Peter Ash is a series of suspense thriller novels written by Nick Petrie. The stories revolve around him, a war veteran who takes harsh action against inequality.
Peter Ash served in the military and fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. But when he came back, Ash discovered that the world had no place for him. Ash suffers from severe PTSD, triggered by enclosed spaces. The soldier resolves to live an isolated life, spent in nature.
Ash did all right, at least for a while. But then a Marine friend committed suicide and everything changed. Ash returns to civilization to help the friend’s widow when he discovers more than he bargained for.
Ash does not seek out conflict and would prefer to abandon society entirely. However, he soon realizes that his past will prevent him from living a regular life. Despite his determination to avoid other people, life doesn’t play by the rules. The veteran’s path continues to lead him to the lives of the needy and desperate. He feels it’s his duty to help innocent people.
In each novel, Peter Ash becomes entangled in the problems of new people. And as he solves their problems, he starts to heal a little himself.
Peter Ash Books in order
Peter Ash
- The Drifter (2016)
- Burning Bright (2017)
- Light It Up (2018)
- Tear It Down (2019)
- The Wild One (2020)
- The Breaker (2021)
- The Runaway (2022)
Similar authors
- Orphan X by Gregg Andrew Hurwitz follows Evan Smoak. He was enrolled in a secret program known as the “Orphan Program” at the age of 12, to become a child assassin. He is done with the program, but it’s not done with him. See Orphan X Books in Order.
- Mark Greaney’s Gray Man follows Sierra Six, the CIA’s most skilled mercenary. He accidentally discovers dark agency secrets and has to flee a global manhunt. See Gray Man Books in Order.
Most recommended books
- The Runaway (Peter Ash #7) (4.26 Goodreads score)
- The Wild One (Peter Ash, #5) (4.21 Goodreads score)
- The Breaker (Peter Ash, #6) (4.20 Goodreads score)
- Light It Up (Peter Ash, #3) (4.16 Goodreads score)
- Tear It Down (Peter Ash, #4) (4.16 Goodreads score)
Awards
“The Drifter” was nominated for Edgar, Barry, and Hammett Awards for Best First Novel.
Latest releases
The Runaway, the seventh book in the Peter Ash series, was published in January 2022.
Book summaries
The Drifter (2016)
Peter Ash came home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: what he calls his “white static,” the buzzing claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress that has driven him to spend a year roaming in nature, sleeping under the stars. But when a friend from the Marines commits suicide, Ash returns to civilization to help the man’s widow with some home repairs. Under her dilapidated porch, he finds more than he bargained for: the largest, ugliest, meanest dog he’s ever encountered…and a Samsonite suitcase stuffed with cash and explosives. As Ash begins to investigate this unexpected discovery, he finds himself at the center of a plot that is far larger than he could have imagined…and it may lead straight back to the world he thought he’d left for good.
Burning Bright (2017)
War veteran Peter Ash sought peace and quiet among the towering redwoods of northern California, but the trip isn’t quite the balm he’d hoped for. The dense forest and close fog cause his claustrophobia to buzz and spark, and then he stumbles upon a grizzly, long thought to have vanished from this part of the country. In a fight of man against bear, Peter doesn’t favor his odds, so he makes a strategic retreat up a nearby sapling. There, he finds something strange: a climbing rope, affixed to a distant branch above. It leads to another, and another, up through the giant tree canopy, and ending at a hanging platform. On the platform is a woman on the run. From below them come the sounds of men and gunshots. Just days ago, investigative journalist June Cassidy escaped a kidnapping by the men who are still on her trail. She suspects they’re after something belonging to her mother, a prominent software designer who recently died in an accident. June needs time to figure out what’s going on, and help from someone with Peter’s particular set of skills. Only one step ahead of their pursuers, Peter and June must race to unravel this peculiar mystery. What they find leads them to an eccentric recluse, a shadowy pseudo-military organization, and an extraordinary tool that may change the modern world forever.
Light It Up (2018)
Combat veteran Peter Ash leaves a simple life rebuilding hiking trails in Oregon to help his good friend Henry Nygaard, whose daughter runs a Denver security company that protects cash-rich cannabis entrepreneurs from modern-day highwaymen. Henry’s son-in-law and the company’s operations manager were carrying a large sum of client money when their vehicle vanished without a trace, leaving Henry’s daughter and her company vulnerable. When Peter is riding a shotgun on another cash run, the cargo he’s guarding comes under attack and he narrowly escapes with his life. As the assaults escalate, Peter has to wonder: for criminals this sophisticated, is it really just about the cash? After finding himself on the defensive for too long, Peter marshals his resources and begins to dig for the truth in a scheme that is bigger—and far more lucrative—than he’d ever anticipated. With so much on the line, his enemy will not give up quietly…and now he has Peter directly in his sights.
