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Nick Petrie

Biography

Nick Petrie

Nick Petrie received his MFA in fiction from the University of Washington and won a Hopwood Award for short fiction while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. His story “At the Laundromat” won the 2006 Short Story Contest in The Seattle Review, a national literary journal.

His first novel, THE DRIFTER, won the ITW Thriller and Barry Awards, and was nominated for Edgar, Anthony and Hammett Awards. He won the 2016 Literary Award from the Wisconsin Library Association and was named one of Apple’s 10 Writers to Read in 2017. LIGHT IT UP was named the Best Thriller of 2018 by Apple Books. Both LIGHT IT UP and THE WILD ONE were shortlisted for the Barry Award.

His books in the Peter Ash series are THE DRIFTER, BURNING BRIGHT, LIGHT IT UP, TEAR IT DOWN, THE WILD ONE, THE BREAKER, THE RUNAWAY and THE PRICE YOU PAY. A husband and father, he has worked as a carpenter, remodeling contractor and building inspector. He lives in Milwaukee, where he is hard at work on the next Peter Ash novel.

Nick Petrie

Books by Nick Petrie

by Nick Petrie - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Lewis has helped Peter Ash out of more trouble than Peter cares to remember, so he doesn’t hesitate when Lewis asks for a favor in return. Lewis has left his criminal past behind, but he and Peter must drive into a blizzard to help a former associate. They learn that someone has stolen notebooks full of incriminating secrets about Lewis' long-ago crimes, and they realize the situation is much worse than they'd thought. To save Lewis’ wife and two boys, Lewis and Peter must find the notebooks. With Peter's longtime girlfriend, they begin the search --- facing ruthless and violent foes at each turn, including one powerful person who will stop at nothing for revenge. Will Lewis and Peter be able to keep that dark past buried? Or will they need to step into the darkness to save the people they love most?

by Nick Petrie - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

War veteran Peter Ash is driving through northern Nebraska when he encounters a young pregnant woman alone on a gravel road, her car dead. Peter offers her a lift, but what begins as an act of kindness soon turns into a deadly cat-and-mouse chase across the lonely highways with the woman’s vicious ex-cop husband hot on their trail. The pregnant woman has seen something she was never meant to see…but protecting her might prove to be more than Peter can handle. In order to save the woman and himself, Peter must use everything he has learned during his time as a Marine, including his knowledge of human nature, in order to escape a ruthless killer with instincts and skills that match --- and perhaps exceed --- Peter’s own.

by Nick Petrie - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When Peter Ash --- a man wanted by two governments --- spots a suspicious armed man walking into a crowded market, he knows he can't stand by and do nothing. The young gunman appeared to have one target and one mission, but when he escapes, it seems there is more to the encounter than meets the eye. Peter's hunch is proven correct when a powerful associate from his past appears with an interest in the crime, and an irresistible offer: if he and his girlfriend June solve this mystery, Peter's record will be scrubbed clean. While Peter and his friend Lewis trace the gunman, reporter June digs into the victim of the incident, a man whose face rings a bell in her memory.

by Nick Petrie - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

A grieving woman asks war veteran Peter Ash to find her eight-year-old grandson. The woman's daughter has been murdered. Erik, the dead daughter's husband, is the sole suspect, and he has taken his young son and fled to Iceland for the protection of Erik's lawless family. Finding the boy becomes more complicated when Peter is met at the airport by a man from the United States Embassy. For reasons both unknown and unofficial, it seems that Peter's own government doesn't want him in Iceland. The police give Peter two days of sightseeing in Reykjavik before he must report back for the first available seat home. But when they realize Peter isn't going home until he accomplishes his mission, they start hunting him, too.

by Nick Petrie - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Iraq war veteran Peter Ash heads to Memphis to help Wanda Wyatt, a photographer and war correspondent, who's been receiving peculiar threats. Upon his arrival, however, he finds that the situation has gone downhill fast --- someone has just driven a dump truck into Wanda's living room. But neither Wanda nor Peter can figure out why. At the same time, a young homeless street musician finds himself roped into a plan to rob a jewelry store. The heist doesn't go as planned, and the young man finds himself holding a sack full of Rolexes and running for his life. Peter likes the skinny kid's smarts and attitude, but he soon discovers that the desperate musician is in far worse trouble than he knows. And Wanda's troubles are only beginning.

by Nick Petrie - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Combat veteran Peter Ash leaves a simple life rebuilding hiking trails in Oregon to help his good friend Henry Nygaard, whose daughter runs a Denver security company that protects cash-rich cannabis entrepreneurs from modern-day highwaymen. Henry’s son-in-law and the company’s operations manager were carrying a large sum of client money when their vehicle vanished without a trace, leaving Henry’s daughter and her company vulnerable. When Peter is riding shotgun on another cash run, the cargo he’s guarding comes under attack and he narrowly escapes with his life. As the assaults escalate, Peter has to wonder: for criminals this sophisticated, is it really just about the cash?

by Nick Petrie - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

While on a trip to the towering redwoods of northern California, war veteran Peter Ash meets investigative journalist June Cassidy, who just days ago escaped a kidnapping by the men who are still on her trail. She suspects they’re after something belonging to her mother, a prominent software designer who recently died in an accident. June needs time to figure out what’s going on, and help from someone with Peter’s particular set of skills. Only one step ahead of their pursuers, Peter and June must race to unravel this peculiar mystery. What they find leads them to an eccentric recluse, a shadowy pseudo-military organization, and an extraordinary tool that may change the modern world forever.

by Nick Petrie - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Peter Ash came home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: the buzzing claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress that has driven him to spend a year roaming in nature. But when a friend from the Marines commits suicide, Ash returns to civilization to help the man’s widow with some home repairs. Under her dilapidated porch, he finds a Samsonite suitcase stuffed with cash and explosives. As Ash begins to investigate this unexpected discovery, he finds himself at the center of a plot that is far larger than he could have imagined.