Ruby is a top-notch, wild, crazy ride of a pulpy thriller that is, at its heart, about a buried treasure and a woman and whether she can be trusted. In just the first few pages, the author takes us through a marriage gone sour, a man discovering an adulterous affair when his plane didn’t take off, an embezzlement, an evening in a Miami hotel with a big sad-eyed redhead, a double-murder, a trial, an acquittal, and an after-party. And, six jars filled with half a million dollars buried on a small Florida key.
But, that’s just the opening salvo in this fun-filled novel, before the honeymoon begins and ends, and the jars of money like little pots of honey start drawing the cruel and the wicked treasure hunters. “The fun wasn’t going to last – not more than five hours at the most. And the kind of death Eve was going to die would balance all the fun she had ever had or might have had in her warm armoral little life.”
Rome’s pulp thrillers always seem to revolve around buried treasure or a suitcase of stolen money and hopes and dreams of a never-ending holiday on the Riviera. But, those hopes and dreams are always dashed against the rocks with never-ending waves of greed, envy, distrust, partnerships, romances, and hatred. There is usually a triangle with a blonde at its core (or possibly a redhead). Throw in here, a hurricane, a boat tossing alone at sea, a crazy man with a rifle, a voodoo wedding, and all kinds of mayhem along the way, and it is quite a story.
It may not be unique among pulp thriller plots, but few of these type of stories are this well done. And, this one is absolutely worth reading.