Light It Up

Peter Ash, an ex-Marine battling PTSD claustrophobia, responds to a friend's request for short-term help in Denver's booming marijuana business. As part of a four-man security team transporting cash to a secret storage site, he ends up killing four people and being the sole survivor of a hijacking gone badly awry. Soon he is the target of the mysterious Big Dog and a conspiracy involving a ruthless billionaire who hires others to get his way—including murder. Coming to help are Ash's girlfriend June and gangster friend Louis. After June is kidnapped and Louis is shot, Ash heads to a confrontation in a blizzard, in which he has only himself to rely on. Like Robert Parker's Spenser, Ash is a self-contained, unstoppable force with very useful friends. Vividly troubled yet likable, he intrigues the reader even while managing to save a little part of his world—again.