Coming down the pike …

Tell us about your next book. Your WIP or the one after that.

by Dietrich

Perfect time to be asked this question — thanks, Jim. My next one’s called Cradle of the Deep, and it’s set to be released on November 3rd.

Here’s the pitch:

Getting into bed with the wrong guy can get you killed.

Wanting to free herself from her boyfriend, aging gangster “Maddog” Palmieri, Bobbi Ricci concocts a misguided plan with Denny Barrenko, Maddog’s ex-driver, a guy who’s bent on getting even with the gangster for the humiliating way in which he was sacked. 

Helping themselves to the gangster’s secret money stash, along with his Cadillac, Bobbi and Denny slip out of town, expecting to lay low for a while before enjoying the spoils.

Realizing he’s been betrayed, an enraged Maddog calls in stone-cold killer Lee Trane. As Trane picks up their trail, plans quickly change for Bobbi and Denny, who now find themselves on a wild chase of misadventure through northern British Columbia and into Alaska. 

Time is running out for them once they find out that Trane’s been sent to do away with them, or worse, bring them back — either way, Maddog will make them pay.

The novel was born from a short story I wrote a few years earlier about two would-be robbers Bobbi Ricci and Denny Barrenko who separately try to rip off the aging mobster they work for, each planning it for the same night. The story wanted to expand, so I came up with a following scene, and I just let the characters take it from there. It was fun letting them loose, bumbling their way north, deciding how to split the money before they realize they were being hunted.

The next one is done too, and it’s something of a departure, based on real-life bank-robbing newlyweds who topped the FBIs most-wanted list back in the ‘30s. He’s out for kicks and she longs to feel wanted. After pulling a bank robbery to celebrate her sixteenth birthday, they soar to the top J. Edgar’s list, and the ensuing fireworks set them on the run, and it all turns out to be far more kicks and feelings of being wanted that either could have ever anticipated.

I also finished a story set in present-day Vancouver that centers on a teen runaway who ends up in the back seat of what turns out to be the getaway car of a pair of casino robbers. It’s a coming-of-age story with a lot of dysfunctional adults. Centering on greed, desperation and vulnerability, it brushes against the generosity and courage of the innocents and the invisibles of our society. 

Both novels have been signed with ECW Press, and although it’s too soon for release dates, they’ll likely be out subsequently in ’21 and ‘22. 

Currently, I’ve started playing with the first draft of one that’s set during the Vietnam War era, around the time of the Tet offensive. A young man stands before a Seattle judge after being found guilty of car theft for the second time, and he’s given the option of serving time or serving his uncle. And what he decides turns out to be one hell of a life choice.