Rose City Free Fall: Dent Miller Thriller #1 (Dent Miller Thrillers)

I was totally engaged from the start. This is a thinking man's Lee Child story: a deeper and more intoxicating thriller. And wholly believable. I liked Dent and his humanity. He seemed three dimensional and his inner workings lend him gravitas.

Excellent, well written book but with 1 MAJOR criticism and this is a pet hate, it did not conclude at all well. This is supposed to entice you to purchase the next follow on, but for me this will not work. It is the old saying - 'once bitten, twice shy'. There is no guarantee that this will not happen with the next book and so on, there is nothing worse than a poor ending!

Thrillers aren't meant to be 'real'. This one is outrageously gung ho, but is well-written and immersive. A cut above the tired serial-killer police procedural, it's a roller coaster of action with just enough introspection from the hero to make him seem a little more than two dimensional, a little less than superman. Yes, there's a wee bit of blood and guts, and even a bit of the old rumpy- pumpy, but the author doesn't dwell on either to the detriment of the story.

Great storyline and characters. Well written telling the story of murder, human trafficking and cover ups. Well worth reading. Definitely recommend this book - you'll want to read it in one sitting.

There is little doubt that ‘Rose City Free Fall’ deserves its accolades for being “gritty” and “intense”, and I admit to finding it a gripping and compelling crime thriller – but I take exception to publicity blurb claiming it is “realistic” and “believable” – it is totally unrealistic and it is completely unbelievable. But hey – it’s fiction. Even so, I found the graphic descriptions of brutality to be too much.The story commences with an aggressive arrest by maverick detective Dent Miller where he is challenged for using violence but the real situation is that his action saved an armed culprit from being shot. He then gets drawn into investigating a murder where he soon discovers the suspect, but readers have to believe that there have been cover-ups and police records have disappeared. Miller is framed and accused of assaulting his own deputy and he faces obstacles from unscrupulous powerful people hiding their crimes and avoiding justice, yet there is a secretive but unsavoury agency seeking his involvement.The issue of corruption is at the heart of ‘Rose City Free Fall’, but instead of a rational police procedural author D L Barbur’s narrative boils down to a continuous invective outpouring on corruption with Miller harassed at all levels from his local superior up to FBI and State security. This leads to a degree of stereotyping with Miller as the misunderstood cop not being exactly aware of what he is up against, or knowing who is friend or foe. For me the reading is exciting but the book is average – hence 3-star rating.

Just missed the five stars. I enjoyed the story up until the last thirty minutes or so. Started to get boring and I almost didn't finish it.

Great book. The characters build well and it's very readable. A few later than planned nights as the story gripped me. None of those tedious "oh as if" moments. Got as a free book, immediately bought the sequel though. Gotta go, I've more reading to do.....

Reading the first Dent Miller Rose City book in three days is something new to me, I would normally only manage around a dozen pages at breakfast and again at bed time but I couldn't put this story down! It is exciting and unpredictable which is a rare quality these days!I'm off to buy the next installment, Rose City Renegade!Thank you DL Barbur, great work!KHunterGlasgowScotland

Fun read

The book is very good and interesting It was good reading Although this end could have sorted out a couple of dollars Nevertheless would recommend without hesitation

A seasoned, hard-boiled cop does seasoned, hard-boiled cop things. It seemed to be shaping up to be a police-procedural type story but ended up going in an unexpected direction. It appears to be the author's first published novel and it does read like it at times--I'd knock it a half star down to 4.5 on account of numerous typos (at least on the Kindle edition) and an ending that felt rushed. The whole story moved at a quick pace and a bit more fleshing out wouldn't have hurt anything. It also flirted with some cliches from time to time but that's all I can think of for negatives.For positives, to start, it's written by a guy who seems to have either first hand LE/military experience or a bunch of friends who do. Some of the details regarding procedure, office politics, gear, and such stood out to me. There was no silly "..and then he switched off his Glock's safety.." nonsense to be found here, and the violence is described realistically: abrupt, unceremonious, occasionally random, and over with quickly; not showy or poetic. The characters are developed well enough that they're all memorable in their own ways, which is impressive given the short length of the story and being told solely from one viewpoint. I also like the setting; Portland is a welcome change of pace from NY and LA and having lived there for a few years it was cool to read about something familiar.All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next one.

Very good story indeed, fast paced, full of action with lots of good personalities as well as many interlinked plots 👍

I liked the plot and the characters were interesting. Found it difficult to keep track of who was on the good side.