The Diabolical
David Putnam
reviewed by Lou Jacobs


readersremains.com | Goodreads


Embark on a thrilling roller coaster ride through the streets and alleys of Tamarindo, Costa Rica with David Putnam’s eleventh Bruno Johnson novel. In this gripping tale, Bruno will stop at nothing to ensure justice for his family and friends. This book stands alone, thanks to Putnam’s skill in weaving necessary backstory seamlessly into the narrative.



Bruno’s complex history began over thirty years ago with the violent crime task force in Los Angeles. Revered by his adversaries, he was known for his tenacious and sometimes violent approach to justice. His past includes a stint in prison for avenging his daughter’s murder. Now, he resides in Costa Rica with his wife, Maria, and their thirteen rescued children, saved from abusive homes in Los Angeles. Their efforts are legendary, likened to an underground railroad for abused children. Despite his fear of extradition and outstanding kidnapping warrants, Bruno remains unchallenged. Known for skirting the line in pursuit of criminals, he currently works under the alias ‘Gaylord’ at the Punta Bandera Hotel and Beach Club, ever vigilant against threats of extradition.

Bruno’s life takes a turn when his best friend, Karl Drago, marries his beautiful bride Layla on the beach, accompanied by his faithful Rottweiler, Waldo, trained to respond to German commands. Unbeknownst to Bruno, Karl entrusts him with Waldo’s care. Shortly after, he’s summoned to a crime scene by Chief Hernandez.

Chief Hernandez, aware of Bruno’s skills, requests his assistance at the scene of Tamarindo’s first-ever murder – a brutal shootout at the nightclub El Gato Gorda. Recognizing two of the victims, Bruno is drawn into the investigation, offering insights to help solve the case.

Meanwhile, Bruno contends with Otis Brasher, a regular at the bar, who hires him for protection. Bruno suspects Otis’s slovenly appearance is a disguise, doubting his story of being a white-collar criminal hiding out in Costa Rica. Complications escalate when the Russian mob mistakes Bruno for “The Genie,” a notorious diamond thief.

David Putnam proves his storytelling prowess, skillfully intertwining complex plotlines in this fast-paced, engaging novel. The book’s multidimensional characters add warmth, humor, and authenticity, reflecting Putnam’s deep understanding of law enforcement. This memorable tale, rich with well-crafted characters and a compelling plot, will linger with readers long after the final page.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Oceanview Publication for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.

Bruno Johnson #11

Ex-cop, ex-con, Bruno Johnson is hiding from US law enforcement in Costa Rica with his wife, Maria, and the twelve children they've rescued from toxic homes in south central Los Angeles. Bruno works at the Lido Cabana Bar at the Punta Bandera Hotel, and his friend, Karl Drago, is getting married on the beach, right outside. After the festivities, Bruno and Marie go skinny-dipping in the ocean, but they're quickly interrupted by a visit from law enforcement.

This story has everything I like - mystery, romance, great characters, and a strong plot. Unfortunately, life kept interrupting my reading otherwise, I would not have been able to put this book down. The pace is fast in this very twisted read. I like the author's writing style. The local police chief needs Bruno's help in solving the murders of six people, and Bruno has no choice, he has to help him.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #OceanviewPublishing and the author #DavidPytman for my ARC of #TheDiabolical in exchange for an honest review.

Die Hardest

How is poor Bruno still with us? He gets in more trouble than his favorite movie hero, Bruce Willis, in the "Die Hard" series. I am a big fan of the blockbusters, and, while I haven't yet read all his novels, I've read enough that I look out for new work from this author, David Putnam.

Part mystery, part crime story, told with some humor and quirky characters.
Bruno is an ex-cop and criminal hiding in Costa Rico with his wife and 12 children. He bartends in the local hotel bar and keeps a low profile. When a large crime happens, he is asked to help figure it out. What he doesn't realize, is that many people have their own agendas, police corruption, and a long ago robbery. Hi shelp is getting him deeper in trouble, but in order to get out, he needs to solve it.
Lots of action, mystery, and interesting characters.

Book Review: The Diabolical (Bruno Johnson 11) by David Putnam
Published by Oceanview Publishing, February 6, 2024

★★★★★ (5.0 Stars!)

Author David Putnam goes full "Tico" (See Footnote 1) as he moves his fan-favorite "Bruno Johnson" police procedural cum feel good, altruistic series from the streets of South Central LA to the beaches of coastal Central America.

