Crimes of Design
A Patrick MacKenna Mystery
In the biggest St. Louis flood since ’93, someone is attacking the levees and river
infrastructure. When Architect Patrick MacKenna finds the body of the city manager, whose
skill is needed to win approval for his riverside new town project, in the well of the project’s
storm water pumping station, he becomes a suspect, while he and his daughter are
targeted by the murderers. As destructive acts increase he must outwit both police and the
FBI, who are stumped as to who is behind the crimes and their motives. Are they Patrick’s
bitter office rivals? The environmentalists who oppose flood plain development and the
Corps of Engineers? Or someone who wants personal revenge due to jealousy and
unrequited love? Patrick races to uncover the perpetrators before his family and his
beleaguered city are overtaken by further catastrophe. But he is haunted by a troubling
secret, whose meaning is hidden even from him, about the circumstances leading to the
death of his beloved wife, which clouds his judgment and stands in the way of his solution to
the mystery.
This 85,000-word mystery-thriller races through unexpected plot twists with heart-pumping
romantic suspense as Patrick, his developer’s new liaison Meg Stewart and tough, sexy FBI
agent Bobbi Romano scour St. Louis’s underbelly and chase through Mexico and the
Mississippi valley to run down the perpetrators and uncover the plot. In the process Patrick
learns the bitter lesson that the built infrastructure’s worst enemy is not nature, but man
himself.
Crimes of Design is the first novel in the Patrick MacKenna series, while a second, Design
for Disaster, is in the works. A published author, licensed architect and certified city
planner, I have a B. A. in Architecture from Yale University and both a Bachelor of
Architecture and a recent Certificate in Creative Writing from Washington University in St.
Louis. With an established career as an architect-planner and principal of architectural and
engineering firms, I have long managed projects such as those portrayed in the book for
developers and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. My published works include company
newsletters, magazine and newspaper articles and the well-reviewed biographical memoir,
Dad’s War with the United States Marines, Seaboard Press, 2005, an imprint of James A.
Rock & Co. Publishers, Rockville, Md., in the American Voices Series, My loyal readers
include fans of my first book and fellow members of the Society of American Military
Engineers, the American Institute of Architects, the American Planning Association, the St.
Louis Writers Guild and Sisters in Crime.
To acquire rights to this new mystery novel, please visit my site at
www.publishersmarketplace.com
A Patrick MacKenna Mystery
In the biggest St. Louis flood since ’93, someone is attacking the levees and river
infrastructure. When Architect Patrick MacKenna finds the body of the city manager, whose
skill is needed to win approval for his riverside new town project, in the well of the project’s
storm water pumping station, he becomes a suspect, while he and his daughter are
targeted by the murderers. As destructive acts increase he must outwit both police and the
FBI, who are stumped as to who is behind the crimes and their motives. Are they Patrick’s
bitter office rivals? The environmentalists who oppose flood plain development and the
Corps of Engineers? Or someone who wants personal revenge due to jealousy and
unrequited love? Patrick races to uncover the perpetrators before his family and his
beleaguered city are overtaken by further catastrophe. But he is haunted by a troubling
secret, whose meaning is hidden even from him, about the circumstances leading to the
death of his beloved wife, which clouds his judgment and stands in the way of his solution to
the mystery.
This 85,000-word mystery-thriller races through unexpected plot twists with heart-pumping
romantic suspense as Patrick, his developer’s new liaison Meg Stewart and tough, sexy FBI
agent Bobbi Romano scour St. Louis’s underbelly and chase through Mexico and the
Mississippi valley to run down the perpetrators and uncover the plot. In the process Patrick
learns the bitter lesson that the built infrastructure’s worst enemy is not nature, but man
himself.
Crimes of Design is the first novel in the Patrick MacKenna series, while a second, Design
for Disaster, is in the works. A published author, licensed architect and certified city
planner, I have a B. A. in Architecture from Yale University and both a Bachelor of
Architecture and a recent Certificate in Creative Writing from Washington University in St.
Louis. With an established career as an architect-planner and principal of architectural and
engineering firms, I have long managed projects such as those portrayed in the book for
developers and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. My published works include company
newsletters, magazine and newspaper articles and the well-reviewed biographical memoir,
Dad’s War with the United States Marines, Seaboard Press, 2005, an imprint of James A.
