47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers [Paperback]

Troy Cook (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2006

What if your father raised you to be a bank robber? Instead of Barbie & Ken, you played with Smith & Wesson? And now you’re twenty-two and ready to flee the nest, but your homicidal pop won't let you go? That’s the simple part of Tara’s life. When she and her dad score their biggest heist ever, Tara’s life of adventure takes a frightening turn. They’re pursued by a couple of dangerous ex-partners and a special task force of federal agents. That’s when Tara falls for the son of the local sheriff. Like her daddy says, “It’s always something.”

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Tara and her father have a very unusual relationship: they rob banks together and have been doing so since Tara was a girl. But she is grown up now, and she'd rather do something else--except that dear old Dad, dear old homicidal-maniac Dad, is having some serious separation anxiety. To make matters worse, the duo is on the lam from the cops (and from some nasty former partners in crime), and Tara is developing a crush on a lawman's son. Recommend this intriguing first mystery to readers who enjoy the comic capers novels of Hiaasen, Leonard, and Westlake. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

A stunning debut. Cook's novel will make you think someone transported Carl Hiaasen to the desert Southwest. --Steve Brewer, author of "Bank Job"

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Product Details

• Paperback: 282 pages
• Publisher: Capital Crime Press (July 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977627667
• ISBN-13: 978-0977627660
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #678,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Bright, Fast Moving Caper, July 14, 2006

By 

Steven Rigolosi (New York / New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers (Paperback)

Everything you'll read about this book promises a fast-moving caper, and Troy Cook delivers on that promise!

47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers is both a modern caper (with a highly likable antiheroine) and a classic picaresque "bildungsroman." I was impressed by Troy Cook's ability to blend the old with the new, and to create the bank robbers' world with panache. I was reminded a bit of a favorite old book, "The Great Train Robbery," by Michael Crichton, which also makes thieves so thoroughly likable.

I also appreciated the humor, which was occasionally zany but never forced. I felt as though the comedy was a natural part of Cook's writing style rather than an element forced onto the book. This is great summer reading that would also be perfect for a long airline flight (but take another book, too, because you'll finish this one so quickly).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh out loud hilarity, February 9, 2006

By 

Bruce Cook "Hollywood book doc" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers (Paperback)

If you like quirky characters and stupid crooks, you'll love this one. Reads like Christopher Buckley or Bill Fitzhugh.

Wyatt is a psycho dad raising his 9 year old daughter to be a bank robber, using Barbie dolls as visual aids. He develops a system of rules to help them have successful heists, and the rules are wonderfully skewed bits of self-help advice.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tarantino-esque!, December 26, 2007

By 

-TMcN- (Snohomish, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers (Paperback)

47 Rules is essentially a humorous family-crime novel, following a crime family though some changes. It's a decent read, but not quite as funny as it tries to be. More importantly, it is very violent and has quite a few sets of characters we get to know, in their own story lines, most of whom converge at the end. Very much like Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs. And then the last few pages are wrap-up straight from the ending of a National Lampoon movie, telling us briefly what happened next to each character.

If you have a long weekend to read it straight, so you can keep all the plotlines fresh in your mind, and you don't mind unnecessary viciousness, it's a good enough read. Not great, but has some clever conceits. But the squeamish and anyone looking for a quick light read probably should look elsewhere.