My name’s Ben Dougherty. I’m a cop. Detective in Penns River, Pennsylvania, about twenty miles up the river from Pittsburgh. Lived there my whole life except for the nine years I spent in the Army as an MP. Couple of tours in Iraq. Got caught up in a hell of a prison riot at Fort Leavenworth. Figured I’d come home and relax.

I figured wrong.

The economy here’s been lousy ever since I was a little kid and the mills started closing but I don’t remember there being much real crime then. Vandalism, some underage drinking, occasional DUI. I guess some guys got rough with their wives and kids, but people looked at those things different then. Now we got drugs and a casino and the head of the Pittsburgh Mob lives right here in Penns River.

A typical day? Understand, cops don’t really have typical days. I’m a detective so my days have more routine in them than when I was on patrol, but even now. . .it’s like this. I come in at eight in the morning, assuming I didn’t get a call in the middle of the night for a robbery or break-in or the random homicide. With only three detectives—we’re supposed to have four but they never seem to get around to filling that vacancy—we take turns by the week of being on call. So assuming I get a decent night’s sleep, I come in at eight and read the bulletins. Unless it’s my day to bring the doughnuts. Stush—our chief, Stan Napierkowski—is a big believer in upholding police traditions, so every weekday someone not on patrol brings in doughnuts.

I eat my doughnuts and read the bulletins. Then I look over my notes from the day before and see what needs to be done today. Reports, usually. Maybe interview some witnesses and try to figure out how much of what they tell me is usable. It’s not that everyone lies, though a lot do, especially to a cop. Some even lie when they have no reason to, just to keep in practice. Most others fall into two categories: those who get flustered when an armed man wants to talk to them, and those who try to be too helpful. I see what you’re thinking there. “How can a witness be too helpful?” Well, some will decide they don’t remember enough and feel the heed to enhance their memories, if you catch my drift. So you’re weeding out the truth from both ends.

Once in a while we get to arrest someone. It’s not too often like on TV, you know, where there’s a car chase and gunfire and people running down the street with saxophones playing in the background. I’ve run down more crooks than I can remember and not once—not one time—have I heard saxophones.

After work I’ll stop by and visit my parents a couple times a week. They still live in the house I grew up in. Showing their age some now and Mom eyesight is giving her trouble, but they still take road trips at least once a year and Mom always sends me home with enough leftovers to last a couple of days.

Nights I don’t go there I might stop at the Edgecliff for some chicken wings or one of those big fish sandwiches if I get there on Friday before they’re too busy. Once a month or so I go down the Flats and have a few at Fat Jimmy’s. It’s the worst dive in PR and Jimmy says he hates it when I come in because having a cop in the building runs off half his regulars, but we go way back and if you can’t break your oldest friends’ balls, whose can you break. Besides, Jimmy doesn’t like things there to get too disreputable, as in to the point where he might be in trouble. I’ve gotten a tip or two there.

I’ve never been married and I don’t have a regular girlfriend. My best friend is a lesbian contractor. Wait. That didn’t come out right. Eve’s a lesbian who runs a small construction business. That first made it sound like she hired out lesbians. I don’t think she’d do that, though I wouldn’t put it past her.

Giveaway: Comment below for a chance to win a print copy of Ten-Seven. U.S. entries only, please. The giveaway ends January 22, 2019. Good luck everyone!

You can read more about Ben in Ten-Seven, the fourth book in the “Penns Rivers” crime series, coming January 21, 2019.

Vicki Leydig thought she was going to have a few drinks with her friend Mary and maybe get to spend a little time with Doug Strinweiss at the Allegheny Casino. She didn’t expect Doug to offer her a ride home, and she sure didn’t expect to watch a stranger blow Doug’s head off in the parking lot. Penns River police don’t have much to go on until Detective Ben “Doc” Dougherty interviews casino employees and learns of drug deals going down in and around the property. Leads show promise and fall apart with depressing frequency until the local prosecutor turns a minor charge into a statement that leads Doc and the rest of the police force to a surprising conclusion, though not before tragedy strikes one of their own.

This isn’t the only thing Penns River has on its plate. A consent decree signed with the federal government has brought three new female officers to the force, and Deputy Chief Jack Harriger continues his push to take over the top job from Stush Napierkowski. Doc learns his young friend Wilver Faison may be a key player in the local drug trade and one Penns River cop has a secret he’d just as soon keep to himself.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh mob boss Mike Mannarino faces increasing pressure from his bosses in New York, so much so he’s thinking of reaching out to Chicago for protection. What the rest of his crew has to decide is whether Chicago is the only other organization Mike might make an arrangement with.

It’s another week in the town of Penns River, with distractions that range from petty vandalism to a bridge jumper keeping the cops’ full attention away from the critical task at hand.

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Meet the author
Dana King has two Shamus Award nominations for his Nick Forte novels, for A Small Sacrifice and The Man in the Window. He also writes the Penns River novels, of which the fourth novel in the series, Ten-Seven, releases from Down & Out Books on January 21. His work has appeared in the anthologies The Black Car Business, Unloaded 2, The Shamus Sampler 2, and Blood, Guts, and Whiskey. You can get to know him better on his website at danakingauthor.com, blog, or Facebook page, which he promises to update more often.

All comments are welcomed.