Characters
My two Novels ‘Strike Duty’ and ‘Carlisle’s
Marker’ and 90% of my short stories feature a recurring cast of characters. A
character who is a minor one in one story is often the protagonist in another.
Most of the stories take place in New Jersey
in general, New Brunswick in
particular.
I used to play Dungeons and Dragons growing up (oh how I
long for the sweet sound of a twenty sided die hitting a cheaply veneered
table), and in order to keep your characters and their abilities straight you
had to have a character sheet with all of their attributes in front of you. I
have used this idea to come up with a brief character bio of some of the
recurring characters featured in my fiction. It is by no means complete and I
hope to add to it.
Newest Characters: Peter Dremmeck (Other
Agents) Roland Hamilton (Independents) Added 05-22-04
The
Mazzucco Crime Family:
‘Alleged’ Al Mazzucco
How he got his nickname: His name is always preceded by
‘alleged’ when he makes the papers
Age: Sixties
Ethnicity: Come on
Job: ‘Alleged’ head of the Mazzucco organized crime family.
Likes: Opera
Dislikes: Business irregularities
Special skills: Invariably gets way more than the customary
one phone call whenever he’s pulled in by the police. He’s been know to get
more than one phone, let alone a call.
Drink: Wine
Tullio ‘Trifecta’ Mazzucco
How he got his nickname: In his own words: “I fixed this
race at Monmouth Park,
a nag named Licorice Box. What the hell kind of name is that for a horse?
Sounds more like a whore’s street name to me. Just for kicks, I bet a trifecta
on the two races sandwiching the one I knew about. All three of them came
through.”
Age: Mid thirties
Ethnicity: He’s his father’s son
Job: Owner of the Pole Truth strip club in Bound
Brook NJ
Likes: Courvoissier, his BMW 745, sleeping with strippers
Dislikes: Reilly, Herczog,
Special skills: He does this thing with his tongue…
Drink: Courvoissier
Sal ‘the Grazer’ Grazioli
How he got his nick name: Plants bodies in a field where the
cows graze
Age: early forties
Ethnicity: Who’s asking?
Job: Union Official
Likes: Bikes, Horses
Dislikes: His wife Ninfa Mazzucco, Donovan
Special skills: Racketeering
Drink: Fancy micro brewed beer
Tony ‘GQ’ Carlisle
How he got his nickname: Just check out the threads
Age: 23
Ethnicity: He’s thinking of changing his last name to
Carlucci, for business purposes.
Job: Expidator
Likes: Reilly, his Kyrocera cell phone/organizer, health
food, giving people advice, The Discovery Channel, pork roll with
saltpeppercatchup (just once a week though), surf fishing, New Jersey
Dislikes: Herczog
Special skills: He’s a natural investigator
Drink: Courvoissier
Gino ‘The Ventilator’ Verenichi
How he got his nickname: Got stuck in a vent during a
robbery attempt
Age: 27
Ethnicity: Italian American
Job: Expidator
Likes: Tony Carlisle, Omar Aboud, La’ Cross, a custom
tailored suit, kickin’ it back old school
Dislikes: Political correctness, Russian Gangsters
Special skills: He can actually listen to Tony dispense
advice for hours without getting annoyed
Drink: Courvoissier
New Jersey State Troopers:
Vernon Herczog
Age: Early forties
Ethnicity: Hungarian
Job: New Jersey State
Trooper, Organized Crime Division
Likes: There’s got to be something…
Dislikes: His ex-wife, Reilly, Gino, paying for his drinks
Special skills: Speaks fluent Hungarian
Drink: Bourbon
Milton Fisk
Age: Early forties
Ethnicity: African American
Job: New Jersey State
Trooper, Organized Crime Division
Likes: When the voices in his head stop for a brief second…
Dislikes: Anything named Mazzucco, Reilly
Special skills: He’s managed to stay out of a mental
