheme of things--and because of that, I could never really settle in and enjoy it, as I might otherwise have done, if I’d caught the series from the beginning. For me, diving in midstream (sans instruction manual or life preserver, as it were) was a drudge.

A couple of (positive) thoughts in closing… I love that the author was, himself, a policeman (for a few decades); his experience lends an undeniable authenticity to what Bruno is going through, and to the people he encounters. I also really appreciate that Bruno is a black cop, and as such, has a very different work—and life, of course—experience, from that of the standard middle-aged white cop (which is the norm). Our world needs to hear a wide array of genuine voices… and a series like the one which The Ruthless is a part of, can provide one such voice. ~GlamKitty