cover image Downtick

Downtick

Regan C. Ashbaugh. Pocket Books, $6.99 (576pp) ISBN 978-0-671-01889-4

Ashbaugh's first novel treads the familiar path of the psycho stalker harassing and ultimately hunting down those who did him wrong. Years before they had become Wall Street power brokers, David Johnson and Jonah Roberts kicked a schizo out of their apartment. Now Fenton Montague has returned: a homicidal Nietzschean nihilist with a grudge. It's a basic psycho killer plot that benefits from added detail, but perhaps not quite as much as Ashbaugh gives it. Surprisingly, for a 16-year veteran of Wall Street, the ""street"" scenes, though vivid, are curiously rare. Instead, as Fenton's threatening messages turn to violence, Ashbaugh introduces a brigade of state and local investigators, and turns a promising thriller into an exposition on police methodology with lengthy descriptions of East Coast geography. The author obviously did his homework into psychosis and police work, but his narrative pace would have benefited from less exposition. (May) FYI: Downtick is dedicated to the author's son, Trevor, who is autistic. The proceeds will be contributed to the building of a center for autistic adults in Ashbaugh's community.