Movin' On

About the Book

Sheriff's Sergeant Tom Parker has to get out of Los Angeles before he gets hurt on the job, or goes over the edge emotionally. He is approaching middle age, wondering if there isn't more to life than nightshifts, and is tired of ducking bullets and breaking up fights in gang territory. He wins millions of dollars gambling in Las Vegas and makes his way to the sun, surf and sand of Saipan in Micronesia.

Tom buys an old dilapidated hotel, starts a Private Investigations agency, and is soon involved with a myriad of characters, some hilarious and others deadly, from Asia and the mainland. With his divorce final, he enjoys a series of ladies, but unexpectedly falls in love with his hotel manager, Cocina, a Filipina with three children. He and his Private Eye partner, Carlos, come in conflict with local officials and hoodlums, and soon the shooting starts. Tom vowed that he would never re-marry, or get back into police work, but he breaks both these resolutions after several months on the island.

Even with the dark days of grief and hardship after several shootings, Tom never despairs. He is where he wants to be, enjoys the sunsets, windsurfing, making new friends, playing ukulele music, and drinking lo-calorie pina coladas... and finding new love.

About the Author

Joe Race has been a policeman/deputy sheriff for 45 years. He has worked just about every position in law enforcement including patrol officer, jailer, firearms instructor, game warden, harbor master, detective, crocodile hunter, security director, police academy teacher, and chief of police. He has lived and worked in California, Arizona, Oregon, and Washington, plus Micronesia of the Pacific Basin for ten years, and has completed two overseas missions in Kosovo and Bosnia. He attributes his accomplishments in law enforcement on a basic principle: "Take care of your troops, and they'll take care of you. Success is synergetic and can be contagious."

Along the way, he earned his graduate college degrees in government and public administration. He currently spends his time as an adjunct college professor and writer, and runs a family taxi service for his three teenagers. This is his first novel.