It is in a small resort town in Costa Rica that, Johnson, the fugitive /ex-cop /ex-con /family man gets entangled with spies, assassins, money launderers, the cartel, the mob, Russians and the OIJ (Costa Rican justice department) in a masterful novel by author David Putnam that brings to mind Pulitzer Prize-winning author Herman Wouk's beach resort novel "Don't Stop the Carnival" (1965), along with John le Carré's "The Night Manager" (1993), i.e. the TV adaptation filmed in Spain's party island, Mallorca.

Footnote 1. “Tico” and “Tica” (male and female) are colloquial terms that Costa Ricans give themselves, due to their linguistic tendency to add the diminutive “tico” to the end of words.

// The Diabolical (Bruno Johnson 11) by David Putnam (2024) //

Tamarindo, Costa Rica.
A resort town nestled on the country's Pacific coast.

Gaylord works a bartending shift at the Lido Cabana bar on the white sand beach of Punta Bandera Hotel and Beach Club. "Sénior Juan Gaylord" is the current alias of one Bruno Johnson, ex-convict, ex-cop, and parent and father figure to and protector of fourteen children informally fostered by himself and his wife, Marie, most of whom were rescued from at-risk homes in South Central L.A..

This day was going to be a happy occasion, the wedding day of Johnson's best friend, Drago, to a local "Tica", the daughter of Aleck Vargas, the doctor who delivered the Johnsons' first child, and who is slated to be the next provincial governor.

Enter the groom, Drago - and Waldo. Him, a redneck "Sons of Satan" biker gang dropout. He's Bruno's best friend, a puppy who constantly seeks the nod and approval of Marie. And it! A 130-pound Rottweiler who "never just bites people - he mauls them", and understands and obeys commands from his master. In German, no less.

But that very evening, Costa Rica experiences its first active shooter incident with multiple fatalities. Dead on the floor of a popular nightclub, Aleck Vargas, the father of Layla, Drago's new bride.

The deaths are followed by many more, Johnson himself is shot at, Slavic accents are heard in town, and all hell breaks loose.

The tranquility of Tamarindo is shattered.

Was it high time for "Rosebud", the code word for the Johnsons' emergency plan for themselves and the children to flee to Panama in the dead of night.....?

-----

With uplifting themes of hope and redemption, best-selling author David Putnam parleys his years of law enforcement into the palpable realism of his writing. Inter-alia, he was with the real Hawaii Five-O, a narc, on an FBI-sponsored team, with a SWAT team and has supervised corrections, patrol, and a detective bureau.

Review based on an advance reading copy courtesy of Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley.

The Diabolical is book number eleven in David Putnam's Bruno Johnson series, and by this point in the series Bruno is doing his best to live a quiet life in Costa Rica along with his wife, their new baby son, his grandson, and the eleven kids they've rescued from abusive homes in Los Angeles without bothering first about the required paperwork. All of that, though, is about to change, creating a dangerous situation for Bruno and Marie who are still wanted on murder and kidnapping charges back in the U.S.

And it all starts out so innocently, just as Bruno and Marie are beginning to enjoy a bout of private skinny-dipping at the beach one night. Bruno's presence in Costa Rica has not gone nearly as unnoticed as he had hoped, something he realizes only after the searchlights hit his and Marie's naked bodies. The local police chief needs Bruno's assistance in solving the mass murder of six people that's just happened in a popular nightspot - and Bruno is going to going to help whether or not he wants to. The choice is not going to be his.

What follows is a twisted and bloody investigation during which Bruno is constantly looking over his shoulder and wondering if there is anyone out there he can still trust as he works through a long list of potential suspects and motives. But Bruno keeps yanking on threads long enough for things to start to unravel, and now he hopes that he can manage to stay alive long enough to identify the killer - and that his marriage will survive the process.

David Putnam fills The Diabolical with so many unforgettable characters that even the bad guys are kind of fun to have around. There's Otis, the fat, stinky drunk who hangs around the bar all day long as Bruno serves him one Grasshopper after another; Doris, Bruno's ice-queen boss, who delights in firing and re-hiring him over and over; Eddie, the oldest child taken in by Bruno and Marie, who has a sense-of-humor all his own; and Waldo, the dog that has an intense love/hate relationship with Bruno that drives Bruno nuts.

Best of all, no matter what may have just happened to Bruno hours earlier, he always manages to show his appreciation for his family by carving out time for special games with the kids or a quiet moment alone with Marie. This man loves children, and his self-appointed mission in life is to rescue as many of them as he can - and no one is going to stop him.

The Diabolical is fun. And that's what it's all about.

Toe-Tags Needed: 11

A really well written thriller in a humourous style that is easy to jog along to.
Full of twists and very likable characters (although there are quite a few to familiarise yourself with) that has a great ending.
Love the dog by the way!

