Fog City Fraud by Peter Ralph

Publisher's Synopsis

As a law-abiding citizen holds a knife to a young girl's throat on the ledge of a San Francisco high-rise building, war hero Josh finds himself on the edge of an abyss. Concealing his own dark secrets, Josh risks exposing himself if he dares to save the girl.

A swift police bullet ends the harrowing standoff, taking the reasons behind the man's momentary madness to his grave. Consumed by grief, his heartbroken daughter turns to Josh, seeking his help to unravel the truth behind her father's inexplicable actions.

Out of his depth but compelled by love, Josh embarks on a perilous journey, risking his life to find the answers buried within the shadows.

My Review of Fog City Fraud by Peter Ralph

Fog City Fraud is a taut, sharp thriller that clatters along at an assured pace and kicks off what appears to be a rapidly growing series. Australian author Peter Ralph has made good use of his years of experience in the finance industry with a tightly held story of fraud and deception.

Josh Kennelly is a quiet guy who lodges tax returns for a living working for an investment firm. When a deeply disgruntled client holds one of his fellow office workers hostage at knifepoint, threatening to throw himself and her off a window ledge, Josh steps in to try to calm the situation. Tragedy strikes when the man is shot by a police sniper just as he agrees to surrender himself. The resulting media attention reveals that Josh is actually Chad Denton, a war hero with a chest full of medals. His name change came from a desperate attempt to avoid the spotlight, hating the attention and being asked to recall his wartime exploits.

The revelation of Josh’s true identity is jumped upon by his superiors at the investment firm where he works. Their plan is to use his celebrity to do meet and greets with existing and potential clients, hoping to reel them in to invest with the firm. This new role gives Josh access to parts of the company he has never seen before and what he sees disturbs him greatly. Questions about the legitimacy of the company’s dealings start to swirl around in his head.

Then there’s the shooting death of the man Josh was in the process of saving. A pair of cops from the SFPD show up trying to convince him that the man was attacking his saviors and that the shooting was justified. It’s a story that Josh knows is patently untrue. The problem is, after he denies the story he’s confronted by a group of men who try to convince him by force. Definitely the wrong move when dealing with a trained killer.

Fog City Fraud is quite a short novel at less than 200 pages, but it’s packed full of intrigue, dirty dealings and action. While the dialogue feels a little clunky at times it doesn’t detract too much from the plot. Every scene moves along rapidly and we’re no sooner getting an understanding of the fraud that’s in process before taking the quick jump to a plan that’s simple but efficiently brilliant and then watching its flawless execution.

A stack is crammed into this thriller that contains all the elements of a cracking crime novel: crooked fraudsters, bent cops, a budding romance and an opportunity for revenge. This is a good quality introduction to Josh Kenelly revealing just enough to make me curious enough to want to learn more.