Moving Day: A Thriller

by Jonathan Stone

Overview

Forty years’ accumulation of art, antiques, and family photographs are more than just objects for Stanley Peke—they are proof of a life fully lived. A life he could have easily lost long ago.

When a con man steals his houseful of possessions in a sophisticated moving-day scam, Peke wanders helplessly through his empty New England home, inevitably reminded of another helpless time: decades in Peke’s past, a cold and threadbare Stanislaw Shmuel Pecoskowitz eked out a desperate existence in the war-torn Polish countryside, subsisting on scraps and dodging Nazi soldiers. Now, the seventy-two-year-old Peke—who survived, came to America, and succeeded—must summon his original grit and determination to track down the thieves, retrieve his things, and restore the life he made for himself.

Peke and his wife, Rose, trace the path of the thieves’ truck across America, to the wilds of Montana, and to an ultimate, chilling confrontation with not only the thieves but also with Peke’s brutal, unresolved past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781477818244
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	06/01/2014
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Stone writes his books on the commuter train from his home in Connecticut to his advertising job in midtown Manhattan. Honing his writing skills by creating smart and classic campaigns for high-level brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, and Mitsubishi has paid off, as Stone’s first mystery-thriller series, the Julian Palmer books, won critical acclaim and was hailed as “stunning” and “risk-taking” in Publishers Weekly starred reviews. He earned glowing praise for his novel The Cold Truth from the New York Times, who called it “bone-chilling.” He’s the recipient of a Claymore Award for Best Unpublished Crime Novel and a graduate of Yale, where he was a Scholar of the House in fiction writing.

Editorial Reviews

A very frightening tale that’s written so well, the reader will be able to see everything that’s happening in their mind’s eye. The writing is A-one, and the subject is very close to the heart, creating a story that easily affects anyone who reads it. A definite keeper!” —Suspense Magazine

“If you read no other book this summer...You must read this one.” —Beader Bubbe’s Book Blog

“Moving Day is a solid read. It demands as much from the reader as it gives to the reader. It will make you think. It will help you feel grateful for the little (and big) things in your life.” —Back Porchervations blog

“This book is more than a thriller; it has drama, psychological insight, and a transformative experience.” —Hadassah Magazine

“This is not simply a great story, however; Stone’s skills as a journeyman author and skilled storyteller are on display here in equal measure, so much so that you will reach for the book to read it again. And again.” —The Book Reporter

From the Publisher

2014-04-03
A bogus moving contractor meets his match in the Holocaust survivor whose household goods he pilfers. Stanley Peke should have trusted his instincts. They told him that the guys packing his belongings for a move across the country to Santa Barbara were a day early. When another set of movers arrives the next day to an empty house, Peke, retired from his own chemical company, and his wife, Rose, realize that the smiling crew who loaded furniture, papers and family photographs into a big white truck the day before has driven off with virtually everything they owned. Their insurance will cover the financial loss, and their bank accounts will keep them afloat, but that's not enough for Peke, who moves stealthily but rapidly when he sees an unexpected chance to get a line on the crooks' whereabouts. With the help of his son, Daniel, who's taken over the company he founded, and his old friend Itzhak, another survivor of the camps, he traces Nick Pelletiere and his accomplices to Great Falls, Mont., and helps himself to his belongings while they're away robbing another victim. Case closed, he thinks. But Nick, who considers those post-impressionist paintings and Louis XIV armchairs his personal property, isn't any more likely than Peke was to take this outrage lying down, and his counterstrike ups the stakes considerably and sends both antagonists down a road from which there's no return. As tightly plotted as Stone's first four novels (Parting Shot, 2006, etc.) but with a much stronger rooting interest in a geezer hero who ends up reaching into himself more deeply and disturbingly than he could have imagined.

Kirkus Reviews