As far as pure entertainment goes, you can hardly do better than Nick Petrie’s bombastic Peter Ash thriller series. These books are extreme in every way. Nevertheless, speaking for myself, I’m growing a teeny bit uncomfortable with them.

Peter Ash is, if you remember, a Marine combat veteran who came home with a peculiar form of PTSD. He is claustrophobic, and mostly stays out of doors. Over the course of his adventures he’s acquired a fortune in “found” money, a faithful friend who is a former Milwaukee gangster, and a feisty journalist girlfriend. Tear It Down finds him trying to settle down with the girlfriend, June. He’s exerting himself to make it work, but June can tell it takes an effort. So when her friend Wanda calls from Memphis, saying people are harassing her, she tells Peter to scoot – go help Wanda. Work it out of his system.

Wanda is a photographer who suffers from PTSD of her own. She’s been photographing war zones, and is now taking pictures of urban gangs. She doesn’t know why somebody drove a pickup truck through the front wall of her house, though. It seems both extreme, and an odd way to make a statement, when they could just shoot her.

Peter has barely arrived when he’s confronted by a kid with a gun, who wants to hijack his camper truck. Peter could take the gun away, but he instinctively likes the boy, and gives the truck up rather than hurt him. Later he learns that the boy is a gifted musician in big trouble – Peter would like to help him, if he could only find him. And he’d also like his truck back.

Solving these problems will involve bringing in his dangerous friend Lewis from Milwaukee, and chasing down a couple of desperate rednecks with their sights on a historical treasure. These guys are crazy, and not above turning a machine gun on innocent bystanders.

It speaks well of author Petrie that he wants to do good as well as entertain with Tear It Down. He tries to confront issues of race and social oppression in a positive (and hopeful) way. And that was part of my problem. I found his solutions a little glib, and not much more plausible than the book’s over-the-top plot.

Also, I’m getting a little tired of Peter’s girlfriend, June. She seems to be a good person, and is good for Peter. But we are informed that a foul mouth is one of her “virtues.” I’ve gotten accustomed to profanity in books, but treating it as a positive good is kind of extreme for this small-town boy.

I don’t know. I may go back to the Peter Ash books after a while. They’re engaging and entertaining. But I’m going to cool it on them for now.