As a reader, there’s nothing better than discovering a new writer I really like — especially one who’s still cranking out new titles. One of my current favorites is Nick Petrie, author of the Peter Ash series.

I discovered Petrie through one of those lucky accidents. I was visiting friends in Grants Pass last summer and stopped to check out a local used bookstore. While browsing the shelves I overheard a customer chatting with the owner about this exciting new crime writer they both loved and eavesdropped shamelessly on their conversation (as a journalist, eavesdropping is part of my core skill set).

I picked up a copy of “The Drifter,” the first Peter Ash book, and was instantly hooked.

Petrie delivers plenty of suspense, plot twists and two-fisted action. Peter Ash is a complex character, a former Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and came home with a serious case of PTSD that manifests itself in the form of anxiety that builds to intolerable levels when he has to spend extended periods of time indoors.

As a result, he takes to the road, traveling around the country and living out of his truck — a lifestyle that provides plenty of opportunities for meeting people in trouble and helping them get out of it. This is something he’s well equipped to do, having honed his combat skills to a fine edge with the Marines.

If you’re thinking Peter Ash sounds a lot like Jack Reacher, you’re right, and fans of Lee Child’s Reacher novels will find much to like in Petrie’s books. And that’s a good thing, since Child is easing his way into retirement (I recently heard him tell an NPR interviewer who asked why he wouldn’t just keep on writing the wildly popular series, “You must remember I’m European — I have no work ethic”).

Meanwhile, Petrie is just getting started. He’s written seven Peter Ash books since “The Drifter” came out in 2015. I’m hoping he’ll keep supplying fans like me with these addictively satisfying thrillers for years to come.