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Bluetick Revenge

by Mark Cohen

Bluetick Revenge is the second novel to appear by Mark Cohen. Bluetick Revenge features the same protagonist, Pepper Keane, and promises to be a series about this tough-as-steel outwardly and soft-as-melted chocolate inwardly private detective. Although my personal taste doesn't lean toward the tough guy mystery, Mark Cohen has managed to make his primary character sympathetic and funny as well as tough. In addition, Mr. Cohen knows how to tell a good story and imbue his characters with recognizable humanity. That's good enough for me!

Pepper is hired to steal a champion tracking dog from the head of a sadistic biker gang naming themselves The Sons of Satan. The erstwhile girlfriend of the gang's leader, Karlynn Slade, has information she'll trade against the Sons of Satan for being ensconced in the Witness Protection Plan. But she won't give them that information unless she also has the dog 'Prince' to accompany her. Pepper successfully steals the dog.

No thanks to all the red tape, Pepper is stuck with looking after both Karlynn and Prince until Karlynn can appear as a witness against Bugg, the Sons of Satan leader. This doesn't go down too well with Pepper's girlfriend Jayne, who phones him from China, where she's teaching. Then Pepper accepts an offer from Bugg to locate both Karlynn and Prince. In addition to pretending to look for the supposedly missing girlfriend and the pooch, Pepper is also trying to find out who actually killed Lowell, a former Federal agent. He suspects that Bugg hired someone to murder the man, and eventually is led to a white power supremacist named Skull.

But then Karlynn suddenly takes off on her own, leaving Pepper to take care of Prince. It seems she's less than happy with the plans of the Witness Protection Program. Pepper and his friend Scott try to trace her, but give up when the trail peters out. Finding himself near where Skull has his encampment, Pepper opts for that instead.

The tangled skeins of all these conditions finally come to a head and are resolved with all the bad guys firmly put out of harm's way. Mark Cohen isn't one of those writers who leaves some of the threads still hanging out – at least, not the most important ones! His protagonist, Pepper Keane, is evidently very like himself – and since Mr. Cohen has also been involved in the law, we can look forward to many more fictional adventures, no doubt based on some of his actual experiences. Mark Cohen is a gifted, revitalizing new voice on the literary scene.

Alan Paul Curtis

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