The old fart.
Peter Obadiah Cole was widely believed to be on the run from the law, and that was true.
He was also on the run from Congress, the courts and the White House; in fact, from all branches of government. He was on the run from traffic, in the air, on the ground or out at sea. He was on the run from bad movies, and television commercials, and thirty cents’ worth of ground tennis shoe dressed up with special sauces to look like a big, juicy hamburger. He was on the run from television reporters with shellacked hair who couldn’t pronounce the name of the place they were reporting from. He was on the run from Mormon missionaries knocking at the door wanting to save his soul, from local politicians who made promises to get into office and then made more to get into higher office and never did get around to keeping the first ones.
He was on the run from no smoking sections in restaurants.
He was on the run from jets taking off around the clock from Anchorage International Airport.
He was on the run from people tossing butts out the windows of their cars while they waited for the lights to change at Fourth and L.
He was on the run from Jet Skies run by drunks all over Big Lake. He was on the run from people letting their dogs run loose on the Coastal Trail, shitting all over the place and biting little kids and fighting each other every chance they got. He was on the run from the K-Marts and the Wal-Marts and the Fred Meyers and the Eagles and the Office Maxes, all the big ugly box stores full of high-priced crap that nobody really needed and paid too much money for anyway.
He was on the run from faxes and e-mail and voicemail. He was most especially on the run from cell phones.
Excerpt from Nothing Gold Can Stay, the third Liam Campbell novel. I’m working on the fifth novel in the series now.
Chatter The Liam Campbell Novels Uncategorized liam campbell nothing gold can stay
My first reaction is: I need to read the whole series again. My second is: Peter Cole reminds me of the “governor” in Carl Hiaasen’s stories. I love crazy characters who make so much sense.
I need to go back and reread all of the Liam books. Currently they are hidden away in a tightly packed storage unit. Hope to soon move into another house and then I can retrieve them. Loved the books when I read them.
Nancy J Coughlin: Yeah, those “tightly packed storage units” are a bitch! Been there, done that. In the house now. But wish we hadn’t given away so many books I’d really like to reread, now in the time of no libraries!