One Rule: No Rules

One Rule #1

by Lawrence Ambrose

Thalma Engstrom has never known a normal life. As a young girl she discovered an ability to change into a boy and that falling from tree tops did little more than muss her hair. She learned that roughhousing with other children was likely to send her playmates home with broken bones.

Leaving home to join the Army at eighteen, Thalma is soon recruited into the experimental Women's Special Forces Program (WASP), where her performance impresses her superiors and earns the interest of shadowy intelligence agencies, including the CIA. Two years after graduating the elite program, she is sent to South America to infiltrate a drug cartel and ultimately assassinate its leader in a joint military-CIA operation. After completing her mission, her refusal to accept further similar assignments results in her discharge from the Army.

Using the knowledge obtained in Brazil, Thalma slowly builds up her own illegal network of drug sales, off-the-record investments, and dummy corporations until she is a millionaire many times over.

Now living in South Dakota, Thalma appears to lead a normal life as the caretaker for a farm owned by her own dummy corporation while secretly tending an underground complex of rooms growing exotic, illegal plants.

Living alone within a labyrinth of secret identities, shell companies, and a network of businesses legal and illicit – making monthly use of the Silk Road 2.0 – Thalma's only companion is her trustworthy Rottweiler, Socrates.

But a chance meeting with a young man running from the law and an ill-fated attempt to collect on a debt rip apart her newfound normalcy and plunge her into a terrible struggle to save her new love and herself.

Kindle Edition

First published February 24, 2015

Reviews

[DJay · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a book with a strong female lead, this is one of them. Thalma is one BA mofo. She has a plan, and come hell or high water, she's going to stick with it. This book does suffer from the love at first site cliche, but beyond that, the story told is nice and fresh. The main character is androgynous which puts quite the spin on this book. It will make more sense when you read the book and then see the explanation in it. It's far fetched, but I'll be the first to say that this could be a movie worth watching if it was made into one. It would be like Lucy and John Wick had a kid. It would be this book.

[Richard Ferguson · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read a book I've paid for with my hard-earned money, I want it to be good. Sometimes I read a few pages of a book and, if I'm not convinced the author knows what he/she is doing, or if I just find that the characters or the plot seem dull, boring, and not going anywhere, I stop and forget it. Which leads me to Lawrence Ambrose and One Rule: No Rules.

I knew in the first couple of pages that Ambrose is an excellent writer. I fell right into the story. The characters seemed real immediately, and the plot as it progressed was a wild ride. There's a point in some books where I sort of surface from the action and ask myself, do I want to suspend disbelief and immerse myself in this? In this case, I dove in without a qualm. I'll tell you one thing: you've never met a female protagonist quite like Thalma Engstrom.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely among my favorites from Mr. Ambrose. An exciting page-turner, with great characters and a fast-paced story. Very highly recommended!