A fictional world where tech and social media have run amok
“The Breaker” by Nick Petrie (Putnam, 416 pages, $27)
Half a dozen years ago I was interviewing the bestselling novelist Lee Child — I asked him if he could suggest books I might want to read.
Lee reads widely in the crime fiction/thriller genre and is an enthusiastic book blurber.
Lee mentioned he enjoyed the debut novel by Nick Petrie — that Nick’s protagonist in what has now become a series, a guy named Peter Ash, was the closest fictional counterpart to his own character, Jack Reacher, he had encountered.
I tracked down a copy of the book and I could certainly see the parallels. Reacher and Ash are both military veterans and they are always getting themselves into situations that require them to have serious, violent encounters with truly bad people.
Child’s Jack Reacher is a drifter. He has no fixed address, few possessions, and even fewer attachments. He wanders the world and trouble always seems to find him. Any romantic relationships are often fairly brief.
Petrie’s Peter Ash is an Iraq War veteran. He suffers
from PTSD.
During the early books he was so claustrophobic that he could hardly stand to be inside of a building. In those first books he was a wanderer, somewhat like Reacher.
In “The Breaker,” the sixth and latest book in the series, we find Peter has really settled down. He’s in love with June and their relationship has lasted over the course of several books. They are living a quiet life in a house in Milwaukee.
Jack Reacher rarely stays in one spot for more than a few days. While there are still many similarities between Reacher and Ash, this character of Nick Petrie’s keeps growing and developing. As the book opens he’s maintaining a super low profile because the FBI is trying to apprehend him due to some serious incidents that took place during a previous adventure over in Iceland.
“The Breaker” opens with instant action. Peter and his friend Lewis served in Iraq together and they are observant. They are in a public space with June when they notice a man is concealing a gun. They intervene.
June is a journalist. Following the scuffle she attempts to identify the people involved in that incident. They had fled the scene. Why?
Who were they? Her sleuthing stirs up a hornets’ nest as she soon becomes the target of a hired assassin.
Petrie crafts relentlessly engaging thrillers. His villain is like something out of James Bond. Our damsel in distress, a tech genius, has been terribly wronged. Our assassin, a leering monster named Edgar, reminded this reviewer of one of James Lee Burke’s recent bad guys, a grinning hired killer known as Smiley. The Mystery Writers of America presents awards that are named after Edgar Allan Poe. Every time the creepy killer Edgar resurfaced in this novel I thought; this mystery is certainly deserving of one of those Edgar Awards.
Nick Petrie is at the top of his game. This is the best book yet in this series.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www. wyso.org/programs/booknook. Contact him at vick@ vickmickunas.com.