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Fire Trap: A T.J. Peterson Mystery
“If you like urban grit and slick action, you won’t want to miss this one.” ― Globe and Mail The third and final installment of the T.J. Peterson mysteries Things have gone from bad to worse for T.J. Peterson. The cops have kicked him off the force, his girlfriend called it quits, his best friend and former partner won’t speak to him, and his estranged 20-year-old daughter, Katy, continues to torment him with photos of the hellholes she is living in. Add in a shrink’s diagnosis of PTSD, and Peterson is barely holding it together. When he receives an anonymous text message with an online link to a video of a young journalist being tortured, Peterson does the only thing he knows how to do ― he sets out to save her. Using psychological warfare, a maniac of savage cruelty lures Peterson into a brutal labyrinth of hard-core porn and the vicious depravity of the Dark Web, and Peterson finds himself in a race to find the girl before the torment breaks him for good.
296 pages, Paperback
Published October 15, 2019
2 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Bob Kroll
7 books17 followersFull name: Robert E. Kroll
Bob Kroll has been writing professionally for more than thirty-five years. His work includes books, stage plays, radio dramas, TV documentaries, as well as historical docu-dramas for Canadian and American museums. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Bob Kroll has been writing professionally for more than thirty-five years. His work includes books, stage plays, radio dramas, TV documentaries, as well as historical docu-dramas for Canadian and American museums. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 30, 2019
This is a disturbing novel.
It is disturbing to read about the evil that exists in the shadows of our comfortable worlds. (I’m assuming, of course, that you are as comfortable as I am, hove off in my Lay-Z-Boy, cup of herbal tea at hand, and reading a book about extreme violence and brutality.)
Fire Trap [ECW Press] is fiction (I hope), a yarn spun from Bob Kroll’s imagination, but if even a smidgen of what he writes about is true — and I shudder to think so — it makes our neighborhoods feel like scary places.
Set in Halifax — only a half-hour time zone away from my home here on The Rock — Fire Trap is the story of erstwhile cop T. J. Peterson’s final (p’raps) descent into the bowels of evil to right some wrongs.
Peterson is a man who has hit rock bottom. He has been kicked off the police force, his wife has died, and his daughter has run away to a “hellish” life in Vancouver…
… and, deep in the booze bottle, he has flirted with suicide.
Initially, Peterson offers to help a friend’s sister, to pound the whoopsie out of the man who has been battering said sister.
It’s never that simple.
Peterson finds computer files that eventually lead him to the Dark Web, a truly diabolical place.
If even a fraction of the human depravity Peterson discovers on the Dark Web truly exists, it is almost too frightening — too disturbing — to consider.
Fire Trap has spooked me at my core, if that makes any sense. Not since I first read The Exorcist in a previous century has a book left me with such a sense of inconceivable horror — not Boo! horror but deep, psychic horror.
All the same …
… Fire Trap is a well-told tale, an urban thriller that — albeit disturbing — captivates the reader from the first capital letter of the opening paragraph to the final, full-stop, period of the closing sentence.
It is disturbing to read about the evil that exists in the shadows of our comfortable worlds. (I’m assuming, of course, that you are as comfortable as I am, hove off in my Lay-Z-Boy, cup of herbal tea at hand, and reading a book about extreme violence and brutality.)
Fire Trap [ECW Press] is fiction (I hope), a yarn spun from Bob Kroll’s imagination, but if even a smidgen of what he writes about is true — and I shudder to think so — it makes our neighborhoods feel like scary places.
Set in Halifax — only a half-hour time zone away from my home here on The Rock — Fire Trap is the story of erstwhile cop T. J. Peterson’s final (p’raps) descent into the bowels of evil to right some wrongs.
Peterson is a man who has hit rock bottom. He has been kicked off the police force, his wife has died, and his daughter has run away to a “hellish” life in Vancouver…
… and, deep in the booze bottle, he has flirted with suicide.
Initially, Peterson offers to help a friend’s sister, to pound the whoopsie out of the man who has been battering said sister.
It’s never that simple.
Peterson finds computer files that eventually lead him to the Dark Web, a truly diabolical place.
If even a fraction of the human depravity Peterson discovers on the Dark Web truly exists, it is almost too frightening — too disturbing — to consider.
Fire Trap has spooked me at my core, if that makes any sense. Not since I first read The Exorcist in a previous century has a book left me with such a sense of inconceivable horror — not Boo! horror but deep, psychic horror.
