This is a sequel; know that first and foremost. While you could read this without reading the first (I tried), I hope that many of my questions and most of the holes in the story would've been answered by reading book one. I don't recommend reading this one first because there is just too much unexplained backstory to hold my suspension of disbelief. Perhaps I missed the 'sequel' part of the release for this title. The basic plot line -- a former car thief gets hired to help bust a car theft ring, and to be sure things don't go horribly wrong, the former thief (Dubs) gets a minder (Max) and the two are handcuffed. A good enough setup, but the author doesn't do a good enough job of summarizing what I missed in book one to keep my interest.