Synopsis/blurb……
Rennie Beckman is a
dishonored ex-cop with only two things on his mind: his new boat, the
Triggerfish, and his hot date, an environmentalist named Vicki. After the two
unknowingly dock the boat in the same secluded cove as a Mexican cartel’s drug
submarine, the date ends with a bang.
With the cartel’s
coke-for-guns deal with local bikers torched by Beckman, he’s forced to go on
the run with half the underworld chasing him through the streets of Vancouver
and the waters surrounding it. While he tries to stay alive, a woman from
Beckman’s past — currently on the run from CSIS and the anti-terror squad —
comes back to settle an old score.
When the gangs start
to go after his friends, the ex-cop stops running and turns the tables. With a
ragtag crew of his own, Beckman fights the cartel and bikers, head on. Fast,
vicious, and thrilling, Triggerfish delivers a story where all the criminals
are in conflict and no one is certain who will come out on top.
Another slice of top class Canadian crime fiction from
Dietrich Kalteis with Triggerfish. Triggerfish is the third novel from Kalteis
after Ride the Lightning and The Deadbeat Club.
My kind of book…….. a cop becomes an ex-cop and a boatman, a
drug-smuggling submarine owned by a Mexican cartel, a biker gang trading guns
for cocaine, a raspberry thong-ed environmentalist, a sexual encounter interrupting
the drugs transfer, and the aftermath. The cartel coming after our main man
Beckman and his date in an effort to eliminate the witnesses.
Action, violence, sex, vegan food, environmentalists, the
sea, a hapless assistant, a concerned friend, a love rival, drug-runners, bikers,
a stabbing, a terrorist on the most wanted list, a low-level criminal duo of
uncle and nephew in over their heads, cocaine and guns, opportunity, theft, torture,
arson, death, fisticuffs and more.
Fast-paced, entertaining, engaging, funny in all the right
places, educational (whoever knew the cartels smuggled drugs in purpose
built-submarines? not me), satisfying.
Ticks in every box.
4.5 from 5
House of Blazes - a historical novel set around the time of
the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the forthcoming Zero Avenue await.
Dietrich Kalteis has his website/blog here. Catch him on
Twitter - @dietrichkalteis and Facebook – here.
Read in August, 2017
Published – 2016
Page count – 266
Source – review copy from publisher ECW Press
Format - paperback
This one sounds like a really interesting setup for a crime novel, Col. And it sounds as the pace is nice and fast, too. Glad you enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteMargot, thanks. I really enjoy reading this author's work. Lots here to like and the sea added an interesting element to the setting.
DeleteCol, I'm trying to figure out what elements are not there in this crime fiction. It seems to have just about everything.
ReplyDeletePrashant, I was fascinated by the submarine element in the plot. I've not crossed paths with that before. I had to google it afterwards and apparently drug cartels use them as way of transporting their product to avoid detection. I think the authorities have cottoned on now.
ReplyDeleteActually, I was wondering about that drug-smuggling submarine. Never heard of it before.
DeleteApparently they have some high value seizures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narco-submarine
DeleteI am sure I have told you that I have Ride the Lightning, so I need to reading that soon. Really.
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy it Tracy!
Delete