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Stagger Bay
Markus, Stagger Bay’s protagonist, is a man who overcame a horrendous childhood and criminal youth to go straight and raise a family. His violent past makes him an easy fall guy to frame for a gruesome mass murder and he’s sentenced to life without parole, losing his family in the process.
Exonerated and freed on DNA evidence after seven years, Markus is shortly thrust into a bloody do-or-die fracas during an elementary school hostage situation, becoming an overnight hero. Everyone wants in on the media feeding frenzy; to his dismay, paparazzi and news crews hound him wherever he goes. Unfortunately they’re not the only ones stalking him.
Can Markus find the path back into his estranged son’s heart? What’s Markus supposed to do, when he discovers fifteen minutes of fame is the worst thing that could ever happen to him? What can he do, now that his town is hunting ground to serial killers and rogue cops working together – and the shadowy force behind them is turning its cold, deadly eye straight at him?
Stagger Bay is a battle of wills, where every moral choice seems only to increase the body count. It’s in the tradition of Paul Cain’s Fast One, Ted Lewis' Get Carter or Geoffrey Household’s Rogue Male. Stagger Bay should appeal to readers looking for a fast paced, hyper-violent thriller.
Exonerated and freed on DNA evidence after seven years, Markus is shortly thrust into a bloody do-or-die fracas during an elementary school hostage situation, becoming an overnight hero. Everyone wants in on the media feeding frenzy; to his dismay, paparazzi and news crews hound him wherever he goes. Unfortunately they’re not the only ones stalking him.
Can Markus find the path back into his estranged son’s heart? What’s Markus supposed to do, when he discovers fifteen minutes of fame is the worst thing that could ever happen to him? What can he do, now that his town is hunting ground to serial killers and rogue cops working together – and the shadowy force behind them is turning its cold, deadly eye straight at him?
Stagger Bay is a battle of wills, where every moral choice seems only to increase the body count. It’s in the tradition of Paul Cain’s Fast One, Ted Lewis' Get Carter or Geoffrey Household’s Rogue Male. Stagger Bay should appeal to readers looking for a fast paced, hyper-violent thriller.
158 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 19, 2012
8 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Pearce Hansen
10 books83 followersPearce Hansen is the author of Street Raised//https://www.amazon.com/Street-Raised-....
Pearce Hansen is an Oakland native residing in Seattle with his wife Pia. Pearce's fiction is inspired by events and experiences from his youth growing up in the East Bay.
He's been writing 20 years with over 100 publications including three novels, one short story collection and six anthology inclusions. He's an alumnus of Anthony Neil Smith's legendary Plots With Guns! and Todd Robinson's Thuglit. He's been reviewed by Eddie Muller in the SF Chronicle, and blurbed by Joe Lansdale, Michael Shea, Ken Bruen and Laird Barron. His work's been translated into Finnish and Spanish, and adapted as a limited edition comic book.
Pearce Hansen is an Oakland native residing in Seattle with his wife Pia. Pearce's fiction is inspired by events and experiences from his youth growing up in the East Bay.
He's been writing 20 years with over 100 publications including three novels, one short story collection and six anthology inclusions. He's an alumnus of Anthony Neil Smith's legendary Plots With Guns! and Todd Robinson's Thuglit. He's been reviewed by Eddie Muller in the SF Chronicle, and blurbed by Joe Lansdale, Michael Shea, Ken Bruen and Laird Barron. His work's been translated into Finnish and Spanish, and adapted as a limited edition comic book.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 6, 2012
Ok, fact I don't do reviews, not with ease and not very well. But Stagger Bay demanded that I say something. Pearce Hansen has captured that perfect balance of honest heartfelt feeling set against a bigger than life, full on operatic violent world. It reminds me of John Woo before he came to Hollywood and lost his way; The Killer. Hansen like Woo lacks pretense and cynicism. Stagger Bay, isn't a meta book about other crime book. It is about real feeling, and fears and violence that feels like violence feels. He know that violence feels bigger than life when you are at it's center. One more film reference - Luc Besson's Professional does this rare thing I'm clumsily trying to talk around. Leon is both a comic book character and a very real man. This is the rare hat trick Pierce Hansen pulls off. On the surface it is a solid fast paced pulp novel, but under the blood slick surface it is about much more. It is about family and what makes one. It is about the price paid to be famous. It is about the cost of redemption. It is about what we will or won't do just to find a quiet place to lay our head... Take these rambling words and do what you will, but do read Stagger Bay. Read it for the slam bam good time. Then let it stew around in your brain pan, and see the richness.
March 24, 2012
More and more I'm wondering why this writer isn't on the best-seller list. The opening chapter slugs you in the gut and the thing never lets up. His characters are vivid beyond imagining, filled with extreme but realistic scenarios, and having lived in that part of the country, personally, I can easily place myself there.
