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The Drifter

ebook
1 of 2 copies available
1 of 2 copies available
The first explosive thriller featuring Peter Ash, a veteran who finds that the demons of war aren’t easily left behind...
“Lots of characters get compared to my own Jack Reacher, but Petrie’s Peter Ash is the real deal.”—Lee Child

Peter Ash came home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: what he calls his “white static,” the buzzing claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress that has driven him to spend a year roaming in nature, sleeping under the stars.
But when a friend from the Marines commits suicide, Ash returns to civilization to help the man’s widow with some home repairs. Under her dilapidated porch, he finds more than he bargained for: the largest, ugliest, meanest dog he’s ever encountered...and a Samsonite suitcase stuffed with cash and explosives.
As Ash begins to investigate this unexpected discovery, he finds himself at the center of a plot that is far larger than he could have imagined...and it may lead straight back to the world he thought he’d left for good.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 16, 2015
      This strong thriller from debut author Petrie begins on the mean streets of Milwaukee, Wis. Marine veteran Peter Ash spent eight years fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan; now he’s a civilian suffering from PTSD. Ash’s first order of business after mustering out of the service is to help Dinah, the widow of Jimmy Johnson, a Marine buddy who committed suicide after returning home. While rescuing a huge stray mutt living under Dinah’s ramshackle porch, Ash discovers a hidden suitcase containing $400,000 and plastic explosives. Dinah pleads ignorance, but Ash becomes skeptical after an armed, scarred man accosts him at the house. It all seems to revolve around a mysterious man in a “black canvas chore coat,” whose surreptitious goal is to secure several thousand pounds of ammonium nitrate, a potentially explosive substance. Petrie’s expertly paced plot sets a colorful array of characters on a collision course. Readers will look forward to seeing more of the resourceful Ash. Agent: Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Literary Agency.

    • Kirkus

      Starred review from November 15, 2015
      A debut thriller that raises questions about domestic terror and the way the American government treats its war veterans. In the prologue, someone identified only as "the man in the black canvas chore coat" buys fertilizer at a farm supply store, clearly intending to build a bomb and evoking parallels to Timothy McVeigh. Meanwhile, Marine veteran Peter Ash sets out to repair the broken-down Milwaukee home of Jimmy Johnson, a comrade who'd committed suicide. Feeling responsible as Jimmy's former commander, Peter tells widow Dinah Johnson that his work is part of a Marine program to assist returning vets. No such program exists, but he knows Dinah would refuse his charity, and he likes fixing old houses anyway. Under the porch he discovers a suitcase that's guarded by a fearsome pit bull. He improvises a clever way to control the dog and finds $400,000 and bars of C4 explosive in the suitcase, hinting at a horrific attack in the wind. Ignorant of the explosives, Dinah wants no part of the money. But a scar-faced stranger is watching the house, and Peter wants to know why--perhaps the man is looking for the suitcase. The enormous dog had been Jimmy's and is named Mingus, after the jazz great Charles Mingus. The snarling monster has an overpowering stench, "a stink sharp enough to cut." Throughout the story, Peter feels "white static" in his head anytime he's indoors, a combat legacy that threatens to incapacitate him. Peter talks to detective Sam Lipsky about the suicide while Dinah and Peter try to find out where the money came from. Midden, the guy in the chore coat, is part of a small group of angry vets who want to teach big banks a lesson: "that the people run this country." Now the story is about much more than Peter defeating his demons; it's about America's sorry treatment of veterans and the desperate measures a few of them might take. Meanwhile, when Peter learns the truth about Jimmy, his mission changes. The relationship between Peter and Mingus is entertaining and reveals a lot about the man's character. A powerful, empathetic, and entertaining tale about the plight many combat veterans face when they come home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Top-notch storytelling.

      COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      January 1, 2016
      Lieutenant Peter Ash is attempting to accommodate the intense claustrophobia he developed after returning from Afghanistan by living out of a backpack in the Cascades when he learns that his sergeant, Jimmy Johnson, has committed suicide. Disturbed by the thought that he wasn't there for his best friend, Peter invents a Marine Corps program that provides repairs to veteran's homes and heads to Milwaukee to look after Jimmy's family on the sly. During the demolition of Dinah Johnson's rotten front porch, Peter finds a suitcase full of cash and plastic explosives that Dinah claims to know nothing about. Peter can't leave Jimmy's family until the suitcase and the black SUV he's noticed casing Dinah's house are sorted out, so he begins methodically piecing together Jimmy's last days to find answers. Peter's sharply intelligent, witty voice strikes the right tone for an honest exploration of the challenges returning veterans face, and while this wandering veteran will remind some of Jack Reacher, Peter's struggle to overcome PTSD sets him apart. An absorbing thriller debut with heart.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

    • Library Journal

      January 1, 2016

      Peter Ash is a 31-year-old marine vet whose PTSD "white static" prevents him from being indoors. Feeling guilty about a fellow vet's suicide, he goes to Milwaukee to help the widow out, and he finds $400,000 in cash plus explosives and a giant dog under her porch. As Ash investigates his friend's death and possible involvement in some dirty dealings, his probe leads him to a gangster, a plot to blow up a bank in a financial scam, and a hedge fund manager who may have murdered his wife. VERDICT Despite a finale that strains credulity, Petrie's impressive debut thriller is fine tuned, the action gripping, and through Ash offers a well-drawn portrait of a vet who can't escape his combat experience. Like Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, Ash's philosophy of detection is to poke a stick into something and see what happens. His discoveries will keep the reader on edge and whet the appetite for more from this author. [See Prepub Alert, 7/27/15.]--Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

      Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Library Journal

      August 1, 2015

      Plagued with claustrophobia after returning home from war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Peter Ash agrees to help the estranged widow of a marine buddy who committed suicide--and finds a suitcase stuffed with explosives under her porch. A debut novel and first in a series from Petrie, whose story "At the Laundromat" won the 2006 Short Story Contest in the Seattle Review.

      Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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