All the same …
… Fire Trap is a well-told tale, an urban thriller that — albeit disturbing — captivates the reader from the first capital letter of the opening paragraph to the final, full-stop, period of the closing sentence.
October 7, 2019
T.J. Peterson has some trauma in his past, including a drug addicted, estranged daughter whom frequently sends him photos of her living situation, his only sign she is even still alive. In this newest Peterson Mystery, the former cop is dragged into a violent porn ring, but the ring turns personal when he is shocked to see one of his daughter’s pictures matches the violent mastermind’s videos.
This is my first look at the T.J. Peterson Mysteries by author, Bob Kroll as his detail allows readers to easily jump into the series, with this nearly reading as a standalone novel. I found myself flying through this novel, devouring all the intricate players and characters introduced to me within. From an old childhood friend, to former colleagues, no stone in Peterson’s life is unturned. However, while this book naturally reads quickly, do not set it down for one minute, because you are likely to forget the MANY characters and their roles within if you do. Arm yourself with paper and pencil to connect all the individuals named throughout, or prepare to spend a few moments reorienting yourself every time you dive back in.
*Disclaimer: A review copy was provided by the publisher. All opinions are my own.
This is my first look at the T.J. Peterson Mysteries by author, Bob Kroll as his detail allows readers to easily jump into the series, with this nearly reading as a standalone novel. I found myself flying through this novel, devouring all the intricate players and characters introduced to me within. From an old childhood friend, to former colleagues, no stone in Peterson’s life is unturned. However, while this book naturally reads quickly, do not set it down for one minute, because you are likely to forget the MANY characters and their roles within if you do. Arm yourself with paper and pencil to connect all the individuals named throughout, or prepare to spend a few moments reorienting yourself every time you dive back in.
*Disclaimer: A review copy was provided by the publisher. All opinions are my own.
May 30, 2020
Fire Trap, by local author Bob Kroll, is the third and last book in the series about Detective Petersen, a Halifax police officer who deals with the underworld of drugs and prostitution, and ultimately, the ugliness of the Dark Web. Throughout the series, Kroll maintains the suspense of the subplot, his search for his runaway teenage daughter. The writing is terse and realistic in tone, and Kroll's characters ring true. While fictional, Kroll has obviously done his research into this "other" world, and it's truly disturbing. If you're a fan of the genre, these are worth a read.
FYI: The first and second in the series are The Drop Zone and The Hell of it All, also reviewed here.
FYI: The first and second in the series are The Drop Zone and The Hell of it All, also reviewed here.
October 31, 2019
Read my full review here: https://mimi-cyberlibrarian.blogspot....
T.J. Peterson is an ex-cop suffering from PTSD and depression. Apparently, some of the details of his fall happened in earlier books, since Fire Trap is the third book in the series. (The other books include The Drop Zone and The Hell of it All.) At any rate, the reader can glean that he lost his job after a shooting, his wife has died, his daughter is a druggie, and he and his girlfriend have reached an impasse. In the conclusion to the series, his daughter and her childhood friend are both missing, but Peterson keeps getting messages indicating that the young women are pawns in a game targeting Peterson. He springs into action to try to rescue both girls and solve a series of killings.
Peterson suffers numerous flashbacks as he searches for the women, interviews numerous sleezy characters, and uncovers the dark web of porn in his hometown of Halifax. Sometimes, the reader needs to keep a list of characters, so wide is the range of people and places Peterson investigates. One reviewer mentioned that the book would make more sense if it was read in one sitting—so intricate and involved is the book’s structure. When I finally decided I was going to finish the book and sat down to get through it, I was able to appreciate Peterson and his life situation. For example, his counselor tries to comfort him: “Life plays tricks on us, Peterson. It lines the road with obstacles. Some are more difficult than others to climb over. We never sought to bury the circumstances of your life, but to reconcile them with the torment inside your head.” About three-quarters of the way through, the plot starts to move quickly and becomes a page-turner.
The dark procedural takes place in Halifax Nova Scotia, a place I have never visited and thought I could visit by reading Fire Trap. I had met a couple from Halifax on my recent trip to Vietnam, and they convinced me to come and visit their town. Uh huh! Fire Trap was definitely not the Halifax I want to visit. Atlantic Books Today, a Canadian review site muses: “No city can possibly claim to be perfect and doubtless the municipality of Halifax, Nova Scotia is no exception. Despite its reputation as being a beautiful and outwardly friendly place to visit, Halifax cannot possibly be as idyllic a destination as tourism commercials would have us believe. Yet you’d be hard-pressed to find a depiction of a major Canadian city as unremittingly bleak as the metropolitan nightmare author Bob Kroll makes of Halifax.”