Stagger Bay rocks, as does Pearce Hansen's writing. If you're looking for an awesome can't-put-down read, check this one out. I really think you'll be pleased with the result. I deeply admire this author's skill.
Stagger Bay rocks, as does Pearce Hansen's writing. If you're looking for an awesome can't-put-down read, check this one out. I really think you'll be pleased with the result. I deeply admire this author's skill.
February 18, 2012
I couldn't stop reading this. It has phenomenal hooks held in place by Hansen's razor-sharp prose. Our hero, Markus, sticks with you as caring father, badass avenger, and an intelligent character you just want to get to know. Hansen does a great job dropping in lines from Montaigne, Gracian, Aurelius and even a shout-out to Macbeth. The serial killer angle in this book shines and the killer comes across as more brutal and evil than I anticipated. Highly recommended.
January 30, 2012
Started this as a quick 'lunchtime read' at work on Friday and it was so good that I finished reading it at home instead of the new Stuart MacBride I'd been plodding through.
What's so good about it, then ? you may ask. Character and pace would be the quick answer. It just grabs you and runs hell for leather without stopping. Add in cracking dialogue and a slightly crazy plot and it all adds up to a great overall package. Just what I was looking for to blow the cobwebs away over the weekend. Not to be missed
What's so good about it, then ? you may ask. Character and pace would be the quick answer. It just grabs you and runs hell for leather without stopping. Add in cracking dialogue and a slightly crazy plot and it all adds up to a great overall package. Just what I was looking for to blow the cobwebs away over the weekend. Not to be missed
April 19, 2012
I always figured at a minimum you should remember the names of people who die because of you. – Markus
Given the life he’s lead, Markus may need a notebook to keep track of those names. A childhood scarred by violence lead Markus to a youthful life of crime, one which was only enhanced by his “training” in the “gladiator schools” he was routinely incarcerated in as a result of his criminal activity.
Older and wiser, Markus has remade himself into an upstanding citizen, having moved with his young family from the crime-filled Oakland area to upstate California, to the seemingly idyllic Stagger Bay. His past comes back to haunt him when he’s wrongfully arrested and convicted of the horrific murder of an entire family and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
When he’s finally exonerated by DNA evidence after seven long years, Markus returns to Stagger Bay to find his brother dead at the hands of the police and his wife the victim of her own addictions, having OD’d not long after Markus went to prison. His son, now seventeen and a virtual stranger, wants nothing to do with him, neither do the town’s residents despite Markus having been cleared of the crime. Seeing no reason to stay where he’s not wanted and there’s nothing left for him, Makrus heads out of town… and that’s when his life really gets crazy.
Seeming to attract violence like a magnet, Markus doesn’t even make it to the bus station before being caught up in a hellacious near combat level firefight, with multiple armed robbers freely shooting things out with the police in broad daylight on the streets of Stagger Bay. When the cops go down and the robbers take refuge in the local elementary school Markus takes matters into his own hands, and goes from pariah to hero overnight. Markus soon discovers that fifteen minutes of fame are fifteen more than he’s comfortable with when he becomes the center of a media frenzy. Even the cops, the same ones who previously arrested him for mass murder and took seven years of his life and his family from him, are suddenly treating him like one of the guys.
Things get even weirder when Markus ends up in a rundown section of town called The Gardens and discovers that a serial killer known as The Driver has been killing residents with impunity for years. Suddenly the pieces of the puzzle fall into place for Markus. No one’s caught The Driver because no one’s trying; the cops, at least the ones that matter, are corrupt and protecting The Driver for some reason. Markus also figures it’s virtually a lock that The Driver was responsible for the murders he was convicted of, and that the police deliberately framed him because of his criminal past. Now Markus has two choices… walk away, or set things right.
Author Pearce Hansen has the amazing ability to write larger-than-life and down-to-earth in a single stroke. The violence in Stagger Bay is explicit and epic, with the carnage that takes place at the elementary school being one of the most brutal sequences I’ve ever read. Yet, Hansen keeps it all from being too outlandish by tying it to the impact it has on the world-weary Markus. Hansen also presents Markus with a marvelously wicked catch-22; it was Markus’s talent for violence that originally got him into trouble – both as a youth and by making him the perfect scapegoat for a frame as an adult – but it was also his talent for violence that gave him redemption and turned him into a hero. Now he’s confronted by a situation where more violence is required to resolve it, with the question being what will happen to Markus if he takes that path? Will more violence earn him a trip back to life as a criminal, or will it cement his newfound status as a man on the right side of the law?
