You know you’re in deep water when you can’t tell cop from criminal

Rene Beckman is a dishonoured ex-cop with only two things on his mind: his new boat, the Triggerfish, and his hot date, an environmentalist named Vicki. When the two unknowingly dock the boat in the same secluded cove as a Mexican cartel’s drug submarine, the date ends with a bang.

With the cartel’s coke-for-guns deal with local bikers torched by Beckman, he’s forced to go on the run with half the underworld chasing him through the streets of Vancouver and the waters surrounding it. While he tries to stay alive, a woman from Beckman’s past — currently on the run from CSIS and the anti-terror squad — comes back to settle an old score.

When the gangs start to go after his friends, the ex-cop stops running and turns the tables. With a ragtag crew of his own, Beckman faces the cartel and bikers head on. Fast, vicious, and thrilling, Triggerfish delivers a story where all the criminals are in conflict and no one is certain who will come out on top.

 

Dietrich Kalteis’s short stories have been published widely, and his screenplay Between Jobs was a finalist in the 2003 Los Angeles Screenplay Festival. Kalteis lives in West Vancouver, British Columbia. This is his first novel.

Dieter Kalteis' profile page

 

“A textured noir thriller, Triggerfish is one hell of a ride.” — John Lansing, bestselling author

“To say [Triggerfish] is highly entertaining is an understatement. It’s badass. Straight up.” — Crime Syndicate Magazine

“The complicated but fast-moving conclusion is a total page-turner. Unsettling and sometimes horrifying, this high-octane tale will suit hardcore crime fans.”  — Publishers Weekly

“His prose drills like a woodpecker on wood, and his characters always pop right off the page with engaging, character-specific dialog … Triggerfish is highly entertaining, and another big hit from a man quickly becoming the heir-apparent to the Elmore Leonard crime novel.” — Crime Syndicate Magazine

“If you like your crime hard and fast, Kalteis is for you.” — Globe and Mail

 

A Good Read

by ppsphil

OK this is a good action adventure story that I liked quite a lot more than Mr. Kalteis's "Ride The Lightning" which was also a good read. This book possibly has a few too many characters but they are all pretty well developed and with really only one major and one minor plot line which are very closely connected and the excellent writing it was not too difficult to keep track of them all. Beck is a very strong character, Jimmy is a blowhard who provides a perfect partner for Beck and Vicki is really a hoot whether or not that was intentional doesn't matter. The drug runners are really, really bad and a bit stupid, the bikers are even dumber, Eddie turns out to be a bit OK, Griff is lucky and quite likeable and Danny is a good cop. The setting is, of course, a very major player in the story and we have not one but two blazing (literally!) endings with quite appropriate justice served to all the culprits. It is a great pleasure to read an eBook like this that is essentially devoid of all the formatting, grammatical, editing and proofreading errors so common in many eBooks. I won this book in a giveaway contest on the 49th Shelf and I am very glad I did. I'll definitely read another book by Dietrich Kalteis.