Romance Rustlers and Thunderbird Thieves (Ruby Taylor Mystery Series #1) [Paperback]

Sharon Dunn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 24, 2003

No one makes a fool of Ruby Taylor—or her friends. This tough cookie of a detective winds up in a tangled mystery. Follow the fiery redhead through a harrowing adventure to right the wrongs of love—with helicopters, flying buffalo, and a heart-pounding chase scene for good measure. Guaranteed fiction! (20040603)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Less slick but funnier is Dunn's Romance Rustlers and Thunderbird Thieves, featuring amateur sleuth Ruby Taylor. Ruby once ran in the fast lane but now is slowly going to seed at a feed store in Montana. She decides to play detective when a friend is left at the altar. This smacks of Ruby's own romantic history, but the infamous groom may have been murdered. Dunn misses the mark with some of her details--having Ruby drive a Valiant, for instance, as the requisite beat-up car, unnecessarily dates the narrative. But Ruby's one-liners are a delight: "In all the fantasies I've had about being a great athlete, bowling has never come up." And Ruby, a gawky six-footer, is endearing as she primes her tired old psyche for one last go at love. John Mort
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Sharon Dunn's suspense novel, Romance Rustlers and Thunderbird Thieves, has gone into second printing only four months after being released. (Carolyn R. Scheidies Author and Journalist )

Off-the-cuff observations make this a fun and enjoyable read and add hometown flavor to the writing, Highly recommended. (Margaret Feinberg CBA Marketplace )

. . . A good book for women and teenage girls. (Church Libraries )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Kregel Publications; 2nd edition (January 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0825424968
• ISBN-13: 978-0825424960
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #511,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real characters, great story, June 30, 2004

By 

Camy Tang "Romance novels with a kick of wasabi" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Romance Rustlers and Thunderbird Thieves (Ruby Taylor Mystery Series #1) (Paperback)

EXCELLENT book! The heroine, Ruby Taylor, is real and gritty, and non-Christian at the beginning of the book. She's awesome.

Her hero/love interest is also a "real" Christian guy, still suffering through the mistakes he made in his own past. I've been so tired of so-called "tortured" heroes, where it turns out their only sin is a decision made in ignorance that resulted in something bad happening to them. Puh-leeze. Give me a REAL man--someone who made a bad decision with eyes wide open, and is still struggling with the consequences, trying to depend on Christ, trying to make the right decisions now.

Ruby's mother has the same colorful past and realistic, 3-dimensional character. I'm looking forward to reading about her and Maryanne in the next book, "Sassy Cinderella and the Valiant Vigilante," and the third book in the series, which isn't published yet.

The mystery unfolds well. Also, Ruby's decision for Christ is treated with a gentle hand, not too preachy or "in your face."

I highly recommend this read. Amazon and Amazon Marketplace have good prices on this book, too. There's also overstock.com.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Book, May 12, 2003

By 

Tricia (Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Romance Rustlers and Thunderbird Thieves (Ruby Taylor Mystery Series #1) (Paperback)

This book is so full of suprises that I couldn't put the book down. Ruby Taylor's antics will keep you laughing as she searches for a man that disappeared a few days before his wedding. I look forward to reading more books from Sharon Dunn.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Unexpected, February 22, 2003

By 

LeAnne Hardy "LeAnne Hardy" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Romance Rustlers and Thunderbird Thieves (Ruby Taylor Mystery Series #1) (Paperback)

Religious publishing does not often give us such an in-your-face heroine as Ruby Taylor. Ruby is working part-time in a Montana feed store with a string of failed romances behind her when her mother asks her to investigate the disappearance of a young man two weeks before his wedding. Mom, not at all the sweet little old lady she first appears, is certain Ruby is qualified to investigate because a previous dead end job involved typing reports for a private detective.

Ruby's childhood, dragged from place to place, sometimes in the middle of the night, left her tough and resourceful, but that thick skin hides a tender heart. Her unique outlook on life had me laughing out loud, and many will identify with her poignant inner struggle to be loved as a person and not simply used by men. Although Ruby loses none of her spunk with her religious conversion, she must have heard a lot of religious language from her mother, because she falls into Christian patterns of thinking more quickly than seems natural to me.

The plot of this book is lively, but the strength is definitely in its witty characters. I look forward to Sharon Dunn giving us more of Ruby's fresh, unexpected views of life.