There’s no question that Stagger Bay is as noir as it gets, but at the same time there’s also an undeniable Old West feel to the setup. Markus reminded me a bit of Clint Eastwood’s William Munny from Unforgiven. Both are men quite accomplished at violence, and despite having made the attempt to go straight and lead a righteous life both are pulled back into that life of violence by circumstances beyond their control, destined for a showdown with the law. Far from just dropping Markus back into it and letting him run mindlessly wild, however, Hansen takes care to show both the physical and psychological toll that events take on Markus, both of which are myriad. The end result gives Stagger Bay a depth and complexity that makes it staggeringly good.
Given the life he’s lead, Markus may need a notebook to keep track of those names. A childhood scarred by violence lead Markus to a youthful life of crime, one which was only enhanced by his “training” in the “gladiator schools” he was routinely incarcerated in as a result of his criminal activity.
Older and wiser, Markus has remade himself into an upstanding citizen, having moved with his young family from the crime-filled Oakland area to upstate California, to the seemingly idyllic Stagger Bay. His past comes back to haunt him when he’s wrongfully arrested and convicted of the horrific murder of an entire family and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
When he’s finally exonerated by DNA evidence after seven long years, Markus returns to Stagger Bay to find his brother dead at the hands of the police and his wife the victim of her own addictions, having OD’d not long after Markus went to prison. His son, now seventeen and a virtual stranger, wants nothing to do with him, neither do the town’s residents despite Markus having been cleared of the crime. Seeing no reason to stay where he’s not wanted and there’s nothing left for him, Makrus heads out of town… and that’s when his life really gets crazy.
Seeming to attract violence like a magnet, Markus doesn’t even make it to the bus station before being caught up in a hellacious near combat level firefight, with multiple armed robbers freely shooting things out with the police in broad daylight on the streets of Stagger Bay. When the cops go down and the robbers take refuge in the local elementary school Markus takes matters into his own hands, and goes from pariah to hero overnight. Markus soon discovers that fifteen minutes of fame are fifteen more than he’s comfortable with when he becomes the center of a media frenzy. Even the cops, the same ones who previously arrested him for mass murder and took seven years of his life and his family from him, are suddenly treating him like one of the guys.
Things get even weirder when Markus ends up in a rundown section of town called The Gardens and discovers that a serial killer known as The Driver has been killing residents with impunity for years. Suddenly the pieces of the puzzle fall into place for Markus. No one’s caught The Driver because no one’s trying; the cops, at least the ones that matter, are corrupt and protecting The Driver for some reason. Markus also figures it’s virtually a lock that The Driver was responsible for the murders he was convicted of, and that the police deliberately framed him because of his criminal past. Now Markus has two choices… walk away, or set things right.
Author Pearce Hansen has the amazing ability to write larger-than-life and down-to-earth in a single stroke. The violence in Stagger Bay is explicit and epic, with the carnage that takes place at the elementary school being one of the most brutal sequences I’ve ever read. Yet, Hansen keeps it all from being too outlandish by tying it to the impact it has on the world-weary Markus. Hansen also presents Markus with a marvelously wicked catch-22; it was Markus’s talent for violence that originally got him into trouble – both as a youth and by making him the perfect scapegoat for a frame as an adult – but it was also his talent for violence that gave him redemption and turned him into a hero. Now he’s confronted by a situation where more violence is required to resolve it, with the question being what will happen to Markus if he takes that path? Will more violence earn him a trip back to life as a criminal, or will it cement his newfound status as a man on the right side of the law?
There’s no question that Stagger Bay is as noir as it gets, but at the same time there’s also an undeniable Old West feel to the setup. Markus reminded me a bit of Clint Eastwood’s William Munny from Unforgiven. Both are men quite accomplished at violence, and despite having made the attempt to go straight and lead a righteous life both are pulled back into that life of violence by circumstances beyond their control, destined for a showdown with the law. Far from just dropping Markus back into it and letting him run mindlessly wild, however, Hansen takes care to show both the physical and psychological toll that events take on Markus, both of which are myriad. The end result gives Stagger Bay a depth and complexity that makes it staggeringly good.
January 16, 2013
I didn't expect STAGGER BAY to be such a good time. It took me so many different directions and spun around genre tropes so much, I couldn't help but be invested and challenged. While I have one real problem with STAGGER BAY, it's a novel that does so many small things right that it tips the scale in its favor. Once again, the sense of place is incredible. Actually, it's beyond incredible. The fictional city of Stagger Bay has a pulse and despite that it borrows from various iconic works (notably For a Fistful of Dollars and Silent Hill), it is truly an original creation.
STAGGER BAY is the boldest, most original serial killer novel written since Thomas Harris stopped publishing. It will mess with more than just your suspension of disbelief.
STAGGER BAY is the boldest, most original serial killer novel written since Thomas Harris stopped publishing. It will mess with more than just your suspension of disbelief.
