The Roaring Road: Book 2 – The Road East

The Roaring Road: Book 2
312 Pages
ISBN 978-0-9964861-1-8

1926 – Dan and Laure thought acquiring Napa/Sonoma wine and whiskey to transport back to Chicago would be difficult, but that was easy compared to their new troubles. During a Hollywood visit they meet motion picture stars including Louise Brooks and Douglas Fairbanks. They play a garden party prank causing intended and unintended consequences. Louise and Laure appear similar enough to be mistaken for cousins and Laure accepts a dancing role in the 1926 production of The Great Gatsby movie. Dan is made an offer to become a movie producer while a movie star is intent on becoming Laure’s lover and Louise makes plans to seduce Dan.

A powerful, ruthless and unknown enemy plots to kidnap Laure, but who is it, and why? Their private executive railroad car carrying wine and spirits is hijacked, recovered and hijacked again. A nearly 2,000 mile train chase keeps Dan and Laure scrambling to stay a step ahead until it ends in Cherryvale, Kansas. Who is the mysterious killer disguised as a messenger boy, and is he friend or foe? Dan and Laure learn to use trickery and misdirection to con their enemies and find a small circle of new friends with talents for mischief, distraction, diversion and mayhem.

The question "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?" is often answered with "Oh, Just About Everything"

Johann Laesecke

About Johann Laesecke (Santa Rosa, California Author)

Johann Laesecke

"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.