"With expert pacing and ever-escalating danger, Ruland keeps all the subplots spinning as the crime spree rumbles to a surprise conclusion. It’s a rollicking and whip smart tale of wannabe outlaws."

– Publishers Weekly

"Zane Grey saddles up with Donald Westlake in the Old West of 1993 when four broke English professors, who ought to know better, decide to become knockover artists. The heists may go sideways, but Ruland pulls off this rollicking mountain town caper in spectacular fashion, with one quickdraw move after another. Hats off to Lonesome Cowboy Jim, the Flagstaff Kid."

– —J.D. O'Brien, author of Zig Zag

"I haven't been this knocked out by a heist novel since the Parker series. Hell, even more so, because the crew is made up of frustrated writers, gamblers, addicts, and eccentrics—in short, the kind of friends I had in my twenties. (Hard relate, as the kids say.) Jim Ruland rules!"

– —Duane Swierczynski, New York Times bestselling author of California Bear

"I screamed and leapt and punched the air. Holy smokes, this novel. Jim Ruland's Mightier Than the Sword is a campus noir with a punk fuse and a poet's ear, an ingenious heist novel and searing critique of the American grind that's a blast to read. Four adjunct professors plan a crime so brilliant and bonkers I couldn't stop reading. Funny, salty, exquisitely weird, this book is a roundhouse kick. 'Having transgressed against herself, which is the best kind of feeling there is.' The real effing deal."

– Margot Douaihy, USA Today bestselling author of Scorched Grace, Blessed Water, and Divine Ruin

“Infused with the anger and positivity that punk rock can offer, Make It Stop is both an excellent comic book style romp and a frightening look at what, potentially, lies ahead.”

– The Pensive Quill

“Everyone knows that healthcare in this country is broken, but no one has written a ripping crime thriller about it, until now. In ‘Make It Stop’ Jim Ruland takes his readers on an adrenalized thrill ride set in the near-distant future that in fact has a lot to say about our present health-industrial complex and its voracious appetite for profit at the expense of public welfare.”

– Los Angeles Times

“A punk rock thrill ride.” 

– Francesca Lia Block on Make It Stop

“A bare knuckle, punk rock fever dream about American health care.”

– Joshua Mohr, author of Model Citizen on Make It Stop