Peruser – a new Cole Wright short story

It’s been a while since I’ve put out any of my Cole Wright series. I guess I’ve been reframing it and wondering if I want it to go on. Wright is my take on the popular Knight Errant genre.

I see that the new series of Reacher is out about now, and I realized that it was a great time to let this story out into the world. Lee Child is the master of the genre and I can but hope that my humble stories are in some way unique and worth reading in and of themselves.

Though I’m told that I should be out here selling myself. Better than Reacher! The compassion that you wish Jack had! Stuff like that.

Ultimately I just want to have fun with my writing, and if I’m entertaining a few people along the way, so much the better.

Really, it’s all practise at becoming a better writer. I hope that that is noticeable. I do feel more confident year by year, even with some little crises-of-confidence along the way. The fact that I’m selling more to the pro magazines sure suggests to me that I’m on the right track.

Anyway, back to ‘Peruser’. A Cole Wright short story set in a public library. My day job is in a public library, so I figure at least in this case I’ve got the setting down pat.

The thing is, this new TV series of Reacher is based on the Lee Child novel Persuader. So, yes, you can see what I did there. Not expecting a halo effect (as happened with Whalefall), but, you know. Better out where you can read it than stuck in a metaphorical drawer, right.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Here’s the blurb and the first chapter of the story.

*

Cole Wright always enjoys a quiet moment in a small town library as he travels from place to place. Free, welcoming, and quiet. And cheap used books for sale.

As he peruses through the battered but readable volumes, a ruckus shatters the the Wilden Public Library’s quiet haven.

Libraries attract all kinds of folks. And sometimes library patrons take exception.

Sometimes it leads to violence.

Cole Wright once again finds himself in the middle.

Wrong place. Wrong time. Just as well.

Peruser (excerpt)

The Wilden County Library was a small affair, little more than a few rooms in an old brick lawyers’ building. Quiet, subtle and homey in its own way.

Hardly the kind of place you’d need to bring a gun.

Perhaps four thousand square feet. Perhaps a little less. Open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, according to the brass sign at the door.

The air was cool and carried the agreeable scent of ageing books and shampooed carpeting.

The main area involved rows of shelves filled with books in a jumble of sizes. Probably neatly ordered according to rules of subject matter. Cole Wright had visited libraries often enough to know that there were different systems. Dewey Decimal was popular, but there were variations.

Right near the glass entry doors stood a wide central service desk, with helpful signs and racks of brochures and fliers, and a young librarian–bespectacled as if that was some kind of rule–tapping away at a computer. She was early twenties and tall. Dressed in black. She had a row of piercings along the outside of her left ear.

Off to her right, and tucked into the far corner, a bank of six computers occupied a long bench. Locals looking at emails or social media or videos. A couple of the computers had black screens and Out of Order signs.

Fingers ticked on keys and music bled quietly from headphones.

In back was the staff area, behind closed swinging doors with pebbled windows. Librarians came and went. The door hinges creaked every time. Trolley wheels rattled.

There were other rooms too. Bathrooms, a history reading room and a book sale room run by the friends of the library.

The reason Wright was here.

He’d read a good Grisham recently and needed a new book. Perhaps something a little more esoteric.

All across America, Friends of the Library organizations occupied back rooms or cupboard or shelves, filled with canceled library books, donated and other bits and pieces to help raise funds to keep the library running.

It suited Wright. He’d brought along the battered paperback to donate, and would browse for a replacement.

What he hadn’t figured, but should have really, was that the sale room opened an hour after the library itself, so he had a good fifteen minutes to wait.

That was fine with him too. He was new to town and enjoying the peace and quiet. After the bustle and frantic hectic life of a Seattle cop, the pace of small towns was just about right.

He wandered the shelves. They had a big section on American history, and on natural history. A wonderful huge book on buffalo, with hundreds of pages of pictures, many sepia, or the stunning beasts. Wright could just about hear the hoofbeats of the herds striding through.

Wilden would have been right in the middle of the grazing lands. Vast prairies, horizon to horizon. Now, mostly corn and wheat and maybe a little soy.

A librarian appeared at the end of the row as he was reshelving the book. The woman from the counter. She had dark brown eyes. A badge on her left breast read Josie and she had a black lanyard with an ID card.

“Doing okay there?” she said.

“Just fine,” he said. “Probably putting this back in the wrong place though.”

Librarians could be fussy. Everything needed to be in order, but some of the numbers got pretty long, with decimal points and letters. This one had 599.643 BIS on the spine. Not too long of a number really.

“Just leave it on the table,” Josie said. “I’ll tidy it away later.”

From the front of the library someone shouted. Followed right away by a calming voice. Another librarian?

Josie glanced back.

“Everything okay?” Wright said.

“It’s just Evan. He can get a bit… anxious if he’s not on his meds.” She looked at Wright again. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

Wright smiled. Sometimes people talked to him. Said things they shouldn’t.

“That’s okay,” Wright said. He pulled back the book on buffalo and brought it along with him to one of the tables. The place had plenty of them set up. Plain wooden things with simple steel framed chairs. There were power points and phone chargers.

He dropped the book on the table.

“They’re opening up the book sale room now,” Josie said, just ahead of him. “They’re a little early, but I figure that’s better than late.”

“I’d agree. And thank you.”

Wright started back around the next aisle, heading toward the sale room at the back.

Another shout came from the front of the library. It came from among the computers.

Wright stopped near the central desk. A pen caddy stood near the librarians’ computer, with some kind of sign-up sheet on a clipboard. A generic lanyard with a generic Visitor card at the end. Perhaps for electricians and plumbers who needed access to the non-public spaces.

Josie had continued on over to the computers. A thickset guy was standing near a reedy looking guy with a fresh haircut. He was facing away from Wright, but there was a lanyard at his neck too. Another librarian.

He had both hands up, as if preparing to deflect the thickset guy if he charged. The reedy librarian wouldn’t stand a chance.

The thickset guy’s shoulders were bunched. He was wearing a heavy coat. Hands in the pockets.

“Hey Evan,” Josie said. “What’s going on?” Her voice had a sing-song friendliness to it.

Wright stayed where he was a moment.

He glanced deeper into the library. The book sale room door stood open. It looked bright inside, with well-ordered shelves. An old guy with a thick gray mustache and a too-tight polo shirt was putting a sign up on an easel at the door.

Half off Today, it read. All books 50% marked price.

The sign looked well-used, as if they put it out every other week.

Still, Wright was never one to pass up a bargain.

“You need to put that down,” Josie said, back at the computers.

“Nope,” the thickset guy said.

Wright turned.

The guy had a gun. Held level. Aimed right at Josie.

And thanks for reading this far. You can find ‘Peruser’ at your favorite ebook retailer, and there is a little paperback available too. $2.99 for the ebook, $6.99 for the paperback. Both include an afterword by me and a couple of sample chapters from the novel Hard Ground.

If you grab the ebook from my site, here’s a code to download it free – Just enter peruser2025 at checkout. I’ll leave this valid through to the end of March, which is about when I think this series of Reacher will come to an end.

Is that shameless?

All right, I’ll toss in a half-off discount on Hard Ground too – just enter the code hardground2025 at checkout.

Cheers

Sean