Thank you netgalley and publishers for this arc copy to read and review.

This is the latest installment of a series of novels about Bruno and is marketed as being able to be read as a standalone. While for the most part it did read as a stand alone, there would be an advantage to having read the previous novels. This was my first Bruno novel.

Overall I liked the book. It read well and paced quickly. I found it to be a bit predictable and anticlimactic. It felt like the actual investigation got muddled and lost in the book. They quickly latched on to the first explanation and that was that. Until a confession was thrown into the mix. I feel I would have benefited from the previous books, as there are so many references throughout. For a supposedly happily married man he sure spent a lot of time ogling his boss and other women. The whole character of his boss, was just weird. Her behavior and actions were just all over the place. It was like they couldn't decide who they wanted her to be.

I'll give it 3 stars.

This is the first book that I’ve read in the series. Although easy to read as a stand alone novel I would like to know the back history written in the 10 previous books from the series. I found this book entertaining both comically and dramatically. It kept me guessing until the very end!

Bruno was a policeman in California before he went on the run with his wife and so many children. At least he landed in a beautiful place. Seems everyone in the town is escaping legal issues from the states. He is working as a barkeeper in a hotel so life should be calm. Yet nothing is calm at all. The police chief asks for help on a mass murder case. From then all the book is off and running with so much action, misunderstandings, and a dog that has no loyalty. This book is a good story with characters we can not trust, a family he loves and Russian thugs. What's not to like??!!

Life has been idyllic for ex-cop Bruno Johnson where he lives in Costa Rica. Wanted in the USA, he has to lie low, whilst caring for his extended family of traumatised kids and wife.

But it takes a long spoon to sup with evil and apparently, evil has not only followed Bruno home, but has also taken up root within his neighbourhood. Six people, some dear friends of his, have been murdered at a party in cold blood, and when more bodies turn up his beautiful but micro-managing employer is not amused.

Meanwhile a local cop tries to blackmail him into loyalty, and a dodgy customer at the hotel where hie works, also seems to require his protection. And the bodies start to pile up as Bruno tries to work put who the real killer is.

This works then as an excellent whodunit, with twists still coming till the very end. Bruno Johnson is a highly engaging character, though it is to be wondered if he will ever be able to feel the same about his new home again.

The Diabolical turns out to be book 11 in a series about Bruno Johnson. I haven't read any of the other books, but the author suggests that it is okay as a stand alone, and I didn't feel like there were any plot points that I didn't understand. It took me a bit to get comfortable with the writing style, but the plot was enjoyable and engaging. The side characters were interesting and entertaining. I loved Waldo and Bruno's relationship with his children. I was trying to guess the outcome and there were enough twists to keep me guessing right up to the climax. Fans of crime thrillers should check this one out, I'll go back to read the other stories about Bruno.

Thank you to NetGalley and Oceanview publishing for the access to the ARC.

Book #11 in the Bruno Johnson series and it certainly hasn’t lost any of its appeal.

Ex cop (and ex con) Bruno, is now living in Costa Rica with his wife Marie and 12 kids (all rescued from abusive homes). The move to Costa Rica was necessitated by the fact that he’s a wanted man in the US, and facing imprisonment. However, he’s given an ultimatum by the Costa Rican police that unless he helps them with an investigation into a shooting at the Gato Gordo nightclub, they’ll turn him in.

Six people were shot dead at the club, including a very good friend of Bruno’s, so it’s in his own interest to discover who committed this terrible crime, and also why.

In between working as a bartender at the Punta Bandera Hotel, investigating the shooting, and trying to maintain some sort of family life, Bruno is pulled every which way, and it doesn’t help that his boss (The Ice Maiden), keeps the staff under constant surveillance, resulting in threats to terminate their employment. She orders Bruno to remove a body, along with any evidence from a room in the hotel - and from there on in the action really kicks in!

Another twisty, action packed storyline, full of evil characters, but with plenty of light relief in the form of Waldo, Bruno’s friend Drago’s huge Rottweiler dog, who plays a very large part in the story - this dog has a mind of his own, and he’s nobody’s fool! But it provides lots of laughs regarding Bruno’s relationship with the wonderful Waldo. Recommended.

This is the first Bruno Johnson book I've read and it can easily be read as a stand alone. I enjoyed the non-stop action, thought some of the characters were a little over the top the plot not totally believable but I enjoyed the camaraderie and humorous banter between the main characters. Recommended

This is the 11th book in the Bruno Johnson series. I have read several of the books and am a big fan of Bruno. He is a former LA police officer and then an ex-con. He is hiding from American law enforcement in Costa Rico, a place acknowledged for an absence of serious crime. Things are about to change! With him are his wife and thirteen children, twelve of whom they rescued from toxic homes in LA and are raising as their own.

