Brinn

by Gabe Aprati

As a teenager, Brinn van der Sloot was beautiful, impulsive and lusty. Unlike the sober, restrained world her religious family inhabited, her world was filled with defiance and passion. But then an accident occurred that changed everything. Now she’s twenty years older, aimless and filled with self-doubt. Will she ever find love and feel the sun again? Will she ever be at peace?

The only things left in her life are her job and an unrequited lover from her past, and now they’ve turned on her, too. The prestigious university where she’s in charge of security has fallen victim to a plague of illicit drugs. Student deaths from overdoses are escalating, and the scourge rests solely on her shoulders. But, despite everything she tries, progress eludes her. Not a single lead proves out, and her days are filled with frustration and failure.

Then, a seemingly innocuous incident occurs at a women’s dorm. Brinn responds to a call about an intruder. He escapes, but only after attacking her. His victim, Jacqueline, is a brilliant, post-doctoral chemist, now doing research. She is also the daughter of a wealthy French family which controls the world-wide fragrance industry. So, why did the man victimize her? Did he want sex? Is he a kidnaper looking to extort ransom from her family? Strangest of all, why does she refuse to file charges against him? Something doesn’t add-up and Brinn senses there has to be more there than meets the eye.

Soon, her suspicions grow as events take place and questions multiply. The intruder turns out to have multiple aliases and arrests; Jacqueline won’t reveal the source of her research funding or what it’s about; her roommate inexplicably drops out and leaves town; Brinn discovers the brainy chemist has a wild side and strips at an exotic club where numerous drug deaths have occurred; Jacqueline’s faculty advisor turns up dead, the victim of an apparent suicide; Brinn’s home gets fire-bombed; then Jacqueline disappears, too. Where has she gone, and why? And, all the while, the drug deaths continue to mount.

Then, in the midst of it all, Brinn is befriended by an eccentric old man and his dog. Known only as “The Colonel”, the dotty man is unlike anyone she’s ever known. Still, he’s the only one who believes in her. So, is he just another complication added to her already fraught life, or has he appeared for a reason? Will she break her drug case, or will it break her?

243 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 20, 2017

About the author

Gabe Aprati has been writing his entire life. The winner of several recognitions, he did graduate work at the University of Iowa where exposure to its renowned Writers Workshop cemented his love of creative writing.

Fortunately, the career he experienced in the specialty formulations industry contributes greatly to the crafting of his briskly paced novels. Regularly faced with complex client problems, Aprati learned to suss out the true decision makers from the surrounding pretenders, and then decloak their personal motivations. It’s a peel-back-the-layers discipline he uses well in the crafting of his suspenseful stories. Always peopled with quirky characters and grabby dialogue, they take place in a world where things rarely turn out as they first seem.

Born and raised in the Midwest, Aprati currently lives in Southern California where he’s at work on his latest novel.