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Peter Mars, a thirty year veteran of law enforcement, has an undergraduate degree
in criminal justice and police science; masters degree in public administration; and, doctorate in sociology.
He began his law enforcement career with the Yarmouth Police Department (Massachusetts). After 12
years with Yarmouth, he moved to Maine where he became the Chief of Administrative Services for the Kennebec County Sheriff’s
Office (Maine). He has authored six books: The Tunnel, A Taste for Money, The Key, The Best
Suit in Town, The Chaplain and Alternative Measures.
According to the book description of
The Best Suit in Town, “When an old person dies, a library is lost. Information sometimes
pertinent may be gone or misconstrued by future writers or historians. The Best Suit in Town is written for posterity. The
book tells the story of a great generation of cops who policed a mid-sized, Midwestern industrial city after World War II
through the time of conflict in Vietnam. It was a time of change and turmoil that included the civil rights movement and society's
general rebellion against authority.
The stories are not those of historians but rather the
unadulterated truths coming from old street cops, letting you know first-hand what it was like to walk a beat during this
time when the criminal justice system was about to explode.
These police officers had a lot in common with each other. They had come from
blue-collar working families and had served their country in the war where they had seen both the best and the worst of mankind.
They knew right from wrong and treated everyone with respect, until shown otherwise. As new officers they all got to know
the "night people" during their assignment to the graveyard shift. These men called Mansfield, Ohio their home.
Mansfield was also the home of the Rev. Joel King, uncle of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Shirley Rhodes, secretary and
manager to Sammy Davis, Jr., and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Louis Bromfield. Their stories figure prominently in ours.
Armed with a nightstick and a .38 caliber revolver, the new policemen went to
work in the street. Their job changed rapidly through their lifetime. It was a roller-coaster ride of good and bad, the vibration
from which can still be felt today. There is a message in every chapter taken from the point of view of the cop who worked
the street or from the people who lived the story.”
One reader of Alternative Measures: Homeland Security, the ultimate
power for the protection of the United States, had no knowledge of an internal strike force operating ... responsible for
September 11, 2001 said, “And a tooth for a tooth is the beginning of an interesting book based on a secret
task force to pay back the terrorists responsible for September 11th. The main character, Jim an ex-Navy Seal who is recruited
for a covert operation that takes him into enemy territory into the heart of Iraq. A lethal weapon in combat, privy to top
secret intelligence information, and some very interesting weapons to aid him in finding the elusive weapons of mass destruction:
Jim is a man with a mission.
Paul McKee who runs this secret group known as the Homeland Security Strike Force
must carefully orchestrate this mission without public knowledge and complete this mission even if it means that they must
resort to unorthodox means to achieve that goal.This was a fun and
interesting book in which I hope the author pursues as a series. I want to see more of Jim and Paul Mckee!”
According to the book description of
The Key, “Ed Fitzgerald was a good cop who did everything by the book. Discovering a burglary
in progress and attempting to apprehend the criminals, he is injured on the job by one of the burglars and becomes not only
the victim of the crime but of the court system when he wounds one of the teen criminals. As a result, he loses the sight
in one eye, his job and his savings.
Ed takes a job with an armored car company and plans the perfect crime. He steals
millions and makes a successful getaway. When later caught, he is virtually penniless. He refuses to utter a word in court
and is sentenced to twenty years in prison where he dies during a riot.
Art Booker, a prison guard, is the
only man he trusts because he has not probed, as other prisoners and prison administrators have done, about the whereabouts
of the money. As he is dying, Ed gives Art clues to the location of the missing millions. Their whispered conversation is
overheard and the chase is on from New England to Florida to the Cayman Islands.”
According to the book description of A Taste for Money,
“A novel based on the true story of a dirty Boston cop. Six shots fired from a .357 magnum handgun disrupted the quiet
solitude of Maine's Belgrade Lakes Great Pond. All fired at close range, the bullets had done their job. Terrence Maloney
was dead. The one-time newspaper reporter would now become the subject of a news story instead of its author. And the story
would expose secrets which not only explain why his wife of fifteen years killed him, but also his link to a massive drug
trade in which his partner was a Boston cop. Drugs and guns are a deadly combination when greed creates a desire, which demands
satisfaction... a desire fueled by a taste for money.
In his second novel based on actual
events, police veteran turned author, Peter Mars again enters the world of rogue cops telling a story that the Boston Police
do not want you to know. After all, no police agency wants its good reputation tarnished. From his thirty years in law enforcement,
Mars brings to the surface the corruption and criminal activity usually kept hidden from the public. And the pristine woods
of Maine make an ideal hiding place for two men also wanting to keep their illicit business a secret. A
Taste for Money delves into the background and lives of men bent on using their positions of respect and power as a means
to by-pass the law while satisfying their hunger for monetary wealth.”
One reader of A Taste for
Money said it was “well written. The author caught my curiosity early on. Having summered in the New England
area just north of Boston for many years, this story is more than believable. It shows a very dedicated police officer becoming
involved and entangled in the web of GREED and how the tentacles reach out bringing other people into the fold. Every policemen
should read this book. It takes you through the process of a good police officer winding his journey to becoming a rogue cop.
Read it. You won't lay it down until you close the rear cover.”
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