Bruno works as a bartender in the swank Punta Bandera Hotel. He attended his friend Drago's wedding and is now in charge of Drago's huge Rottweiler dog, which has a mind of its own. He is trying to balance his low-paying day job with his home life. In this immersive, action-filled and witty thriller, things begin to become complicated for Bruno, which will make the readers' heads spin. Bruno is headed for a complex, tension-filled predicament. The storyline is complex and unpredictable.

When six people are shot to death in a nightclub, the local police chief orders Bruno to help him solve the murders. If Bruno refuses, he will be turned over to American authorities to face arrest and imprisonment in the USA. On top of this, he has been offered a large sum of much-needed cash to act as a bodyguard, escorting an always inebriated patron to and from the bar daily. His attempts to shuffle his duties at home and work are further complicated by the 'Ice Maiden,' the manager of the bar where Bruno works. She keeps the staff under constant surveillance, resulting in threats to terminate their employment. She orders Bruno to remove a body with any evidence from a room in the hotel.

Bruno is attacked and realizes his life is in danger, and he fears for the lives of his family. Add to these concerns and riotous events are a NY diamond heist, Russian gangsters, and various suspects of wrongdoing. It is difficult to separate the guilty from the innocent. The characters are well-developed, and I particularly liked Waldo, the dog.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this entertaining thriller. I look forward to reading further books featuring Bruno and his family.

The best in this book is definitely the characters (especially Waldo), and the setting and the interests of the main character make it interesting. The plot is OK, as is the storytelling, which is fast and entertaining.

What a ride!! Buckle your seat belts and hang onto your hats! This is my first Bruno read in the Bruno series. Very entertaining and fast paced. The added humor is a bonus. David Putnam combined fun, family, murder, intrigue, corruption and camaraderie. Bruno is an interesting character. It all comes together in the end. Thank you NetGally and Oceanview Publishing for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own. #NetGalley, #TheDiabolical, #OceanviewPublishing.

"The Diabolical" is a page-turner. I didn't know until I'd finished that it is 11th in a series, but author David Putnam says the books can be read in any order.

Bruno Johnson lives in Costa Rica with his wife and a passel of children. His past follows him: he was an ex-cop and ex-con in the United States. If found, extradition would be forthcoming.

Quite a few people are not what they seem at the hotel where Bruno works as a bartender. One night multiple people are shot in the bar. Who could have done such a thing? So many suspects with so many possible motives! Some of these suspects beat up on Bruno fairly regularly but does that make them killers?

If you enjoy a lot of misdirection in your mysteries and frequent use of guns and knives, the Bruno Johnson series might just be for you. I enjoyed the nonstop activity and the searches for multiple perpetrators.

Anyone could be guilty. But are they?

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance reader's copy.

Another crime thriller from David Putnam, this time set in Costa Rica. It starts with a mass murder of 6 people and the local police chief seeks the help of Bruno, who tends to the bar at one of the resorts. There are many twists and turns as the story unravels to reveal a 6 million diamond heist which happened in New York. The story gets lost in the many plots and subplots and finally gets solved. At the same time, many loose ends remain, perhaps to be sorted out in the sequel. On the whole an average book. It starts on a quick note and gradually loses steam, before stumbling to a tepid conclusion.

Bruno Johnson # 11

I discovered this author not long ago and I fast became a huge fan. I simply love how he tucks in some soft humour between the lines while he keeps the suspense moving at a fast pace. This is a twisty ride that had me on the edge of my seat from the opening page...I simply loved it. The plot is well crafted and with its well-developed characters: Bruno, ex-cop/ex-con now a bartender at a trendy hotel, in Costa Rica, has a lot to content with especially his boss the Ice Queen, my favourite character is Waldo, a Rottweiler with a mind of his own....with the many drunken tourists we have a lot to keep us fascinated. Of course Bruno has a lovely family his wife Marie and his thirteen children there to support him. he also has to content himself with a chief of police that is shady and to spice the story and gives us the shivers Mr. Putman makes him face Russian gang and a few general thugs...What a complicated and unpredictable development Mr. Putnam penned in “The Diabolical”.

It opens as a shooting just occurred at El Gato Gordo nightclub, the victim is a prominent local figure and Bruno’s close friend. Bruno is asked to help by the chief of police finding the shooter and if he doesn’t, the chief will turn him over to US authorities.

Don’t drop the ball Bruno or you are out....

This series can be read in any order all books stand on their own and can be read in any order.