The Latest Novel by John Gerts - 12/18/2023
Paperback - 495 pages - 5.5" x 8.5", E-Reader
Too Dark City, a neo-noir novel, set in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1948, features a black detective, Moses Webb, and his side kick, Harry Martensen, a radioman and photographer.
In the years after World War II, Kalamazoo was poised for growth. The Upjohn Company, Gibson Guitar Company, and Checker Motors Corporation were prominent companies in the city.
The Shakespeare Company manufactures fishing tackle, growing aggressively after the war. The firm employs over 600 workers. Many want to be represented by a union. Eventually, the workers walk out on strike, and four months later, a riot ensues.
As a detective with the Kalamazoo Police, Moses Webb is shot in the left arm and shoulder during a drugstore robbery, forcing him to resign from the force.
Now divorced, Moses works as a second-shift auto mechanic. He is asked, as a favor, to investigate a teenage basketball phenom. The police and prosecuting attorney have written the boy off as a Northside Neighborhood delinquent.
Moses and his friend from across the tracks, Harry Martensen, an Air Force reservist radioman and amateur photographer, work together through a list of suspects connected to the Shakespeare riot, the Red Scare, drug gangs, and red-line establishment politicians.
Moses and Harry struggle to find evidence as, one after another, the suspects turn up dead. Moses figures it is worth the effort because the teen’s mother has the best-looking legs in the Northside Neighborhood.
In the years after World War II, Kalamazoo was poised for growth. The Upjohn Company, Gibson Guitar Company, and Checker Motors Corporation were prominent companies in the city.
The Shakespeare Company manufactures fishing tackle, growing aggressively after the war. The firm employs over 600 workers. Many want to be represented by a union. Eventually, the workers walk out on strike, and four months later, a riot ensues.
As a detective with the Kalamazoo Police, Moses Webb is shot in the left arm and shoulder during a drugstore robbery, forcing him to resign from the force.
Now divorced, Moses works as a second-shift auto mechanic. He is asked, as a favor, to investigate a teenage basketball phenom. The police and prosecuting attorney have written the boy off as a Northside Neighborhood delinquent.
Moses and his friend from across the tracks, Harry Martensen, an Air Force reservist radioman and amateur photographer, work together through a list of suspects connected to the Shakespeare riot, the Red Scare, drug gangs, and red-line establishment politicians.
Moses and Harry struggle to find evidence as, one after another, the suspects turn up dead. Moses figures it is worth the effort because the teen’s mother has the best-looking legs in the Northside Neighborhood.
More Historical Novels by John Gerts
FEAR OF THE GUN
Paperback - 495 pages - 5.5" x 8.5", E-Reader, and Audio Book on Google Play
Fear of The Gun: Hanna and Lorenzo Brennan and their son Zachary must reconcile their disparate understanding of courage in the violent years surrounding the American Civil War.
FEAR OF THE GUN: In February 1849, Lorenzo, a Mexican-American war veteran, walks west from Albuquerque toward the Alta California gold fields. Lost in the Ponderosa Pines of the San Francisco Peaks mountain range, Lorenzo is saved from hypothermia and Cholera by Hanna, a Jewish sheep rancher living alone.
Hanna and Lorenzo build a supply station for the surveyors and crews of the Beale Wagon Road, while Hanna schools their three children, Jeremiah, Zachary, and Sarah.
Tragedy prompts Lorenzo to join the New Mexico Volunteers during The Civil War. He leaves Zachary (eleven) and Hanna to manage the ranch.
Zachary, an adult in 1884, moves back to Flagstaff, vowing justice for the wrongs he has witnessed. Awaiting the arrival of the Deputy U.S. Marshal from Phoenix, Zachary and Hanna confront the violent man from their past alone.
FEAR OF THE GUN explores the American Civil War and slavery from an isolated mountain in the frontier wilderness of the Arizona Territory. Historically accurate, this exhilarating story of one man’s relationship with guns has relevance in today’s firearm prevalent American society.
FEAR OF THE GUN: In February 1849, Lorenzo, a Mexican-American war veteran, walks west from Albuquerque toward the Alta California gold fields. Lost in the Ponderosa Pines of the San Francisco Peaks mountain range, Lorenzo is saved from hypothermia and Cholera by Hanna, a Jewish sheep rancher living alone.