Bob Kroll is a career-long author. It seems wise to me that he decided to make this only a trilogy. How much more could one ex-cop suffer? Publisher’s Weekly suggests that Fire Trap is a morality tale “strictly for serious fans,” and I would concur. I am not sure that I would have completed it were it not that it had been sent to me by the publisher.
T.J. Peterson is an ex-cop suffering from PTSD and depression. Apparently, some of the details of his fall happened in earlier books, since Fire Trap is the third book in the series. (The other books include The Drop Zone and The Hell of it All.) At any rate, the reader can glean that he lost his job after a shooting, his wife has died, his daughter is a druggie, and he and his girlfriend have reached an impasse. In the conclusion to the series, his daughter and her childhood friend are both missing, but Peterson keeps getting messages indicating that the young women are pawns in a game targeting Peterson. He springs into action to try to rescue both girls and solve a series of killings.
Peterson suffers numerous flashbacks as he searches for the women, interviews numerous sleezy characters, and uncovers the dark web of porn in his hometown of Halifax. Sometimes, the reader needs to keep a list of characters, so wide is the range of people and places Peterson investigates. One reviewer mentioned that the book would make more sense if it was read in one sitting—so intricate and involved is the book’s structure. When I finally decided I was going to finish the book and sat down to get through it, I was able to appreciate Peterson and his life situation. For example, his counselor tries to comfort him: “Life plays tricks on us, Peterson. It lines the road with obstacles. Some are more difficult than others to climb over. We never sought to bury the circumstances of your life, but to reconcile them with the torment inside your head.” About three-quarters of the way through, the plot starts to move quickly and becomes a page-turner.
The dark procedural takes place in Halifax Nova Scotia, a place I have never visited and thought I could visit by reading Fire Trap. I had met a couple from Halifax on my recent trip to Vietnam, and they convinced me to come and visit their town. Uh huh! Fire Trap was definitely not the Halifax I want to visit. Atlantic Books Today, a Canadian review site muses: “No city can possibly claim to be perfect and doubtless the municipality of Halifax, Nova Scotia is no exception. Despite its reputation as being a beautiful and outwardly friendly place to visit, Halifax cannot possibly be as idyllic a destination as tourism commercials would have us believe. Yet you’d be hard-pressed to find a depiction of a major Canadian city as unremittingly bleak as the metropolitan nightmare author Bob Kroll makes of Halifax.”
Bob Kroll is a career-long author. It seems wise to me that he decided to make this only a trilogy. How much more could one ex-cop suffer? Publisher’s Weekly suggests that Fire Trap is a morality tale “strictly for serious fans,” and I would concur. I am not sure that I would have completed it were it not that it had been sent to me by the publisher.
July 25, 2020
I enjoyed this book. Author Kroll is a very descriptive writer. He has a great talent for very earthy descriptions of people and places. When he does that I see an image in my head of what he's writing about so its easy to visualize the scene he's describing.
His protagonist,Peterson, is a burnt out ex-cop with PTSD. Believe me, he's not who you want to be but author Kroll's description of him put me right in Peterson's shoes. Again, very descriptive writing. The book is a page turner as the reader just has to wonder what dark alley or lonely street in Halifax Peterson is going to go down next in his investigation.
This is not a happy book. It gets very dark at times so be prepared to read some difficult parts. But if you're looking for an on-the-street thriller with lots of tension this is a good read. I gave it five stars as it really held my interest and the writing is so good.
His protagonist,Peterson, is a burnt out ex-cop with PTSD. Believe me, he's not who you want to be but author Kroll's description of him put me right in Peterson's shoes. Again, very descriptive writing. The book is a page turner as the reader just has to wonder what dark alley or lonely street in Halifax Peterson is going to go down next in his investigation.
This is not a happy book. It gets very dark at times so be prepared to read some difficult parts. But if you're looking for an on-the-street thriller with lots of tension this is a good read. I gave it five stars as it really held my interest and the writing is so good.
September 11, 2020
I just can't decide if I enjoyed this novel or not as it is very dark and the content is horrific. The protagonist Peterson is a lost soul and has a difficult time living with his demons. The plot itself is interesting and kept me turning the pages. Overall a good mystery but full of anguish.
wish-list-possibles
October 22, 2019This is the last in the trilogy of Peterson.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews