Cannabis thriller has Nick Petrie flying high
The blossoming marijuana industry is a gift to crime fiction writers like Nick Petrie.
While many states have legalized medical marijuana and some have even approved recreational pot, most federally regulated banks refuse to work with cannabis businesses, for fear of federal sanctions. So big piles of cash are accumulated and moved around.
Now add the possibility of dope employees sampling the product, and everything goes up in smoke faster than you can say "Cheech & Chong."
In "Light It Up," Whitefish Bay writer Petrie drops series hero Peter Ash into Denver's world of marijuana manufacturing. By the time the gun battles, harrowing high-speed escapes and lethal hand-to-hand fights are over, Petrie's hero may be ready for a long soak in a vat of medical THC.
Ash, whom Petrie introduced in "The Drifter," is a Marine veteran of Fallujah returned to civilian life, a lethal warrior with persistent PTSD that manifests in powerful claustrophobia, making it nearly impossible for Ash to sleep indoors or even remain long inside four walls. In fact, if I were to offer one disclaimer about "Light It Up," it would be for readers who have claustrophobia to approach the novel gently. I found Petrie's descriptions of Ash's claustrophobic flare-ups emotionally convincing.
Physically imposing, Ash is also a restless knight errant, with previous adventures in Milwaukee and the northwest redwoods. In "Light It Up," Petrie colors in more of the portrait of his troubled hero, including his darkest moment in the Middle East. Ash's posse is coalescing, too, including June, the savvy reporter he fell for in "Burning Bright," and Lewis, the smooth but equally lethal compadre whose friendship with Ash has a Spenser-Hawk vibe.
To help a friend, Ash joins a security crew making marijuana business cash pickups. Inevitably, very skilled and very bad people attack them, leading to a hair-raising escape attempt by two men, one nearly dead, on a medical gurney zooming downhill through the Colorado Rockies. (Petrie is beginning to specialize in terrific escapes that would daunt even Indiana Jones.)
A conflict is only as a strong as its villain; Petrie layers in three, including a warrior every bit Ash's counterpart in fighting prowess but far superior in depravity, and a troubled figure from Ash's military past. While weed is at the core of the crimes here, the novel makes plain that the most addictive green thing is money.
Petrie's clever fight scenes here reminded me, incongruously, of Jackie Chan: not that they're funny, but that they make creative use of anything at hand. Here's Petrie, a former carpenter and home inspector, arming Ash as he walks into a dangerous scene:
"It only took a few seconds to find an old railing baluster, a spindle about thirty inches long, tapered in a smooth elegant curve from three-quarters of an inch at one end to an inch and a quarter at the other. Longer than a baton, but more mobile than a baseball bat. The hard oak gave it a nice weight."
Petrie is not a military veteran, but he does his homework. In his three published novels to date, he shows both the effect PTSD has on Ash and the Marine's effort to face his own woundedness. "Light It Up" extends a quality action series with plenty of room ahead both for new adventures and character development.