What is Peter Colt reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Peter Colt, author of Death at Fort Devens.

His entry begins:

Right now, I am reading a lot of different things at once. Right now, piled up on the bedside table there are a bunch of books about History/Military history. I tend to do a lot of research for my books and so there is a lot of stuff about Vietnam along the lines of John Stryker Meyer’s excellent Across the Fence, Lynne M Black’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, and Nick Brokhausen’s Whispers in the Tall Grass and We Few. All three authors were Army Special Forces soldiers in Vietnam, in the Studies and Observation Group (SOG). Their firsthand accounts of their very secret, very deadly war are riveting. There is nothing in fiction that compares to their real stories from Vietnam.

My protagonist, Andy Roark, as part of his backstory was in SOG. There are many...[read on]

About Colt's Death at Fort Devens, from the publisher:

It’s a race against time to find a teenager missing on the mean streets of Boston, in this hardboiled mystery featuring Andy Roark, Vietnam veteran turned Private Investigator.

Boston, 1985. Private Investigator Andy Roark left the military behind years ago, but his past comes flooding back when he’s hired by an old army buddy who’s worried about his rebellious teenage daughter’s safety. There are bonds of blood between Roark and the highly-decorated Lieutenant Colonel Dave Billings, forged in the steamy Vietnamese jungle, and some debts aren’t easy to forget.

Working the case for free, Roark’s investigation quickly leads him to Boston’s Combat Zone, five acres of sex, drugs and crime, right in the heart of one of America’s oldest cities – and to Judy’s unsavory new boyfriend, the drug-dealing K-nice.

Then Judy runs away, and the clock starts ticking in earnest. Roark is determined to save his friend’s daughter from a life of drugs and prostitution, but it’ll take more than missing-person flyers and polite questions to save the girl and get them both out of the concrete jungle of the Combat Zone alive.

This page-turning hard-edged mystery, written by a US Army veteran and New England police officer, is a great choice for readers who enjoy military detail, twisty plots and classic PI heroes with plenty of flaws, humour and attitude.

Visit Peter Colt's website.

My Book, The Movie: Back Bay Blues.

The Page 69 Test: Back Bay Blues.

Q&A with Peter Colt.

The Page 69 Test: Death at Fort Devens.

My Book, The Movie: Death at Fort Devens.

Writers Read: Peter Colt.

--Marshal Zeringue