April 10, 2012
For my full review head over to The Mystery Bookshelf http://wp.me/p6kwu-10d
January 11, 2018
This was part of a Noir Bundle from StoryBundle. I started to read it last night, and finished it this morning. I did stop reading for a while to sleep but didn't let anything else interrupt. There is an other book by Pearce Hanson in the bundle, and I'm looking forward to reading that one when I have the time.
You can read about the plot in other reviews. I am just telling what I think about the book. The writing exceeds the level I expected in a bundled noir book. The main characters are well defined. Yes, there is a lot of raw language, and violence described only as necessary to the plot, no gore porn. I recommend that you not read it to young children as a bedtime story.
You can read about the plot in other reviews. I am just telling what I think about the book. The writing exceeds the level I expected in a bundled noir book. The main characters are well defined. Yes, there is a lot of raw language, and violence described only as necessary to the plot, no gore porn. I recommend that you not read it to young children as a bedtime story.
June 19, 2024
After reading Street Raised I just had to read Stagger Bay, and it damn sure did not disappoint me! While some of the action was on the over-the-top side, it still never crossed the threshold into being too far out there. The writing style bordered poetic and lyrical, which is becoming harder and harder to find in noir fiction it seems. But the ones that do it, and do it well, I instantly become fans of. And Pearce sure as hell did that here. And, just like in Street Raised, there's more than just surface level brutality of noir fiction, as Pearce weaved an emotional journey between father and son without getting melodramatic about it. The only thing I didn't like about this novel was the ending being left open. It would be badass if there were a sequel to this novel!
February 13, 2018
While I wanted to be more involved with this book I found it falling short of a good story. It felt like it was rushed and not to much character development.
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May 25, 2012A Real "Who Done It" Mystery
Markus and his wife, Angela, move from Oakland, CA to a quiet, peaceful, small town on the coast of northern California. Stagger Bay is a former lumber town that is suffering from the loss of industry. Markus and his wife enjoy their young son and their new life away from high crime Oakland. However, it's not long before some murders are committed and Markus is tagged, sent to prison for several years, during which time his wife commits suicide and his son, Sam, is raised by Markus' brother, Karl, in Stagger Bay. One day an attorney arrives at the prison and tells Markus that he has been exonerated from that crime. He is released and returns to Stagger Bay to learn that his grown son wants nothing to do with him and that his brother had been killed by the police in a supposedly drug related incident. He feels that Stagger Bay holds nothing for him, yet he is swept into finding the truth behind the murders for which he was once convicted. He also discovers corruption in many forms and is swept further into uncovering the secrets of this community. This is a great story that moves right along with well developed characters. You, too, will be swept right along in this action-packed novel.
Markus and his wife, Angela, move from Oakland, CA to a quiet, peaceful, small town on the coast of northern California. Stagger Bay is a former lumber town that is suffering from the loss of industry. Markus and his wife enjoy their young son and their new life away from high crime Oakland. However, it's not long before some murders are committed and Markus is tagged, sent to prison for several years, during which time his wife commits suicide and his son, Sam, is raised by Markus' brother, Karl, in Stagger Bay. One day an attorney arrives at the prison and tells Markus that he has been exonerated from that crime. He is released and returns to Stagger Bay to learn that his grown son wants nothing to do with him and that his brother had been killed by the police in a supposedly drug related incident. He feels that Stagger Bay holds nothing for him, yet he is swept into finding the truth behind the murders for which he was once convicted. He also discovers corruption in many forms and is swept further into uncovering the secrets of this community. This is a great story that moves right along with well developed characters. You, too, will be swept right along in this action-packed novel.
December 3, 2012
The writing was the best part about this novel. Extremely well written, which is a rare find in ebooks these days. This was almost the problem for me: it was too well written and not very readable - the opposite of a page turner. The plot was good, but with so much going on it was not all believable. The author used way too much description and not enough action. A lot was happening, but I didn't feel any urgency or emotion in the story. Stagger Bay had a lot of potential, but nothing measured up. The only reason I haven't forgotten it all is because I feel jipped that I had to miss out on all the fun. I'm glad others enjoyed it.
Writing: 5 stars
Plot: 3 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Readability: 1 star
Not recommended
Writing: 5 stars
Plot: 3 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Readability: 1 star
Not recommended
February 3, 2013
I read STREET RAISED last year by a writer I had never heard of. I read it and was delighted when finished. I purchased STAGGER BAY and it has been on my TBR pile for some time now. I regret not picking it up sooner. STREET RAISED was good....STAGGER BAY was great, if you have never heard of Pearce Hansen and have never read anything by him, I suggest picking this book up pronto. Excellent introduction to an author we will be hearing a LOT more about in the years to come. Highly recommended.
September 5, 2012
By the end, I was rooting for the antagonist
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews