Anne Mc Kenzie is missing.
But whether she fled a life she was tired of living, got snatched off the street, or suffered something truly awful like a bus ride home to the Mid West, no one knows, because no one noticed Anne had gone, until the least likely detective in Baltimore found out and decided to investigate.
Beck was always searching for something.
As an alcoholic, his mornings began with a hungover hunt for his keys, wallet, and occasionally the name of the woman in his bed.
What he really wanted was a purpose, but that was harder to find than a drink, so each day was a degraded copy of the one before, until Anne came into his life.
He met her at a party the night she disappeared.
They bonded over stolen beers and broken dreams, but then Anne left, so Beck bonded with her roommate about not wanting to sleep alone instead.
A week later, he took her roommate home, heard discovered the front door was open, the house was empty, and there was a pool of dried blood on the floor of Anne's room.
Drunks make good detectives.
Beck vows to find out how the blood got there and where Anne went.
Her roommate gives him a lead and soon he's chasing Anne's ghost through Baltimore's underbelly, where cultists, pornographers, collegiate con artists, and his addictions try to thwart his search.
But quitting isn't one of Beck's strong suits so he presses on, confident that he'll either find Anne Mc Kenzie or end up back on barstool drinking himself into an early grave.
DRUNK is a contemporary detective story filled with diverse characters, absurd humor, and heart.
A semi-autobiographical novel penned by a sober aging hipster who survived alcoholism, DRUNK, will appeal to anyone who has ever struggled to find meaning, sobriety, or the next cool bar.
Wylder Dance Press, Llc Drunk, paperback/ben stearns
