Moving Day: A Thriller - Softcover

Jonathan Stone writes his books on the commuter train from his home in Connecticut to his advertising job in midtown Manhattan. Honing his writing skills by creating smart and classic campaigns for high-level brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, and Mitsubishi has paid off, as Stone’s first mystery-thriller series, the Julian Palmer books, won critical acclaim and was hailed as “stunning” and “risk-taking” in Publishers Weekly starred reviews. He earned glowing praise for his novel The Cold Truth from the New York Times, which called it “bone-chilling.” He’s the recipient of a Claymore Award for Best Unpublished Crime Novel and a graduate of Yale, where he was a Scholar of the House in fiction writing.

Starred Review: A scam, as slick as it is heartbreaking, binds the lives of two men in this cerebral thriller. When 72-year-old Stanley Peke and his wife Rose move from their longtime Westchester, NY, home to retirement in Santa Barbara, CA, the moving crew arrives a day earlier than expected, and the next morning—when their real movers arrive—the couple find that everything they own has been stolen. Despite his having insurance coverage, Peke—a Polish Holocaust survivor born Stanislaw Pecoskowitz—is taken back to the terrible loss he suffered as a seven-year-old child. And he wants his things back. When he realizes that the thief also got the key to his safe-deposit box, Peke devises a way to locate his belongings and retrieve them. Peke has not only the will but the resources to follow through with his plan, but he underestimates the resolve of ringleader Nick Pelletiere, as events turn dangerous, even deadly. While Stone’s exploration of the inner lives of his two adversaries occasionally slows his narrative, he takes readers on a spellbinding ride. VERDICT From the author of the Julian Palmer series (The Cold Truth; Parting Shot), this is a compelling mystery with a moral foundation.