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Author publishes "Beneath the Polish Moon"

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Jake Kaminski (a pseudonym) has recently published his second novel, "Beneath the Polish Moon.” (Photo submitted)

By Caroline Rosacker

Part-time community member Jake Kaminski, a pseudonym, has recently published his second novel, Beneath the Polish Moon. His first book, Shadow Wolves, an action-packed thriller, was the 2020 Silver Medal Winner of the Reader's Favorite International Book Competition, and Honorable Mention at the 30th Annual Writers Digest Competition. Shadow Wolves received high praise from Midwest Book Review; Writer's Digest; Kirkus Reviews and Reader's Favorite. "I am on track to have Shadow Wolves sequel, Crowe, ready for publication this upcoming fall," he noted. 

Career highlights

Kaminski is a retired police lieutenant with twenty-eight years experience, and has worked and supervised numerous task forces with the FBI, ATF, and the DEA.  The highly-decorated lieutenant spent the majority of his career working undercover and then supervising undercover operations in South Florida, Latin America, Canada and the Caribbean. His team spent six years combatting both the Medellin and Cali cartels. 

Following his law enforcement career, he spent fourteen years as a senior adviser for the U.S. Department of Justice, assigned to post-conflict countries in the Balkans. He was a member of a team tasked with preparing countries in the western Balkans for NATO accession. He has advised and trained foreign police and prosecutors on the following topics: undercover operations, war crimes, fugitive tracking, organized crime, and human trafficking. 

Beneath the Polish Moon

Beneath the Polish Moon begins in an ethnic neighborhood in Wisconsin in the 1960s. "The main characters, Luke Karpinski, and his friend, Eugene, navigate life in a Polish neighborhood in Milwaukee," he introduced. "They are helped along by a cast of memorable characters that accompany them on their daily adventures. There is a small piece of my persona in each character." 

Luke, the main character eventually leaves his innocent youth, neighborhood and friends behind and becomes a hardened undercover cop in Miami, Fla. "Police stories aren't autobiographical, but rather informed by a lifetime in that profession," noted Kaminski. "Although Luke becomes a cop to make the world a better place, he quickly realizes life is not that simple. Miami transforms into the drug capital of the world, and Luke finds himself caught up in a life and death struggle with the brutal Colombian cartels."  

Ten years in the making

Beneath the Polish Moon has been on Kaminski's mind for 10 years. His curiosity about a child's mind peaked during extensive time spent in the war-torn battlefields of Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. "It always amazed me that children living under such heinous conditions still found playfulness and joy," he recalled. "As I aged, I found myself looking back at my childhood friendships that were pure with no ulterior motives. And how those relationships formed the man I became."

The critically acclaimed author described his latest work as "Miami Vice meets Field of Dreams." "The book's chapters go back and forth between childhood and present day, intertwining the experiences that shaped the grown man," says Kaminski, "Luke's career as a big city cop extracts a terrible toll. He has a very successful career, but loses his humanity. He returns to his boyhood home a tired man, whose daughters are fully grown, hoping to capture happiness." 

Kaminski has shared Beneath the Polish Moon with battled-hardened soldiers and the book's end left them teary-eyed. "This book is sentimental and very different from Shadow Wolves," he said with a smile. "The childhood adventures growing up in a Polish neighborhood are quite comical. Professional critics say that kind of childhood may never happen again, because children are not able to explore their world as freely."

To my friends

The book is dedicated to Kaminski's friends, and five early reviews have been favorable. "It was hard to say goodbye to the book's characters, it was like saying goodbye to my childhood friends," he shared. "The characters drive the story and my own time spent in law enforcement in Miami."

The book's cover was the result of happenstance and the kindness of a stranger. "I was doing research for the book and came across a painting that looked like it had been painted from my grandmother's front porch growing up in Milwaukee. The artist had painted several cityscapes of Milwaukee, Chicago and New York City. He was happy to have his work on the cover. It has a very warm, welcoming feeling. It was Kismet."

Kaminski's impressive start as a writer is promising. "It was really a pleasure to write Beneath the Polish Moon. I was very engaged in the process," he told The Press. "Although there was not much marketing or exposer, Shadow Wolves did well with the critics and I have gone past the standards set for a first book. I hope to get better with each book I write."

Beneath the Polish Moon and Shadow Wolves are  available at the Guttenberg Public Library, Amazon, Amazon World, Google Play and Barnes and Noble.

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