Tear It Down (2019)
Iraq war veteran Peter Ash is restless in the home he shares with June Cassidy in Washington State. June knows Peter needs to be on the move, so she sends him to Memphis to help her friend Wanda Wyatt, a photographer and war correspondent who’s been receiving peculiar threats. When Peter arrives in Memphis, however, he finds the situation has gone downhill fast–someone has just driven a dump truck into Wanda’s living room. But neither Wanda nor Peter can figure out why. At the same time, a young homeless street musician finds himself roped into a plan to rob a jewelry store. The heist doesn’t go as planned, and the young man finds himself holding a sack full of Rolexes and running for his life. When his getaway car breaks down, he steals a new one at gunpoint–Peter’s 1968 green Chevrolet pickup truck. Peter likes the skinny kid’s smarts and attitude, but he soon discovers that the desperate musician is in far worse trouble than he knows. And Wanda’s troubles are only beginning. Peter finds himself stuck between Memphis gangsters–looking for Rolexes and revenge–and a Mississippi ex-con and his hog-butcher brother looking for a valuable piece of family history that goes all the way back to the Civil War.
The Wild One (2020)
Losing ground in his fight against post-traumatic claustrophobia, war veteran Peter Ash has no intention of getting on an airplane–until a grieving woman asks Peter to find her eight-year-old grandson. The woman’s daughter has been murdered. Erik, the dead daughter’s husband, is the sole suspect, and he has taken his young son and fled to Iceland for the protection of Erik’s lawless family. Finding the boy becomes more complicated when Peter is met at the airport by a man from the United States Embassy. For reasons both unknown and unofficial, it seems that Peter’s own government doesn’t want him in Iceland. The police give Peter two days of sightseeing in Reykjavik before he must report back for the first available seat home. . . and when they realize Peter isn’t going home until he accomplishes his mission, they start hunting him, too. From the northernmost European capital to a rustbound fishing vessel to a remote farm a stone’s throw from the Arctic, Peter must confront his growing PTSD and the most powerful Icelandic snowstorm in a generation to find a killer, save an eight-year-old boy, and keep himself out of an Icelandic prison–or a cold Icelandic grave.
The Breaker (2021)
A man wanted by two governments, Peter Ash has found a simple, low-profile life in Milwaukee, living with his girlfriend June and renovating old buildings with his friend Lewis. Staying out of trouble is the key to preserving this fragile peace . . . but when Peter spots a suspicious armed man walking into a crowded market, he knows he can’t stand by and do nothing. Peter does interrupt a crime, but it wasn’t at all what he’d expected. The young gunman appeared to have one target and one mission–but when he escapes, and his victim vanishes before the police arrive, it seems there is more to the encounter than meets the eye. Peter’s hunch is proven correct when a powerful associate from his past appears with an interest in the crime, and an irresistible offer: if he and June solve this mystery, Peter’s record will be scrubbed clean. While Peter and Lewis trace the gunman, reporter June digs into the victim of the incident, a man whose face rings a bell in her memory. As their parallel investigations draw together, they’re thrust into the path of a ruthless tech thief, an eerily cheerful assassin, a brilliant and troubled inventor, and a revolutionary technology that could wreak devastation in the wrong hands. But for Peter, even more, is at stake: this investigation is his only path to a life free from the threat of prosecution or prison. Before the end, he’ll have to fight harder than ever before to ensure that freedom doesn’t come at too high a cost. . . .
The Runaway (2022)
War veteran Peter Ash is driving through northern Nebraska when he encounters a young pregnant woman alone on a gravel road, her car dead. Peter offers her a lift, but what begins as an act of kindness soon turns into a deadly cat-and-mouse chase across the lonely highways with the woman’s vicious ex-cop husband hot on their trail. The pregnant woman has seen something she was never meant to see . . . but protecting her might prove to be more than Peter can handle. In order to save the woman and himself, Peter must use everything he has learned during his time as a Marine, including his knowledge of human nature, in order to escape a ruthless killer with instincts and skills that match—and perhaps exceed—Peter’s own.
