The Roaring Road: Book 1 – The Road West
Prohibition has been the law since 1920 but that did not stop people from wanting alcoholic beverages nor did it stop the organizations that supplied them. Lack of good alcoholic beverages causes many speakeasies and organized crime suppliers to manufacture low quality substitutes, often called coffin varnish, giggle juice or embalming fluid. Violence is on the rise as the mobs protect their turf and supply channels.
Dan and Laure grew up in small villages in the far north and south areas of Chicago and they meet in unusual circumstances. Laure's past relationship with a mob assassin causes her to be cautious in her commitments. Dan reluctantly undertakes an improbable mission forced on him by a mob chief to settle a debt when his father's truck rolls while being chased by a rival gang, destroying thousands of dollars of contraband alcohol. The mission is to acquire wine and distilled spirits from the Napa/Sonoma Wine Country and other locations to deliver them to a North Side Gang mob capo in Chicago. Or else.
Thus begins Dan and Laure's adventures of The Roaring Road. Start with a rare prototype Duesenberg and a Road Trip Dog. Add mayhem caused by rival mobs, a group of highwaymen, a gang of bank robbers, kidnappers and assorted other villains. Dan goes with an elite squad of U.S. Marines from Mare Island to raid a pirate ship in San Francisco in an attempt to rescue Laure. Stir this rich cocktail mixture with the spicy lust of a rapidly developing relationship. Automobiles, aeroplanes, speakeasies, flappers, Hollywood actors and actresses from the silent movie era combine explosively in this non-stop action thriller that starts with an automobile/express train race from Chicago to Indianapolis. Who wins?
"What Could Possibly Go Wrong?" "Oh, just about everything!"
About Johann Laesecke (Santa Rosa, California Author)
"Stop talking about writing a book, and write the damn book!" The love of my life evidently became tired of me talking about writing a novel, and she was right. Her exasperated comment was the call to action (aka kick-in-the-pants) for me to put up or shut up. The decision was made not to shut up.
So I began writing. In my business career, I wrote proposals, presentations, process and procedures books, software design requirements, project conclusions and summaries. That was not much help in novel writing. Fortunately, my mother began teaching me how to read when I was four years old, and that led me to become a voracious reader. That, and knowing how to type, I began six different stories, in the process learning that I had no idea how to write a page-turning novel. All six were abandoned but not forgotten.
Then, apropos of nothing, one morning a movie in my mind started playing. It was a novel that my subconscious wrote for me. All my previous efforts to outline a story had taken me nowhere. I found my writer's groove as a seat-of-the-pants writer. My companion had kicked me in the right place. The novel became The Roaring Road, my first historical thriller series. There are more movies playing, so make some popcorn and get a glass of wine (tip: sparkling wine goes very well with popcorn) and hang on for the ride! WooHoo!
Author's photo shows me having a cocktail at The Green Mill in Chicago, a notorious nightclub that is Dan and Laure's favorite place to drink and dance.
