The Ruthless
David Putnam’s latest novel starts with an undercover cop and a fidgety meth addict in a stolen car, idling in the parking lot of a seedy bar. It only takes a few pages to introduce readers to at least two possible plotlines with the promise of more, and by the next chapter, our man is already in jail.
The undercover cop in The Ruthless (Oceanview) is Bruno Johnson, a Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff assigned to the Violent Crime Unit. Bruno is currently working an illegal gun sting while hunting down his own personal menace. The book charges ahead with an authenticity practically unmatched in crime fiction, boasting a dialogue that is raw and comfortable and characters that are familiar without being stereotypical. Putnam’s writing is fresh, and he adroitly tosses in surprising phrases such as, “The moment hung fat between us,” “the quick chirp of a cop car’s siren,” and “fatigue took hold and tried to drag me back to bed.” Much of the story is conversational dialogue, inviting readers to listen in and listen up.
AN INSIDE JOB
To perform his job, Bruno Johnson must have friends, informants, and back-up in both law enforcement and among the criminals who he’s trying to catch and lock up. It’s a dangerous world, a hot glance from getting shot, but Bruno has a top-secret assignment to do and a personal vendetta to pursue. Reeling from the death of his daughter, he needs to find his twin grandsons and bring them home. He needs to avenge the death of his daughter. He needs to avoid disappointing a father who loves him, blowing his cover as an illegal gun runner, or getting killed. He’s tired, he’s driven, and he keeps making mistakes. Bruno Johnson is a likable hero.
Putnam can write with authority because he has first-hand knowledge of this world. He’s an ex-law enforcement officer himself, one who has worked on teams for Patrol, Investigations, SWAT, Narcotics, Violent Crime, Criminal Intelligence, Internal Affairs, and the Detective Bureau. He’s even spent time as a special agent. He brings his life experience to print: dialogue snaps, emotions that are unexpectedly palpable. Putnam knows the rules, expectations, laws, and habits among cops, addicts, robbers, and murderers because he’s known them for decades.
A FIRST DATE GONE RIGHT
Although The Ruthless is the eighth in the Bruno Johnson series, it’s not necessary to have read the others to get totally immersed in the story. Each novel stands on its own, even out of sequence.
If you were to read them according to their publication dates, though, it would be a little like falling in love and then building a relationship. You meet Bruno in the first of the series, The Disposables, an ex-cop and an ex-con who has dedicated his life to finding and saving abused and abandoned children. For the next four novels, that’s exactly what he does, but while balancing himself on that thin line between what’s legal and what’s not.
Just as in real life, we long to learn the history of the person we’ve fallen in love with; how they grew up, how they came to be the person in front of us. To that end, the four prequel novels (The Innocents, The Reckless, The Heartless, and The Ruthless) may become required reading.
Putnam’s law enforcement colleagues said his reports read like short fiction; The Ruthless reads like the backstory, complete with all the sturm and drang expected of the streets of South Central LA. Once introduced to Bruno Johnson, a reader might admit: “This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.”
