From the crooks to the books

Story by Karl Enghofer, Graphic Designer / Staff Writer

Raunold Choquet is a rising star in baseball, until his world comes crashing down.

When a hazing incident goes astray, he finds out justice is not always blind. Reality sets in when he is attacked in prison. Awakening from a coma with piercing headaches and vivid dreams, he is left to sort out what is real, and what is not.

Though Mitchell Nevin’s second book, “Psychic Reprieve” is fictional, he tells the story of three unlikely friends who come together to cash in on one of the trio’s clairvoyant abilities — and the characters find themselves in a familiar non-fictional city.

“There’s a lot of interesting scenes from Eau Claire — Carson Park … Owen Park band shell,” Nevin said.

From working in an Italian pasta joint on Grand Avenue, to attending a rager on seventh and Water Street, Nevin said UW-Eau Claire students can relate to the characters in his new book.

Nevin, 55, is a Milwaukee native and was a Milwaukee police officer and detective for 30 years, mostly with gang enforcement and intelligence departments. Throughout his years in law enforcement, he said he experienced a lot of things that would make great stories.

In his books, Nevin said he creates fictional characters for the plots that come from real occurrences he’s seen on the job. For example, the main character R.C. is derived from a 1989 case in Milwaukee where a similar hazing prank resulted in federal prosecution.

This is the second book of Nevin’s that Badger Wordsmith, LLC has published. The first, titled “The Cozen Protocol,” sold almost 2,000 paper and electronic copies.

Nevin works closely with Livia Grogan at Badger Wordsmith to promote the book and she said there are about 175,500 books published in the U.S. each year and only about 5 percent ever sell over 1,000 copies.

Both books are available at The Local Store on North Dewey Street.

Store associate Lindsey Quinnies said people were calling in for a copy of “Psychic Reprieve” before they even had it in stock.

Something consistent with both books is the author’s aim to show the public an uncensored side of law enforcement, not what it sees on TV from a scripted public relations officer.

“What I tried to do with ‘The Cozen Protocol’ is, I tried to pull down the viniere and give people an inside look at what goes on behind the scenes with gang (and homicide) investigation,” Nevin said.

Nevin turns the tables in his new book and shows how the three characters, who are all incarcerated, seek redemption after prosecution.

“Psychic Reprieve” is available at a discounted price of $13 at The Local Store. It’s otherwise available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com in paperback or electronic, and will also be in L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library downtown.