Quirk's Ski Crime
Bruce Von Stiers
When reading a biographical sketch on Peter James Quirk, he seems like a character in a novel. He has been a construction contractor, a professional fisherman, a member of the Merchant Marine, a ski and snowboarding instructor and a writer for a cooking show on Chinese television. But instead of being in a novel, Mr. Quirk has written one. It is a crime novel with some romance thrown in. The title of the novel is Trail of Vengeance. It is being published by Hopewell Publications, which also publishes the Boot Means mystery series by Christopher Klim.
The novel has two story lines that intertwine at various points. The first story line is that of Lisa Rossi. She is a member of the NYPD. Through a series of events, Lisa is able to be promoted to Detective. She is partnered up with Billy MacFee, a slightly older, more experienced detective. They are investigating a series of jewelry store burglaries. When on a stakeout, an attempt to arrest the criminals goes awry and Billy is killed. Lisa vows to get the guys who killed Billy.
The second story line evolves around a Frenchman named Emile Charpentier. He is a small time crook who is also a ski bum. His father owns a bar in Antwerp . Emile is hanging around with one of his childhood friends. Besides hanging around, they are part of a burglary ring.
As Lisa begins investigating further, she is given a new partner. Roberto Mendes comes from the D.A.'s office and has an attitude. But that just helps drive Lisa harder to find Billy's killer.
While tracking down leads, Lisa meets ski instructor Jean-Loup Caron. He and Charpentier had been friends and co-ski instructors. Lisa finds herself liking Caron. And her friends keep telling her to get out and become involved with someone. But should she get involved with someone who just might have something to do with the jewelry heist and Billy's death?
The story locations move between New York and the ski slopes of Europe . The author gives you segments of each story line. Sometimes the lines mix and others they move along separately. But everything melds together in the end for a fairly exciting final showdown.
Trail of Vengeance has a pretty steady pace. The dialog between characters is fluid and the descriptions of locations, people and events are concise, without being too stodgy.
As I said earlier, Trail of Vengeance is a basically a crime novel with romance thrown in. We get the good guy cop in Lisa Rossi. We get the supposed bad guy in Emile Charpentier. And we get Lisa's romantic interest and Emile's possible co-criminal in Jean-Loup Caron.
Trail of Vengeance is a pretty decent first attempt for Quirk. His knowledge of skiing makes the backdrop for some of the story locations true to life. And his other life experiences have given him the ability to provide a novel that is both interesting and believable.
You can get a copy of Trail of Vengeance through the Hopewell Publications web site. It is at www.hopepubs.com
To learn mores about Peter James Quirk, visit www.peterjamesquirk.com . Besides his bio, the site also has a couple of short stories that are sure to entertain you.
© 2006 Bruce E Von Stiers