"A murder in rural Maine in a small summer colony presents a perfect hiding place for intrigue and cops on the take. Against this backdrop, Peter Mars, in his second book, A Taste for Money, creates another fast-paced mystery tinged with the greater moral question of what makes a decent cop go bad.
"The story of Joseph O'Fallon, former altar boy, takes us from the Irish pubs of Boston to Quebec City, Old Orchard Beach, Belgrade Lakes in Maine, and in and out of dives and drug haunts in Boston's back streets.
"Mars once again writes with authority, wit and the knowledge that only a former beat cop can convey. He creates marvelous Irish characters: O'Fallon and his buddies, the seemingly innocuous barflies who actually are in cahoots with the Irish Republican Army, and Terrence Maloney, a newspaper man who runs a service station as a front for kickbacks and corruption. Not since Frank O'Connor in the Last Hurrah has the array of Irish Mafia been presented to the reader with such a mixture of comedy, pathos and cynicism.
"Above all, Mars knows how to tell a good story, a snappy tale that can move instantly from a young man's memories of a long-ago summer at Old Orchard Beach to a chilling murder that leaves only a portion of a man's head and spine in tact.
"Readers who enjoyed the action and unique plot of Mars's first book, The Tunnel, will find his second novel just as absorbing.
"A Taste for Money is a psychological thriller that also provides great insight into the soul of a man who lost his way somewhere on the streets of Boston when greed became more important than human decency. Karlene Hale is a nonfiction author, reporter for the Associated Press, and a writer for the Capital Weekly. "Like The Tunnel, this book has the unmistakable ring of authenticity. But in A Taste for Money, Peter Mars tells an even more compelling tale of a good cop gone bad. The drum roll of truth sounds on every page. Like Ed McBain, Mars knows police and crime and how the two can collide." John N. Cole, award-winning author, Brunswick, Maine INSIDEFLAP; What makes a good man go bad? This is not a new phenomenon. The thought has haunted many people for centuries.
Is it worse when a person who has changed so drastically is a police officer, a keeper of the peace, a person charged with upholding the law, a person who above all others should be trustworthy?
Over the years there have been stories written about rogue cops who have taken bribes, stolen money or goods, performed indecent and lewd sexual acts, dealt in drugs or used them, have been guilty of assault and battery, or have gone so far as to commit murder. In general, these were cops who were bad from the beginning. They never should have gone on the job. But what about the ones whose chemical make-up, whose psyche, has undergone a change while on the job? Is there a legitimate reason for this metamorphosis, one that can not be foretold? If that is the case, what can be done to reverse this action? What can be done to prevent someone who begins with the best of intentions from entering a life of corruption?
The following story is true. It encompasses the life of one such man whose goodness turned a complete opposite and, through the taste for money, made him the worst example of police presence.
What made him think he could get away with such contempt for the law he was sworn to uphold? Who was he to think he would not get caught? After all, everyone knows "crime doesn't pay"
... or does it?
Peter Mars is a native of Brookline, Massachusetts. His undergraduate studies in criminal justice and police science were accomplished at Northeastern University. He has a master's degree in public administration from Columbia where he is completing his Ph.D.
Mars was a Boston-area Policeman for twelve years before moving to Maine where he continued in police work as Chief of Administrative Services for the Kennebec County Sheriff's Office.
In 1997, he took an early retirement, following thirty years in his profession, in order to write of his experiences in law enforcement. In 1998, Commonwealth Publishing of Boston released his first book, The Tunnel.
He recently completed his third book, The Key. The story is based on actual events in the life of a police officer who believed in the criminal justice system until it failed to work for him. The adventure mystery takes the reader from Arlington, Massachusetts to Attica State Prison in New York, to Tarpon Springs, Florida and eventually to Grand Cayman Island before reaching its surprising conclusion.
Mars lives with his wife, Margery, in a small town in south central Maine.
