Crowd Control

About the Book

The setting is Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the beautiful Berkshires, but the plot line stretches deep into the darkest recesses of the human psyche and wide enough to touch anyone in Anytown, USA. When Mike Farley and his longtime associate Myra Lane arrive in town, their mission is to identify and claim the body of Bernie Peters, a P.I. with their firm who’s been brutally murdered while working on what seemed to be an individual local case. Was his death merely the byproduct of a random robbery? …Or could it be that Bernie had stumbled onto something more sinister in the course of his investigation?

Local police are on the case, of course, but nagging questions keep Mike and Myra poking around, checking out the loose ends in Bernie’s notes, working sometimes with and sometimes around Pittsfield Police Detective Tony Grasso. Eventually, the duo find themselves entangled in cases which at first seemed totally unrelated to their line of inquiry, and in situations which become progressively more menacing as the line blurs between good guys and bad guys, friends and foes. The variety of villains they encounter ranges from simple brutes, to psychotic sadists, to cold blooded hit men, to bureaucrats who delegate their death-dealing to subordinates.

In the background, Mike and Myra are reconfiguring the relationship they have shared for years in the context of the 21st century, exploring the freedom of individual lifestyles while maintaining the working relationship that has served them well over the years. They have learned to allow for the differences in their tastes and interests, while remaining colleagues and fond friends. And while they may vividly recall to the reader detectives of the genre from the 40’s, the problems with which they struggle, both personal and professional are rooted firmly in the present.

About the Author

John M. Garzone lives most of the year in southwest Florida but maintains deep roots and family connections with western Massachusetts. He enjoys spending time with other writers who share their current projects at weekly meetings on the Bradenton campus of the State College of Florida. He is fan of the detective genre in print, on television and in film. He has fun crafting plots and characters for his short stories as well as the Mike and Myra series, including the previously published Crowd Control and Covert Control. All three volumes reflect Mr. Garzone’s deep roots in the Berkshires.