Junkie
An Absolutely Addicting and Utterly Thrilling Page Turner (Cal Rogan Mysteries Book 1)
How do you hunt down your best friend’s killer when you’re a drug-addicted ex-cop living on the streets?
About The Book
Book Shorts
Junkie
How do you hunt down your best friend’s killer when you’re a drug-addicted ex-cop living on the streets?
Cal Rogan has reached rock bottom.
Once a rising-star detective, he has one friend left from his old life. When he finds him dead, his former colleagues rule it a suicide. Cal is determined to prove them wrong and sets himself on a chilling path he never could have imagined.
If you like heroes who struggle with their demons, gritty urban police detectives, and clues you won’t see coming, get Robert P. French’s compelling debut novel and follow Cal’s wild ride from the drug-infested streets through the worlds of drug gangs, big business, and the super-rich to its stunning conclusion.
Junkie will keep you guessing to the very last page!
Readers are absolutely loving Junkie:
“…With many twists and turns provided I was enthralled with the story from page one to the very end.” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“A very compelling first book in the Cal Rogan Series …So many twists and turns in this story, including drug dealers, violence, money laundering, more deaths and murders, greed and heartbreak.” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“This is one of those ‘can’t put down’ books and I enjoyed every bit of it. I… look forward to the next Cal Rogan mystery. Highly recommend” Kaye, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“…pleasantly surprised by this book. It was absolutely amazing and I cannot wait to read the next one.” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Well written, meticulously plotted and life like characters will draw you into this book.” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“A Real Page Turner. Another bit I applaud Mr. French for is how he shows that folks who struggle with addiction and alcoholism are humans! GREAT JOB!” icm502004, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Junkie is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Cal “Rocky” Rogan is someone you would love to hate, but can’t.” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🧐What readers say about the book
I read incessantly and have been a writer for 54 years, now. I explore these Amazon bargain titles through BookBub and have found some stunning novels for so little money that I wind up feeling like I stole them. I'm horrendously picky about what I choose to continue reading, after maybe the first 25 - 100 pages. I quit the books often, whether I paid anything or not. I admit to starting a new novel with antennae aquiver. If I find bad grammar, anything gratuitous, lots of undetected typos, bad dialog, I'm out. The first of the Cal Rogan series I read was Cabal, which was listed as free in my daily BookBub bargains. I read the blurb, clicked over to Amazon, and downloaded it, as always with no expectations. At first, the tone reminded me of Colin Conway's "The Long Cold Winter": both set in this region where I live, both tragically burdened, conflicted detectives, both stumbling through their daily lives and work while wondering if any of it is worth it, all overlaid with the off-center, absurdist, angst-ridden character quirks common to most everyone in America's Pacific Northwest and Canada's Southwest corner. As opposed to Conway's Dallas Nash, French's Cal Rogan's burden is of his own making. He's a junkie but even that has a complicated genesis. He became one in trying to empathize with and understand the heroin and other addicts he busted in his job as a detective with the Vancouver (BC) PD. He hit up once, at the urging of a friend, and happened to have that personality and physiology that is prone to addiction almost instantly. His heroin cravings cost him his job, his wife, and a very young daughter and he STILL could not stop. In the first book, "Junkie", Rogan investigates the murder of one of his closest friends and realizes that the other addiction that he carries is police work. He's as compelled to solve his friend's murder as he is to shoot up and the two needs drive the entire book's pace and rationale. In French's hands, Rogan is as unvarnished a character as any I have ever found. He, like all junkies, would sell his soul for his next hit or to quit heroin altogether. He's forced into the seedy underworld of Vancouver's East Side, chasing the next buy and into the sterilized world of the city's movers and shakers to find a killer. He belongs to neither world but has found a begrudging sympathy for the other wretches he meets on the East Side and is continually having to revise his preconceptions as he learns more about them as something other that shadowy wraiths, seeking shelter and drugs. French grants Rogan only marginal sympathy and refuses to whitewash his many sins and failings. His evocation of junkie life is stark and unsettling. He conveys the reality of the drug sharpening its claws on Rogan's very bones and whipping him mercilessly, like some demonic, sadistic jockey, empty of compassion for its conveyance and hell-bent on riding Rogan's flesh, bones, and spirit until its mount dies and is discarded, before moving onto its next victim. Rogan's struggle to simply remain functional as he obeys his other obsessive need to solve his friend's murder is both heart-breaking and exasperating. We desperately want him to beat the heroin and he simply cannot...and those of us who have never been addicted are totally unequipped to understand his mania. Empathizing with him is difficult but ultimately worth the struggle. There is so much flesh on California Rogan's tortured bones that he is as vivid in the mind's eye as any casual acquaintance we may know. He is compelling and magnetic at the same time as he's off-putting and the frisson is the framework for a truly transcendent character. I have my own personal pantheon of mystery writers from whom I read anything and everything I can find. James Lee Burke, Lee Child, Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, John Connelly, Robert B. Parker, John Sandford, and maybe a dozen more. I am compelled to add Robert P. French to that list, at least through two and a half books of the Rogan Series. French's command of plotting and characterization and especially the dialog coming out of his characters' mouths is genuinely masterful. The pacing of the books falls somewhere in the continuum of Burke and Michael Connelly' Bosch novels, and Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series. I cannot say that "Junkie" was perfect, for one simple reason: by the time it come to the unmasking of the killer, French had really eliminated everyone else but the killer. The perpetrator was literally the only one left who could have done it, unless he was willing to do the shaggy dog story thing of introducing a brand new character at the last moment. But that's a minor flaw and the ride to that destination was an exceptional entre for this series. I plan to read all the Rogans and need only one or two more of the caliber of these first two to grant French that special cred that's labeled, in my head, "Trusted to Deliver, Every Time." Read less 3 people found this helpful Helpful Report word addicted 4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent writing, compelling storyline Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2012 Verified Purchase In Robert French's book Junkie, the main character is Cal Rogan, a former police detective who is addicted to heroin. Not only has he lost the job he loved, but he is also homeless. He struggles to solve the murder of his friend, maintain a relationship with his little daughter, and keep himself from getting hurt. Each action he takes gets him in worse trouble, and all the while he has to keep feeding the beast that is heroin addiction. Through it all, he clings to a strong sense of responsibility to his child and refuses to give up on solving the case. He also considers rehab for his drug problem and nurses a secret hope to someday be reinstated on the force. What to say about this book? First of all, it surprised me on several levels. For instance, it was written in first-person present tense which is not a style I usually enjoy. However, it was so well done that this did not at all detract from my reading pleasure. In fact, it seemed to add immediacy to the action. Secondly, it was written from multiple viewpoints, an approach which can be confusing in less capable hands. However, Mr. French pulled this off adroitly as well.
Steve Body
About The Author
Robert P. French
I am a former software developer, former actor, turned author of the Cal Rogan Mysteries. I was born in Oxford and now live in my beautiful adopted city, Vancouver. It has taken me many years and several books (either partial or failed) to learn the writers’ craft. I invite you to enjoy the six Cal Rogan Mysteries. Six days a week you can see me at the Vancouver Public library hunched over my computer working on the next book in the series, as yet untitled.