Books › The two minute rule
The two minute rule
First published 2006 · 565 pages
A gritty, ticking-clock thriller fueled by a father's grief and a desperate quest for redemption in a corrupt city.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like a desperate sprint through the cynical, sun-bleached streets of Los Angeles. It is a propulsive, gritty experience anchored by a deep sense of parental grief and the bitter taste of lost time. The narrative moves with the urgency of a ticking clock, pulling the reader into a shadowy world where the lines between law enforcement and criminality blur into systemic corruption. The prose is sharp and direct, stripping away sentimentality to expose the raw nerve of a flawed man seeking a final, desperate chance at redemption. It is a tense, atmospheric journey that will grip readers who crave hard-hitting crime fiction where institutional rot meets deeply personal stakes, delivering a relentless drive toward a hard-won truth.
- Mood
- tense
- shadowy
- grief-stricken
- dangerous
- Tone
- gritty
- determined
- cynical
- urgent
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- parental grief · seeking redemption · systemic corruption · the weight of past mistakes · vengeance and justice
- The writing
- Sharp, direct, and action-oriented, carrying the hardboiled edge of a classic Los Angeles crime thriller.
- The arc
- Moves from the bitter devastation of a shattered homecoming to a relentless, grief-fueled drive for truth and retribution.
- Who it's for
- Fans of gritty, fast-paced police procedurals and crime fiction who love flawed protagonists fighting against corrupt systems.
Content notes
- gun violence
- murder of a family member
- police corruption
- grief
- incarceration themes
About the book
Two minutes can be a lifetime. Ask anyone on the wrong side of the law about the two minute rule and they’ll tell you that’s as long as you can hope for at a robbery before the cops show up. Break the two minute rule and it’s a lifetime in jail. But not everyone plays by the rules... When ex-con Max Holman finally gets out of jail, freedom doesn’t taste too sweet. The only thing on his mind is reconciliation with his estranged son, who is, ironically, a cop. But then he hears the devastating news: His son and three other Los Angeles police officers were gunned down in cold blood the night before Holman’s release. When the hit is exposed as a revenge killing and the question of police corruption is raised, it becomes a father’s last duty to clear his son’s name and catch the killer.
Description from Open Library.
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