Customer Reviews

47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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).

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.

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.

It is always hard when a child's parent chooses a career for him, trains him early and does not allow any other job opportunities. It is an age old problem of parents' deciding what is best for their children with no discussion. But when your father is a psychopathic bank robber it really limits your future plans.

When 9 year old Tara's mother dies, her father begins to train her in his career field, in the art of robbing banks. Her first attempt at intimidating bank guards ends when she misses her shot and shoots her father in the foot. But after that she becomes an accomplished and successful partner with her father for many years of bank heists. But at age 23 she wonders if this is enough, no friends, no permanent place to live and, most of all, no social life. And as her father becomes more and more out of control and shooting innocent people becomes common (in spite of "Rule #16 Change your MO about as often as you change your underwear.") Tara is feeling that maybe it is time for a career change. Scoping out their latest bank job leads Tara and her father to a small, rural Arizona town (Rule #6- Only rob banks in the sticks.) . There Tara meets Max, the wayward son of the local sheriff, and it is instant attraction. After the bank robbing follows the pattern of blood and death, Tara decides it is time to leave her father. But with a unforgiving, psychopathic father, this is not going to be easy. Bonnie and Clyde had it easy compared to these two. Tara and Max flee but followed by Wyatt who is pursued by ex-partners, the sheriff and the FBI.

47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers is a great, sprawling adventure. With his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, Troy Cook has written a fun, action filled story of a family gone wrong. He is able to win the readers' affection for the most motley bunch of characters ever put down in one story. Who can not sympathize with poor Tara, the good daughter who is only doing what daddy taught her to do? Cook keeps the action anchored with the clever use of the 47 Rules and the tape recorded riffs of Max. His background in the movie business is evident in his ability to keep the action moving between scenes in the present and past to form a whole.

This first novel should be on all crime, mystery or humor lover's list of summer reads. It is a creative debut of a talented new fiction writer. In a genre packed full of entries, this work needs to be recognized as a ground breaking use of humorous situations combined with strong, sympathetic characters encased in a crime thriller.

I loved this book for its originality and humor. I am a prodigious reader but seldom ever laugh out loud as I did when reading this book. I am going to write to the author, something else I seldom do, to tell him how much I enjoyed his debut, and I will recommend this book to all my friends. Others have told you what it's about, but you have to experience it yourself. I loved the characters, even the truly jerky ones. The book is difficult to put down. I hope Troy Cook is rapidly finishing his next book. He is definitely on my watch list of authors to read. I hope you enjoy his quirky and somewhat sexy debut novel as much as I did.

You ever been on a bus or in a restaurant or waiting in the doctor's office? And you brought a book so your brain wouldn't shrivel and fry from ennui.

The book I brought was 47 RULES and the place I brought it was the waiting room outside the funeral director's office, while my parents made the plans to take care of Grandpa's cremains. This was not the place for snorting, snickering, and otherwise trying to stifle a belly laugh. But Tara and Max kicked my funny bone once too often and I thoroughly embarassed the family. Oh well, that's a teenager's job

I read the Advanced Readers Copy of this book and loved it! It has the humor of Carl Hiasson and the edge of Elmore Leonard. Nobody is a good guy, or good girl, which is why you love the characters all the more. If you liked the humor in Get Shorty or say, any of the Coen brothers movies, you'll love this book!

How hard is it to infuse crime fiction with humor? Well, it usually requires that both the action AND the characters be funny. And judging by the minimal number of authors who've successfully managed it (Hiaasen, Westlake, Leonard, and a couple of others), it's certainly not easy. It's even tougher to pull it off without coming across as, say, a Leonard or Westlake wannabe. But Troy Cook manages it, and writes it so well that you'd think this was his 10th book instead of his first. Packed with zany characters, plenty of action, and an astonishingly unpredictable story, Cook is a welcome addition to my bookshelves. Not only is this story funny -- "B-Bolgies" funny, if you've ever played that rough game -- Cook has created in Tara a leading female character who is entirely fresh, there is nothing stereotypical about her. Kudos for that alone! And yet, the other characters' action and dialogue render each one of them just as memorable as Tara. I don't want to give anything away but let me just say that the scene where the psychotic bank robber encounters the serial killer is by itself worth the price of the book. This is the kind of book that makes you laugh and flinch at the same time, and it's not for those who prefer their crime fiction only in the form of gentle English cozies. Nothing cozy about this story at all, it's brutally funny and sweetly sexy. Highly recommended!

This books just goes to show you that not all criminals are bad, just misguided. This is one whacky book. It makes you want the underdog to win, throw rules to the wind, and let chance guide the way. A well written lighthearted read, that anyone with a sense of humor should enjoy, well that is unless your dad is a senator!

It's time to head west. In 47 Rules, Troy Cook does for Arizona what Carl Hiaasen and his followers have done for South Florida. There are no good guys in this hilarious novel, but even the worst guy gets his moments of redemption.

I have never been married, and I realize now that it's because I never met my Tara. Read this book and see what I mean.