Timothy Cole's Blog
January 3, 2021
Say Hello to Dasha Petrov
Westport police detective Anthony DeFranco kicks off The Sea Glass Murders, but we're introduced to Dasha Petrov when DeFranco and his new partner television reporter Tracy Taggart link the sea glass on Dasha's beach with the murder central to the story. From there, Dasha muscles her way into the plot line and doesn't let go. In the first draft, it was DeFranco's book. But Dasha took over...and the world can breath easy. This elderly spy/detective can handle herself with grit, brains and the same fearlessness that allowed her to escape the Bolsheviks when she was a little girl.
When I finished Sea Glass, I determined there was a lot more to Dasha, so I took author James Patterson's advice on what to do when you've finished your novel. Write another one. Here's a glimpse of the second book in the Dasha Petrov series, The Moscow Five. The Soviets have engineered a brilliant spy ring at the pinnacle of British intelligence, The Cambridge Five. Dasha's counterattack has ample twists and turns, and a plot that drives relentlessly toward an unexpected end. Here's how it begins:
Dasha Petrov saw the man who had once tried to kill her. He was standing along the parade route.
Vladimir Kryuchkov:
KGB—once, now, and always.
She’d been trained to observe, a skill honed in the hot spots of her long-ago life. Kryuchkov, code named Ferret, stood out in the crowd of smiles and waving blue flags: small, balding, ill-fitting suit, knock-off Ray Bans. He was motionless and primly erect as he stood on the bridge over the Saugatuck River. Senses heightened, she looked for Kryuchkov’s backup, knowing they’d be somewhere in the crowd. With danger this close, Dasha noticed everything around her—startled birds flushed from an overhead wire, something acrid floating on a light breeze, the metal-on-metal clang of a dump truck tailgate shot across the heads of the cheering crowds. She braced for the sudden shock of violence she knew would always lie in wait.
Stay tuned.
When I finished Sea Glass, I determined there was a lot more to Dasha, so I took author James Patterson's advice on what to do when you've finished your novel. Write another one. Here's a glimpse of the second book in the Dasha Petrov series, The Moscow Five. The Soviets have engineered a brilliant spy ring at the pinnacle of British intelligence, The Cambridge Five. Dasha's counterattack has ample twists and turns, and a plot that drives relentlessly toward an unexpected end. Here's how it begins:
Dasha Petrov saw the man who had once tried to kill her. He was standing along the parade route.
Vladimir Kryuchkov:
KGB—once, now, and always.
She’d been trained to observe, a skill honed in the hot spots of her long-ago life. Kryuchkov, code named Ferret, stood out in the crowd of smiles and waving blue flags: small, balding, ill-fitting suit, knock-off Ray Bans. He was motionless and primly erect as he stood on the bridge over the Saugatuck River. Senses heightened, she looked for Kryuchkov’s backup, knowing they’d be somewhere in the crowd. With danger this close, Dasha noticed everything around her—startled birds flushed from an overhead wire, something acrid floating on a light breeze, the metal-on-metal clang of a dump truck tailgate shot across the heads of the cheering crowds. She braced for the sudden shock of violence she knew would always lie in wait.
Stay tuned.
