PRO CONNECT
Rick Cochran grew up in Wellfleet, Massachusetts on Cape Cod where his father was the principal of the local high school. He has degrees from Tufts and Northeastern and spent a career in education. Rick is the author of five books, two short story memoir collections - Wellfleet Tales and Wellfleet Tales II: Confessions of a Wash-Ashore- as well as the Bound Brook murder mystery trilogy. He has published articles in Cape Cod Life Magazine and the Barnstable Patriot. Rick is a member of the Cape Cod Writers Center and previously served on its board of directors.
Rick's books capture the feel of Cape Cod in "the good old days." Bound Brook is a fictionalized version of Wellfleet in the 1950s and many locations, businesses and local characters make cameo appearances. The adage, "write what you know" captures the essence of his writing and the smell of salt air oozes from his pages. He is the creator of the Facebook group "Wellfleet Tales" which shares old and new photos, history and stories of the beautiful Outer Cape area.
The Bound Brook novels follow the lives of several residents. Rob Caldwell, a local basketball legend, Ivy League graduate and WWII veteran who has returned to his hometown searching for purpose and hoping to reunite with his high school sweetheart. Rachel Gilmore Curtis endures a loveless marriage and regrets her rash decision to elope with Rob's best friend. Jimmy Curtis finds solace in the army and the bottle as he suffers from the guilt of stealing his best friend's girl.
The town of Bound Brook endures three separate tragedies in each novel. In "Murder at Bound Brook," the most powerful man in town dies in a house fire under suspicious circumstances. In "Bound Brook Pond", a nefarious army sergeant is murdered and wounded Korean War veteran Jimmy Curtis is accused of the crime. It falls on his former best friend and ex-wife Rachel to find the killer and prove Jimmy's innocence. In "Death at Bound Brook Pier," Rob and Rachel are reunited after twelve years of separation. However, their lives are complicated by the appearance of Rob's lost love from his years in France during WWII. The mafia uses the Cape Cod real estate boom to launder its money. Ex-boxer and former mob enforcer, Rocco Marini, turns over a new leaf and tries to atone for a life of crime.
“Cochran evocatively captures the feeling of a bygone Cape Cod at season’s end, and he fills his story with characters readers will want to cheer—particularly Rocco, who steals the novel.
A fast-paced and satisfying tale of the Mafia and murder on old Cape Cod.”
– Kirkus Reviews
The law and the mob clash in 1950s Cape Cod.
As the third volume in Cochran’s series opens, his hero, retired “Cape Cod basketball legend” and special police consultant Rob Caldwell, is dealing with several virtually simultaneous emotional revelations: Rachel, the woman he loves who had long been married to his best friend, has agreed to marry him, and his grandfather, the most influential person in Bound Brook (on Cape Cod), has been murdered and has left a private note for Rob, apologizing for a lifetime of neglect and injustice. The Mafia is making inroads into Bound Brook, which not only involves Rob’s grandfather but also recurring series character Rocco Marini, a former Mafia enforcer who’s been sent to find the daughter of a Mob-connected man in France (not knowing that this woman and her children are deeply connected to some of the people he’ll meet when he brings them to Bound Brook). “The Mafia didn’t like witnesses and tended to take a scorched-earth approach to their problems,” Rocco reflects about his erstwhile employers. The situation is further complicated by the presence of State Trooper Mike O’Connor, who is hopelessly in debt to the local Mafia boss. This is the third entry in the Bound Brook Cape Cod series that has followed the personal and romantic complications of Rob and Rachel in a fictionalized Cape Cod. Cochran assures his readers that each book in the series can be read independently, and he’s right; the author unobtrusively fills new readers in on all the context they need in order to understand the many personal issues at stake in this volume, from the somber undertones of Rob’s relationship drama to the inner personal transformation of Rachel’s former husband, who hopes he can be a better friend than he ever was a husband. Cochran evocatively captures the feeling of a bygone Cape Cod at season’s end, and he fills his story with characters readers will want to cheer—particularly Rocco, who steals the novel.
A fast-paced and satisfying tale of the Mafia and murder on old Cape Cod.
Pub Date: June 15, 2021
ISBN: 9798744220389
Page count: 276pp
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
Cape Cod Writers Center Interview - Books and the World - Bound Brook Pond by Rick Cochran
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