Pursued

by Jim Wygant

It’s the mid-1980s, before gentrification and smart phones, and without much regard for women’s rights. Marti, a strong-willed one-eyed woman with low self-esteem and a heart shaped eye patch, has a history of associating with men who carry trouble with them like an infectious disease. When boyfriend Luther hurts her, she decides to leave her job as a motel clerk and run away with a mysterious stranger who drives a sporty black Camaro.

As Marti heads north through Oregon in the black Camaro she discovers that driver Nick Bass is a sullen bank robber. What she also soon learns is that Luther – a gorilla with poor impulse control – is now in pursuit of them, his purpose unclear. Does he want her back, or does he want to hurt both her and Nick Bass? In a dark episode in a motel room Luther is overcome with toxic anger and kills a woman he picked up in a bar. The police begin pursuing Luther, and the FBI soon identifies Nick Bass as their bank robbery suspect. All trails lead to a seedy area of Portland, where Marti rediscovers her long-suppressed feelings for people she thought she hated.

318 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2018

About the author

In November 2018 Jim Wygant released four new crime novels in paperback format. "Circle of Vengeance" features private investigator Howard Ash in a complex story that uncovers a secret incident from the past that leads to death. "Sweet and Gone" also features Howard Ash, this time finding himself the suspect in a murder investigation. "Pursued" is about Marti, a strong-willed one-eyed woman with low self-esteem and a heart shaped eye patch. She has a history of associating with men who carry trouble with them like an infectious disease. "The Detectives" is a police procedural in which homicide Detective Russell Strick, already suffering from severe burn-out, is assigned to the murder of a prominent citizen, with the caution from his superiors that the case has political overtones.

While the print versions of Jim's earlier books are now unavailable, all of those earlier books remain available in Kindle ebook versions from Amazon, and "The Spy's Demise" is also available in an audio version.

Besides being the author of a true-crime memoir, several novels, a book of short stories, and a book of poetry, Jim has been editor of a small weekly newspaper, a police reporter for a large metropolitan daily, an investigator in a District Attorney’s office and an Attorney General’s office, a licensed polygraph examiner, an instructor and lecturer, publisher of a newsletter for two decades, and a teacher in adult education. Working for defense attorneys, he has spent many hours interviewing suspects.

He and wife Sandy live in Oregon. They have visited the U.K., France, Italy, Greece, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Cook Islands, Russia, China, and Poland, as well as many cities in the U.S.