Hanna and Lorenzo build a supply station for the surveyors and crews of the Beale Wagon Road, while Hanna schools their three children, Jeremiah, Zachary, and Sarah.
Tragedy prompts Lorenzo to join the New Mexico Volunteers during The Civil War. He leaves Zachary (eleven) and Hanna to manage the ranch.
Zachary, an adult in 1884, moves back to Flagstaff, vowing justice for the wrongs he has witnessed. Awaiting the arrival of the Deputy U.S. Marshal from Phoenix, Zachary and Hanna confront the violent man from their past alone.
FEAR OF THE GUN explores the American Civil War and slavery from an isolated mountain in the frontier wilderness of the Arizona Territory. Historically accurate, this exhilarating story of one man’s relationship with guns has relevance in today’s firearm prevalent American society.
WHITE WOLF CROSSING
Paperback - 331 pages - 5.5" x 8.5"
The Waasaashkaa River in Northern Ontario is powerful, dangerous, and remote. Callan Sinclair tests her skill, strength, and grit on the river, whether the challenge be in the form of raging rapids, the perils of the outback bush, or the malicious intentions of men.
Callan is a self-conscious Lacrosse player. Her father, a marine, is typically away on a distant mission. Callan’s mother is practically catatonic with depression, yet her grandfather is dedicated to her teen growth and wellbeing.
On the river Callan is pitted against:
Sonny Turner; released from the Everglades Correctional Institution.
Cory Turner: Sonny’s son, determined to convince Sonny to stay straight.
Clarence Whitman: Sergeant Inspector, suspicious of Callan’s motives.
Keme Conchae: Cree tracker in the Waasaashkaa River territory,
and Mr. Anonymous: Mastermind with such dedication to detail the staples in his typewritten plans are always parallel to the edge of the paper,
and a wolf.
Callan is a self-conscious Lacrosse player. Her father, a marine, is typically away on a distant mission. Callan’s mother is practically catatonic with depression, yet her grandfather is dedicated to her teen growth and wellbeing.
On the river Callan is pitted against:
Sonny Turner; released from the Everglades Correctional Institution.
Cory Turner: Sonny’s son, determined to convince Sonny to stay straight.
Clarence Whitman: Sergeant Inspector, suspicious of Callan’s motives.
Keme Conchae: Cree tracker in the Waasaashkaa River territory,
and Mr. Anonymous: Mastermind with such dedication to detail the staples in his typewritten plans are always parallel to the edge of the paper,
and a wolf.
THE MARTENSEN CHRONICLES TRILOGY
HANDLER - 1798-1883
Paperback - 342 pages - 6" x 9" and E-Reader At the turn of the 19th century, a young navigator migrates to America from a tiny island off the coast of Denmark prior to the war of 1812. His son, a successful hatter travels to Arizona during the Mexican/American War to defend his adopted country. The son of the hatter rejects the sedate life of Portland, Maine, and trains as a horse handler, determined to venture west of the Mississippi.
|
RADIOMAN - 1883-1950
Paperback - 342 pages - 6" x 9" and E-Reader At the turn of the 20th century, a handler and his two eldest sons set out for northern Saskatchewan to stake out a homestead away from Chicago pollution. Homesteaders are a hardy breed especially when threatened by the weather, World War I, and the Spanish Flu. Twenty-five years later the son of the homesteader's grandson ships out to Iwo Jima, navigating the remnants of the Great Depression and World War II.
|
FILTRATOR - 1950-2076
Paperback - 354 pages - 6" x 9" and E-Reader At the turn of the 21st century a software architect must raise his grandson, side-stepping the Vietnam War, the Great Recession, and the Covid-19 Pandemic. The grandson uncovers a decades old conspiracy to destroy Russia’s and China’s economy.
When the world turns upside down during the Catastrophe, the analyst is imprisoned as a co-conspirator. The analyst’s son survives on his own during the rise of the city-states. He infiltrates a white supremacist militia then declares war, becomes the Filtrator and attempts to rescue an enslaved family. |