This week it’s Barrington, New Hampshire Public Library, Thursday, June 24, 6:30 p.m. I’ll be talking about Brandon Blake, my relatively newfound friend, and PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN. Of course, Jack McMorrow and DAMAGED GOODS will creep into the conversation. I’m looking forward to it; very good people down there. Hope you can join us.
Meanwhile, in in Canaan, Maine in southern Somerset County, a flash from the past.
They call it The Slaughterhouse, because it once was a meatpacking plant. But the concrete building in the woods now is a Hell’s Angels clubhouse, a place to get away from the big city and kick back. I wrote about the place and its small-town setting years ago in my newspaper column. This month it’s back in the news with the arrest of one and killing of another in connection with an attempted murder at the clubhouse gates last year.
According to the ATF, who sent someone in undercover, the Outlaws Motorcycle Club was exacting revenge for an assault on two of their guys by Hells Angels in Connecticut. The Angels put the Outlaws in the hospital and, worse than that, stole their colors. This is an act that cannot go unavenged. So, the cops say, two Outlaws sat on the gate of the Angels’ Maine hideaway and, when an Angel pulled up in his truck, opened fire. The Angel lived, barely, and the events that led to the death of Thomas Mayne in Old Orchard Beach were set in motion. ATF says Mayne opened fire when they went to arrest him. Agents were wearing body armor; Mayne was not. End of story.
Oh, but it won’t be. As in Afghanistan and Iraq and other cultures where the tribe is first and foremost and honor is more important than life, the chain of violence will see more links added. Dave Hench, crime reporter for the Portland Press Herald, wrote a good story about the structure of the Outlaws, based on the federal indictment. Interesting that these clubs, supposed to be the world of crazy bikers, are in reality strictly structured with lots of rules that members adhere to like it’s a matter of life or death.
Which it is, sometimes.
Until next time, another tale from my neck of the woods, “Maine, the Way Life Should Be.”
In PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN, the first Brandon Blake novel, Brandon gets a full dose of bad guys. A brawl in a funeral home introduces him to Joel Fuller, a sociopathic hustler. Fuller is fresh out of jail and determined to take Brandon out—after Fuller and his sidekick Kelvin shake him down.
Rocky isn’t a tough guy. He’s a skinny little kid with crooked glasses, and he shouldn’t be homeless in Portland, Maine. When McMorrow and Roxanne pluck him from under the stomping feet of a gang of street kids, Rocky latches onto McMorrow–and drags him into a world of murder, both old and new. Why is McMorrow protecting Rocky? The cops want to know. Why is Rocky on the run? McMorrow wants to know. Why does death follow in Rocky’s wake? Jack and Roxanne need to find out before they’re added to the list. 
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