The Drifter should be especially vivid for Milwaukeeans, who will recognize many of its settings, like the U.S. Bank Building, Café Corazon and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Petrie’s characters, however, are amalgams. “They all contain parts of people I know, or met, and parts of myself,” he says, including Petrie’s homebuilding know-how, which he hones at his day job as a home inspector. Parts of Ash, who will be the leading man in what will be a three-book series, are also drawn from Petrie’s father’s friend, a Marine who served in Vietnam.
“He has this gigantic heart,” Petrie says of the friend. “He’s always trying to help someone, and he has a huge amount of energy.”
That last sentiment could also be said of the book. The Drifter’s greatest feat is its split-second pacing that doesn’t leave much time for snack breaks.
