Junkie: A Cal Rogan Mystery by Robert P. French is a well written first book in a mystery series. The main character, Cal, was previously a police officer and is now struggling with substance abuse issues. Would definitely read the other books in this series. #Junkie #NetGalley

In the first of six novels in French’s Cal Rogan series, French takes gritty to another level by featuring a Vancouver police detective fallen to a homeless junkie as his main character. Instead of a slow descent into hell, Cal begins on the far side of hell and slowly works his way back to life. Like many homeless, Cal hangs out in alleys and flophouses near his former home, and lives for the brief Saturdays when he changes clothes at the house of a childhood friend from his prior life so that he can have supervised custody visits with his seven year old daughter, who in turn does cartwheels for her time with daddy. If you accept this conceit at the heart of the story, you can enjoy this novel about a man shocked by his best friend’s murder into kicking the drugs and finding his friend’s killer. On the way, he stumbles into the hefty world of pharmaceutical development and stock traders. Yet, the heart and soul of this novel is Cal’s desperate journey to come back from the edge of civilization.

Meet Cal Rogan! He's hit the bottom of the barrel .. he's lost his wife and marriage... his relationship with his daughter ... lost his job as an up and rising detective ... he's homeless ..and he's addicted to heroin.

He has only one friend left from his prior life .... and Cal has just found him dead. Local police..and Rogan's former colleagues... call it a suicide. But Cal is determined to prove them wrong.

His search for the truth takes hum through drug-infested streets, drug gangs, and the super wealthy who will do anything ...anything at all .. to keep their secrets hidden from the light of day.

This debut novel is well written, with a clever plot, and characters that are thoroughly developed. This page turner is full of action ... lots of suspects with varied motives.. and an explosive conclusion. Cal Rogan is terrific if you like really flawed characters who wants back what he once had. The story is highlighted by different voices .. the first person telling could be a little confusing, but all in all, this was a super read. This is just the first in a series, and the best thing is .. no waiting. There are 5 subsequent stories .. all available now.

Many thanks to the author / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

I received a free copy “ Junkie” by Robert P. French from Net Galley. For an honest review. My thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for the opportunity to enjoy this fine novel.
The author paints the character of Cal Rogan in dark pigments. The junkie of the title is Cal Rogan who was once a respected police detective in Vancouver,Canada. Now he is a heroin addict who lives on the streets, his existence mandated by the ever constant need to feed his habit. Cal has fallen far. His wife divorced him and he is allowed monthly visits to his daughter only because he has promised to go into detox - which is a promise he never keeps. If there is one thing the reader learns early in the book it is that junkies live for the next fix and only that.
The novel begins with Cal , sleeping by a dumpster in a fetid alley, being awakened by his street buddy Roy , who shakes Cal awake, reminding him that he has to get cleaned up to visit his daughter. Cal has few friends left from his former life. Kevin is one and he allows Cal to shower at his apartment and put on the change of clothes he stores there. As always,Kevin gives him some money so he can take his daughter for ice cream or lunch. Hours later, when Cal returns to Kevin’s apartment he finds him dead, a knife thrust into his heart. From this point on, Carl’s existence which was already scraping bottom, gets much, much worse.
In the author’s hands his anti- hero character Cal is deeply fascinating. We watch his self-loathing at the need that drives his existence from fix to fix, as he lies so easily to his wife , lies to his loving child and when he sees the look in the eyes of former friends. Only when he questions the police/ coroner’s verdict that Kevin’s death was suicide, does he manage to dredge up self resolve to use all his experience as a detective to find his friend’s murderer. It is a decision that puts not only Cal’s life in danger, but everyone else’s.
Cal ,for all his many faults, becomes a sympathetic character as he struggles to find the killer despite formidable barriers. There are a number of suspects ( and to the police, Cal is one) , but the motive for the murder is the heart of his efforts to find the killer. The story is tightly plotted and the suspects’ motivations are left to Cal to clear up. There are no surprise, twisty, endings in the book, just Cal using his old skills to overturn rocks and see what is hidden beneath. The climax was exciting and satisfying.
I noticed that Mr. French has a number of further adventures of Cal, but this book is a completed story, with and the reader is not left hanging. I hope that theyare as good as “ Junkie”.
Notes: sometimes a subsequent chapter will be written from the point of view of a different character, so be sure to read the name is at the top of the page as you begin a new chapter. It does not often happen, but it can be disconcerting for a moment . Just a bit of stylistic choice from the author, offering a look into what another character is thinking of this addict across the table.
No sex, some violence( it is a murder mystery, after all.) Depictions of forum use and cravings maybe disturbing.
Recommended to all who love dark novels.

Cal Rogan is a character you will love or hate. Certainly, you will want to shake him from time to time. What a great story, though. It made me think of modern classics like In Cold Blood and Peter Robinson’s early work. A strong mystery with plenty to keep the reader thinking.

Junkie
A Cal Rogan Mystery
by Robert P. French
3 .75 out of 5 Stars

Cal Rogan is a man who has lost it all: lost his wife, his daughter, his job, house, even most of his friends. -Scratch that- He didn't lose it all so much as traded it away. Traded everything for a spoonful of white powder, a rubber tube, and a sharp syringe; a chance to get high four times a day or get knee-deep sick in withdrawals to the point of crying for death.

Cal didn't lose just any job either; he was a cop. Now he's got to make furtive deals, beg, borrow or steal from the same gangs he worked so hard to put away. Not an easy life.

And now someone has gone and killed his best friend. Okay, maybe his only friend, and Cal would do anything to solve the murder. He even has pipe dreams that, if he solves the murder, he can get back on the police force. Wait. Pipe dreams are for meth, right?

All that, ostensibly, is what the story's about (barring incidental plot points).
Down on his luck
Pull himself up by his bootstraps
Become a hero & save the day
Get his old life back.

Oh yeah, and all this takes place in Canada. Which is a good thing because, at least to my understanding, in the US, they wouldn't allow a felon within 6 ft of a detective's badge unless their hands were cuffed behind their back.

So... there is the surface story, and then there is the under story: that junkies are people, alcoholics are people, and street people are PEOPLE. Oh, and drugs should be legal because then doctors can treat the symptoms and corporations and lawyers would stop getting rich from all the unfortunate addicts in the world. The author is really, really good at getting these points across.

In another place and another time, heroin used to be called Horse. Maybe that is why this book reminds me so much of that song, Streets of Loredo:
“Oh beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly,
“and play the death march as you carry me along.”
French is good at putting names to the faces of junkies, pimps, and thieves, back-stories to the beggars, heart to the homeless; saying drugs are a problem but Greed and Avarice ride on their backs and that is why nothing ever gets better.
“Take me to the valley, there lay the sod o'er me,
“For I'm a young cowboy and know I've done wrong.”

Very good book with characters well developed. The book has plots, subplots, lots of action but especially lots of suspense.

While reading the book you start thinking about addiction and making you care about the characters on the street.

This book will make you think and internalize what addiction can do to you.

I can't wait to read the next Carl Rofan mystery.