hospital until his early forties
Drink: He should be on a lithium cocktail
New Brunswick’s Finest
Andrew McCarthy
Age: Mid fifties
Ethnicity: Irish American
Job: Lieutenant, New Brunswick Police Department
Likes: Reilly, his family
Dislikes: Phil Groendyke, paperwork
Special skills: He’s really good at fixing crime scenes to
suit his purposes
Drink: Yes please, and keep them coming
Darnell Levy
Age: 29
Ethnicity: African American
Job: Detective, New Brunswick Police Department
Likes: McCarthy, Reilly, His partner Lueken, the ladies
Dislikes: Tolland, Tony Carlisle, and his ‘associates’
Special skills: Public speaking, he’s real good at press
conferences
Drink: Johnney Walker black on the rocks, blue if some else
is paying
Fred Lueken
Age: Mid to late thirties
Ethnicity: English, Hungarian, Scottish
Job: Detective, New Brunswick Police Department
Likes: Darnell, horse racing,
Dislikes: Reilly, horses (he actually has a love hate
relationship with our equine cousins. He is forced to shoot one in my short
story ‘Shooting Incident’)
Special skills: He’s got this system he’s working on, just a
little more time and…
Drink: Occasional martini
Keith Tolland
Age: Late thirties
Ethnicity: Irish American, many others
Job: Detective New Brunswick Police Department (although he
has other ways of supplementing his income)
Likes: Getting away with things
Dislikes: The New Brunswick Parking authority
Special skills: Manages to stay on the force
Drink: Scotch on the rocks
Other Agencies
Agent Varrick
Age: 40
Ethnicity: Eastern European, Irish, and Polish
Job: Investigator New Jersey Racing
Commission
Likes: His job
Dislikes: Everyone telling him he looks like a young Kojak
Special skills: Knows how to test horses for drugs
Drink: Beer
Agent Nolan
Age: late thirties - early forties
Ethnicity: African American
Job: FBI agent
Likes: his job, his wife, mint tea
Dislikes: Herczog, people who don’t think he’s a real FBI
agent because his badge doesn’t look the one on the X-Files
Special skills: He actually gets along with the local cops,
for the most part
Drink: Occasional beer
Peter Dremmeck
Abe: 32
Job: Animal Detection Officer (formerly
K-9 Unit) Middlesex County Sherrifs Office
Ethnicity: Mixed
Likes: His legendary police dog Wonderdog
(now retired) Wonderdog's replacements (reluctently) Rigalito
and Lemmiwinks
Dislikes: The fact that, due to budget
cuts, Wonderdog has been replaced by a pair of Gambian giant
pack rats.
Special skills: Animal Husbantry
Drinks: Occasional beer
Independents
Caellachan Reilly
Age: 36
Ethnicity: Irish, German
Job: Telephone technician, part time private investigator,
part time bartender
Likes: Lisa, investigating, Tony Carlisle, his cat, playing
Stratego, unexplained phenomenon (bigfoot, ufo’s, women) the ladies
Dislikes: Vernon
Herczog, Donovan, his first name, sobriety, the ladies
Special skills: Despite being 6’4 and 220 lbs he has never
won a fight
Drink: Bud bottle, shot of Jameson, Jaegermeister
Miles Patrick Donovan
Age: 30
Ethnicity: Irish, German, Dutch
Job: Telephone technician, landscaper, mechanic, petty
criminal
Likes: His bike, Horses, nature, surf fishing
Dislikes: Reilly, Herczog, NJ
mandatory helmet laws
Special skills: Despite a limited IQ he knows a lot about
animals and the environment. He has a black belt in Irish judo (which basically
means he has a mean head butt)
Drink: Bud in a can, whiskey, but none of that imported crap
Richard Dukevsky
Age: 30
Ethnicity: Polish American
Job: Part time professional wrestler, part time landscaper,
petty criminal
Likes: Coke, Amphetamines,
Dislikes: His boss at the wrestling federation, Calhoun
