Money Men

Charles Carr #1

by Gerald Petievich

Charles Carr is a relentless, hardboiled Treasury Agent with a grim mission. A young agent gets violently gunned down during an undercover operation, and it's Carr's job to hunt down the counterfeiter who pulled the trigger. From the seamy sunset Strip to Chinatown's shadowy underworld, from a daring plot to steal counterfeit money from counterfeiters themselves, to facing brutal blood-drenched confrontations, Carr will stop at nothing to crack the depraved scheme that took his friend's life.

Genres: Crime

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1983

About the author

Gerald Petievich belongs to that tiny group of writers who came to crime fiction from careers in law enforcement. He has been an Army counterspy and a U.S. Secret Service agent, using his real life experiences to achieve verisimilitude in his fiction. His novels are known to come as close as any in the mystery- and-thriller genre to a genuine realism. Three of his novels have been produced as major motion pictures.

Gerald grew up in a police family. His father and brother were both members of the Los Angeles Police Department. He attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey and later served in Germany as a US Army Counterintelligence Special Agent. As Chief of the Counterespionage Section, Field Office Nuremberg, he received commendations for his work during the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

In 1970 he joined the United States Secret Service where as a Special Agent he spent fifteen years engaged in duties relating to the protection of the President and the enforcement of Federal counterfeiting laws. It was during a long-term Secret Service assignment in Paris, France that Petievich discovered the works of Per Wahloo & Maj Sjowall, Graham Greene and John le Carre, and decided to become a writer. Later, while serving in Los Angeles as the US Secret Service representative to the Department of Justice Organized Crime Strike Force, Gerald's schedule consisted of rising at 4 AM to write before going to his government office.

In 1985, Gerald left the Secret Service to pursue his writing career full-time.

Reviews

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of a few books, that I'm aware of, that features Treasury Agent Charlie Carr. This is 1981 Hollywood and right out the gate in chapter 1 we have a sting operation that goes horribly wrong and an agent is killed under Carr's watch. Well you know what comes next. Some bastards are gonna pay! I really liked this novel with it's cast of eccentric and not-so-bright criminals and less-than-upright good guys doing the chase in Los Angeles. Petievich wrote To Live and Die in L.A., so if you've seen that movie you'll have a good idea of what this caper is like. Good stuff.

[AC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost flawless. Authentic. Gritty.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

***1/4: read it again after watching the film adaptation (retitled Boiling Point, 1993).