James Purdy

The First One is Free: a John Mac Peace Novel James Purdy

John Mac Peace, AKA, Johnny Dodger, is just an accident waiting to happen - or at least that's how it seems to those around him. Incidents just seem to occur whenever, and wherever he happens to be. It has been that way as long as John can remember. Johnny has been dragged back home to his small Indiana town; a place he thought he would never see again and finds himself in a life and death struggle when he agrees to do a small, albeit shady, delivery job for a man he never liked and often fought. But money being money and John without any, agreed to take the gig only to find out he has been duped and now set up as the patsy to take the fall by his hated nemesis. He does his best to solve a case that the local police are sure has Johnny Dodger's name written all over it. As if that isn't enough problems for John, his long-lost girlfriend, Ellie Stomperheim, has reasserted herself into his life and has decided to be his partner while she is on summer break from her teaching job. Thomas Magnum he is not... "A very funny novel. J. B. Purdy is Indiana''s modern day Mark Twain." David D. Hale -Visiting Defense Fellow, Centre for Policy Studies, Queen''s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada."It's one of the funniest books I have read in a long, long time." Carlo DiPilato - Parks & Recreation Manager "Johnny Dodger is an irresistible cad - and I love him for that!" Karen Burden - Tucson, Arizona "Once I started this book, I couldn't put it down!" Cindy Pierce - Terre Haute native.