Lounighan, bikers (except his best friend Donovan at times) people sticking
guns in his mouth
Special skills: Getting paid to run around in his underwear
beating the shit out of people
Drink: Beer
Lisa McCarthy
Age: 34
Ethnicity: Irish American
Job: Middlesex County
NJ assistant prosecutor
Likes: Reilly (at times) her job, art, her new boyfriend Tom
Dislikes: Reilly (most of the time) Groendyke,
Special skills: Warding off Reilly’s inept sexual advances,
painting, knows more about guns than anyone else
Drink: Guinness
Omar Aboud
Age: 27
Ethnicity: Lebanese American
Job: Sometimes associate of the Mazzucco family, sometimes
associate of the Farouk Brothers, Army reservist (Military Police)
Likes: His wife Molly, family, La’Crosse, Gino, the ladies
Dislikes: Monogamy, having to go to Baghdad
when he’s called up for active duty
Special skills: speaks passable Arabic, good with lock picks
Drink: Scotch
Mark Leyner
Age: 33
Ethnicity: Finish American
Job: Bartender Court Tavern,
New Brunswick NJ
Likes: Drinking, film, Reilly,
Dislikes: AA Members, people pointing guns at him, cops,
mobsters,
Special skills: You pick some things up working in a bar
Drink: Heineken, Jameson shots
Tina
Age: 35
Ethnicity: Italian American
Job: Secretary for Carlisle and
Verenich Expidators
Likes: Tullio ‘Trifecta’ Mazzucco, Reilly, the eighties
Dislikes: The ticking of her biological clock, Tullio (at
times), silence
Special skills: You should see her in a black dress
Drink: Gin martini, Long Island Iced tea
Phil Groendyke
Age: Around thirty
Job: Construction worker, criminal
Ethnicity: Dutch American
Likes: S and M, guns, playing bass in a rock and roll band
Dislikes: Officer McCarthy, Reilly
Special skills: Escaping and avoiding capture
Drink: Bud Bottle, shot of whatever will do the job
Irene
Age: Mid to late twenties
Job: Exotic dancer, the Pole Truth
Ethnicity: Polish, Irish, Jewish
Likes: Money, the nightlife, woman
Dislikes: Men, her job
Special skills: Insert immature joke here
Drink: Champagne,
Jaegermeister
‘Sweet Captain Diamond’ Lou White
How he got his nickname (‘s) : His life is too large to be
contained by one
Age: Mid sixties
Job: Lawyer, self employed
Ethnicity: English, Welsh
Likes: His cherished memories of his time in the navy. His
navy ship, ‘The Goddamned State’ which has become a floating museum on the Delaware
in Camden
Dislikes: The fact that the museum is in Camden
rather than the Bayonne Naval Yards where it belongs.
Special skills: Won the Korean war single handedly
Drink: Vodka Gimlet
Curtis Benczik
Age: Early to mid twenties
Job: Tow truck driver, part time college student
Ethnicity: Hungarian American
Likes: Extra money he gets bilking people at his job
Dislikes: being a witness to a mob killing
Special skills: He’s real good at jimmying cars, knows how
to hot wire them too
Drinks: Vodka
Roland Hamilton
Abe: 42
Job: Reporter Home News, New Brunswick
Ethnicity: English, Hungarien
Likes: Busting Balls,
Dislikes: His city editor at the paper
Special skills: Has contacts on both
sides of the law
Drinks: Hamiltonian Martini: a little more vermouth than
generally accepted, beefeaters gin, a splash of orange juice, and two orange
slices skewered by a cocktail sword.
Tabback
Age: 46
Job: Long haul truck driver, owner/operator Tabback
Transportation, drug smuggler
Ethnicity: Mixed
Likes: Truck stop prostitutes, thinking up ways to hide
drugs, reading crime stories (Hammett, Chandler,
Goodis)
Dislikes: Often himself, television,
Special skills: Thinking up new ways to smuggle stuff
Drinks: An occasional beer, shot of Wild Turkey
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