MONTVALE, N.J.—The borough is a setting in a former councilman’s crime fiction involving his two rescue dogs, Lucy and Melanie.
In Bill Greco’s “Stumbling Into Trouble,” out now from KCM Publishing, “Melanie, Ben’s lovable rescue dog, creates a world of trouble when she steals a bag of drugs and money from the beach condo of a drug kingpin,” the synopsis begins.
“Chased through the shores of Delaware and back to his home in Montvale, New Jersey by the drug lord and his operatives, Ben’s life spirals out of control. How much trouble can an awkward rescue dog cause? Ben Grece and his girlfriend Sandy are about to find out,” it ends.
Greco, a clinician with the Hudson Valley Veterans Administration and a 25-year ambulance medic with the Tri-Boro Volunteer Ambulance Corp., served a term as councilman from 2009. He’s lived in the borough for 28 years.
He’s volunteered for the past six years as an animal cruelty investigator with the Bergen County SPCA.
He also is a board-certified doctor of podiatric medicine. He graduated Fordham University and attained his medical degree at the New York College of Podiatric Medicine in 1985.
Greco and his wife, Laurie, enjoy the love of their rescue dogs, spending time with them between Montvale and Dewey Beach, Delaware.
The dogs on the book’s cover are an artist’s rendition of his pups: Lucy, a black 12-year-old Spaniel mix; and Melanie, an 8-year-old terrier mix. The cover was created in a contest on 99designs, a freelancer platform.
According to Greco, his novella, at 278 pages, was a labor of love. He’d always wanted to write, so he started a short story and it took on a life of its own.
“I made time to write every chance I could get. I would jot down thoughts in between patients, and sometimes I would wake up at night with a new twist or a change in the plot and jot it down or get to the computer and put as much of it on to my word processor while it was fresh on my mind,” he told Pascack Press.
He spent five years writing and rewriting, “trying to come up with a cohesive interesting story” that fictionalizes how he acquired both of his rescue dogs.
The first half of the book, Dumb Dog, starts in Dewey Beach, Delaware in eastern Sussex County. (The real-life Dewey Beach has a population of 341, according to the 2010 Census.)
The second half of the book, The Dog Fight, takes place in Montvale and has scenes that occur in the Ramapo Mountains. Asked what local readers might recognize of the novella’s Montvale, Greco said plenty.
He said one character is based on a former borough police chief.
Not all of Greco’s colleagues know he’s written a book yet.
“The ones who have found out are quite surprised. I have never professed to be a writer and I guess that’s why it took over five years to get the book into a publishable format and find a publisher willing to put it to paper,” he said.
He added, “It’s an arduous process sending out excerpts of your book to agents and publishers and receiving back denial after denial. I finally found one that told me he liked the concept and gave me some useful advice.”
Then he found KCM Publishing, which liked the book and guided him through publication.
Greco said he believes the book will have broad appeal. He described it as “a nice adventure crime drama story with some interesting sidebars about the dogs and the main characters.”
He added, “My wife and I are what I would call crazy dog people. We vacation with our dogs. We take them to restaurants. We do just about everything with them.”
Asked about the title, “Stumbling into Trouble,” Greco said his dog Melanie is a bit of a klutz.
“She’s always getting stuck somewhere and lazily sauntering around. We call her Eeyore, referring to the character from the Winnie the Pooh novels,” he said.
“Stumbling into Trouble” is available on Amazon in print and e-book formats.
“The publisher has a marketing plan but I intend to self-market it as much as I can. I can’t wait to do a book signing or do a reading of my book. This is truly a great accomplishment for me personally my main objective is to get my story out so people can read and enjoy it,” said Greco.