Rock & Co. Publishers, Rockville, Md., in the American Voices Series, My loyal readers
include fans of my first book and fellow members of the Society of American Military
Engineers, the American Institute of Architects, the American Planning Association, the St.
Louis Writers Guild and Sisters in Crime.
To acquire rights to this new mystery novel, please visit my site at
www.publishersmarketplace.com
Part I: Unnatural Designs
© 2009 by Peter H. Green
1.
“Dad, I’m outta here.”
“Huh?” Patrick emerged in his nightmare from a deep, icy river and gasped for air.
Through one sleep-encrusted eye, everything looked orange. Erin’s hair as she peered around the
door jamb. The bedroom walls. The tops of trees beyond the creek.
“I’ll be home late tonight. It’s our big game with Assumption. If we win, it’s on to the finals. You might
think about coming.”
“Right, honey. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Really? You’re never there for the good stuff.”
“Do or die.”
“Guess I’ll see you there, then.” She sighed and her head disappeared.
“Drive carefully,” he shouted after her, fully awake now and alert to her danger as a new driver.
A door slammed. Silence.
He’d missed over half of her field hockey games in their undefeated season. They were headed for the
league championship. Although he had important reasons each time he missed, she was right. Some
father.
He looked at the clock. He was meeting Mayhew at the jobsite. If he left now he could just make it on
time. He struggled from under the covers and stood on his shaky knee.
A half hour later Patrick teetered on the parapet scaffold of his project’s storm water pumping station.
The slate sky cracked. A red hot penny glowed in the east, tinting clouds purple and pink. Endless rain
yielded to oppressive heat. At eye level on his left surged the Missouri in flood, its rippling silver surface
extending a half-mile to the tops of drowned trees on the opposite bank. The levee-protected land
where he’d parked his car lay some twenty feet below.
A light breeze bore the scent of damp earth and the river. The vast flood plain, flat, silent and calm,
normally comforted him. He and Whitey liked to come out here early to treasure these rare moments
when man’s works harmonized best with nature.
But today the dank smell of rot and decay overwhelmed him. The swollen stream threatened this
difficult terrain, belonging neither to the river nor the land. Despite the advanced computer calculations
of his engineers, he questioned their faith that the levee would hold. The flood barrier for the new
project looked too flimsy to restrain the deluge beyond; the massive earthen rampart shrank in the
distance to the single stroke of a feather quill.
© 2009 by Peter H. Green
1.
“Dad, I’m outta here.”
“Huh?” Patrick emerged in his nightmare from a deep, icy river and gasped for air.
Through one sleep-encrusted eye, everything looked orange. Erin’s hair as she peered around the
door jamb. The bedroom walls. The tops of trees beyond the creek.
“I’ll be home late tonight. It’s our big game with Assumption. If we win, it’s on to the finals. You might
think about coming.”
“Right, honey. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Really? You’re never there for the good stuff.”
“Do or die.”
“Guess I’ll see you there, then.” She sighed and her head disappeared.
“Drive carefully,” he shouted after her, fully awake now and alert to her danger as a new driver.
A door slammed. Silence.
He’d missed over half of her field hockey games in their undefeated season. They were headed for the
league championship. Although he had important reasons each time he missed, she was right. Some
father.
He looked at the clock. He was meeting Mayhew at the jobsite. If he left now he could just make it on
time. He struggled from under the covers and stood on his shaky knee.
A half hour later Patrick teetered on the parapet scaffold of his project’s storm water pumping station.
The slate sky cracked. A red hot penny glowed in the east, tinting clouds purple and pink. Endless rain
yielded to oppressive heat. At eye level on his left surged the Missouri in flood, its rippling silver surface
extending a half-mile to the tops of drowned trees on the opposite bank. The levee-protected land
where he’d parked his car lay some twenty feet below.
A light breeze bore the scent of damp earth and the river. The vast flood plain, flat, silent and calm,
normally comforted him. He and Whitey liked to come out here early to treasure these rare moments
when man’s works harmonized best with nature.
But today the dank smell of rot and decay overwhelmed him. The swollen stream threatened this
difficult terrain, belonging neither to the river nor the land. Despite the advanced computer calculations
of his engineers, he questioned their faith that the levee would hold. The flood barrier for the new
project looked too flimsy to restrain the deluge beyond; the massive earthen rampart shrank in the
distance to the single stroke of a feather quill.
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