Review: Shake RATTLED and Roll
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 3, 2013
Jude Hardin loves tormenting his series character Nicholas Colt.  Every case the ex-rock star, semi-legal Florida private investigator takes on ends up with him up against a stacked deck.In Rattled, a short story in the series, Colt is semi-celebrating his fiftieth birthday.  He's not happy about birthdays and he's just trying to get through this one.  When he stops to pick up a hitchhiker, even though he knows he shouldn't, things get crazy.Hardin piles on the action in this one, but I have to admit that I had trouble believing how Colt was so easily taken at times.  And I had a little trouble with the escape scenario, but it was in keeping with pulp roots, which I think the series ascribes to a lot.  I would have liked more exploration and explanation of the villains, which were almost cartoonish.Still, all in all and as promised, the story takes up about as much time as it takes to eat lunch.  For ninety-nine cents, the story is a steal.