---
product_id: 20081366
title: "Romeo's Rules (Mike Romeo Thrillers Book 1)"
brand: "james scott bell"
price: "€ 36.13"
currency: EUR
in_stock: false
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.nl/products/20081366-romeos-rules-mike-romeo-thrillers-book-1
store_origin: NL
region: Netherlands
---

# Romeo's Rules (Mike Romeo Thrillers Book 1)

**Brand:** james scott bell
**Price:** € 36.13
**Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Romeo's Rules (Mike Romeo Thrillers Book 1) by james scott bell
- **How much does it cost?** € 36.13 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Currently out of stock
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.nl](https://www.desertcart.nl/products/20081366-romeos-rules-mike-romeo-thrillers-book-1)

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## Description

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Unusual, strangely satisfying, oddball noir mystery-suspense thriller set in post-modern LA
  

*by R***S on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 16, 2020*

In my search for the literary descendants of Ross MacDonald and Raymond Chandler, I came across James Scott Bell a few years back. His noir short stories easily fill the shoes of many of the pulp fiction masters of detective fiction, while his legal thrillers brilliantly capture the sights and sounds of late 90s - early 2000s LA locales, people and that all important decrepit sunshine, seedy paradise by the sea urban vibe.Romeo's Rules is the first in the series of Mike Romeo suspense-thrillers and my first read in this series. So I have no idea where it goes moving forward. You'll need to take this as a stand-alone review of a series origin story read as a stand-alone novel.James Scott Bell does somewhat capture the first-person style of Raymond Chandler. But Bell's hero, Mike Romeo, is more super-hero mysterious than either Chandler's Philip Marlowe or MacDonald's Lew Archer. Romeo does share their clay-footed capacity for getting himself into trouble, but Romeo is an intellectual and physical superhuman, capable of quoting classical Greek philosophers while delivering UFC quality jujitsu moves on his sociopathic foes.Romeo himself is a sociopath. Romeo, of course, is not his real name. He has a shadowy history going back to his childhood as an academic prodigy turned vengeful mixed martial artist that I won't spoil by revealing here.He happens across a bombing at a Catholic Church while on a jog through the neighborhood where he lives with his friend and mentor, the wheel-chair bound, Mossad-agent-turned-rabbi, Ira. such coincidences do, indeed, happen in LA all the time (sarcasm intended). Romeo's obsessive compulsion to help a beautiful woman whose children disappear in the explosion propels him on a journey though LA's dark, intersecting underworld of big business, corrupt politics, organized crime and urban hopelessness.The story itself is not particularly original, and the unexpected ending is fairly expected, but all of it is simply meant to showcase Mike Romeo, a fascinating character whose one-liners and bizarre thinking make up the running gag of an otherwise run-of-the-mill thriller (He is also annoying -- never lacking a flippant remark, biting cut of sarcasm, or irritating tidbit of classical trivia to share with whomever is within hearing distance. Even Ira, his wheel-chair bound rabbi, tires of it!). Mike Romeo is not a private investigator or former cop or an ex-Special Operator, just a street smart genius, former cage-fighter with a capacity for running headfirst into trouble in order to achieve his version of justice in an unjust world in which very evil strong people prey on the weak. His only solution, in most confrontations, to to end every fight with a bad guy dead... and Romeo struggling with a bad conscience afterward... until the next fight scene.James Scott Bell is known in some circles as a "Christian" author. But Romeo's Rules is not aimed at a Christian audience. It's a hard-nosed, bare-knuckle thriller. The upside of Bell's faith means we won't be subjected to constant F-bombs and erotic content, two things that ruin most modern fiction for me. But this novel is violent. Highly. I don't mind. It's what I like to read. But some of you pearl clutchers out there might be offended.So as an "origin" story, Romeo's Rules is a highly-entertaining, novel-length introduction to a unique protagonist. As a stand-alone thriller, it's pedestrian, with the confusing plot lines sorted out by a final conversation near the end that is meant to wrap things up for the reader. Bell is a good writer and should know better. But he must have realized the plot lines here were all over the map and needed to be neatly reeled in before the story ended. Mike Romeo is interesting enough even if this particular story plot isn't. So I'll be looking for bigger and better things in the next one I read in this series.Romeo's Rules is recommended. Especially if you want a post-modern take on 1930s-40s detective pulp fiction set in Southern California. Enjoy!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Brain tickler to the max!
  

*by M***M on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 17, 2023*

Bell is a master at character development, Romeo is both perplexing as well as funny. The crafty unfolding of the plot is exciting and is unfailing in wit as well as action. I enjoyed the mental stimulation.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A Heck of a Lot of Fighting
  

*by G***K on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 8, 2022*

This is a very fun novel packed with action from the first moment to the last. The hero, Romeo, is a former mixed martial arts fighter with devastating physical skills who gets involved in trying to find the kidnapper of two children. He knows he shouldn’t get involved and he makes a half-hearted effort to stop being involved, but the bad guys are worried about him and won’t let him stay out of their trouble. So, they hurt him really bad and he starts hurting them back. There really isn’t anything more to this book. It’s a lot of fighting. There was one thing, however, that bothered me a lot. Romeo believes he has a constitutional right to not tell the police anything about himself even when he is reporting a crime or being questioned about one. Anyone who watches any of the live cop shows knows that once the police begin investigating a crime or potential crime, that right goes straight out the window. Not cooperating is obstruction. But every cop Romeo runs into lets him walk away without even leaving his name. And that was a serious flaw in the story because it threatened my suspension of disbelief. But I still had a lot of fun reading it.

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*Product available on Desertcart Netherlands*
*Store origin: NL*
*Last updated: 2026-02-05*