The TOPDOGS MOTORCYCLE CLUB, quebec chAPTER

Inspired by the Quebec Biker Wars that occured in the 1990's, as well as events that occurred in New England and Upstate New York over the last 40 years, this riveting biker fiction introduces the TOPDOGS Motorcycle Club, a fictional gang of modern-day outlaws who take us for a journey on the darker side of the road less traveled.   (the first, "rough-draft" sketch of the fictional centerpatch at right) 

Ride with undercover agents as they attempt to  infiltrate and investigate the TOPDOGS club! 

Laugh, love, cry, live, and work with family members as they wait for their loved ones to return from undercover assignments...

Strut on the sidewalks of Montreal with high-rolling underworld magnates while their minions flit in and out of back alleys in service of dark needs, big money, and ruthless territorial competition. 

 Read about how the Quebec Chapter of the club got its start; how some fun-seeking motorcycle enthusiasts lost themselves to the seductive, yet dangerous world of gang violence and organized crime.  

Outlaw bikers: fun-loving club members or dangerous minions of criminal gangs?  Directing the action, or merely swept up in events orchestrated by Organized Crime?  Are the bikers themselves victims?

Honor, justice, reputation, adventure, thrills, camaraderie, good cooking, teamwork, liquor, intrigue: do these themes belong to the Outlaw Bikers, a team of law enforcement professionals, or are the two groups minted on a common coin?  You decide!  

More about the TOPDOGS club, its members and victims, and the law officers investigating the club   coming in future books in a  series that veers between wild thrills and sheer terror with a lot of laughs, love, and drama between adventures.  More than just about bikers and death... it's a book about life.

In this case, real-life inspirations for the antagonists existed not too very far away. The Quebec Biker Wars featured rough and ready real outlaws, gang violence, drug involvement, murder,  political indulgence, and even a successful jail break-out... events that were ready-made for adaptation into crime fiction.  

Click on the patch to the right to read a 1996 MACLEANS Canada Magazine article about the Biker War.  MACLEANS is Canada's national current affairs and news magazine since 1905.   The  news article "Jan 15, 1996 - A BLOODY BIKER WAR."  was published by and for citizens caught right in the teeth of this gang violence and gives a good "from the ground" perspective of the battle for control of the Montreal region's back-alley economy.  (Note: you are leaving TOPDOGSNOVEL.COM)   

It never does one well to paint with a broad brush.  Like any community, the world of bikers is full variety and diversity.  Also like any community, there are good people and bad people, those in-between, and some who could go either way given the right - or wrong - circumstances.  Some people never know their own true nature until fate or foe or bad mentoring pushes them into a corner they'd never imagined occupying.

Bikers face a double-edged sword, one side of which is of their own making.  Many "bikers," as well as some clubs, like to foster an image of self-reliance, independance, toughness, attitude, and physically intimidating behavior.   Close by on this spectrum from weekend-only rider to seasoned Outlaw biker whose club is his life is one more image frequently associated with motorcyclists: hardened criminal.  The two may or may not often mix, but one does not necessarily mean the other any more than a Chevy Impala in the garage and navy blue suits in the closet mean the house belongs to an entirely boring and mundane law-abiding citizen.

There was a group in the town where I grew up; they were well-respected and hard-working, wore their patches with pride, and were part of a nationwide group of like-minded people.  One of the members of this small, exclusive organization was eventually charged with shooting up a local business during a public gathering and another member of the group was charged with driving the getaway car.  The leader of the group allegedly orchestrated the whole thing in a vendetta, and was charged with Obstruction of Justice.  There were convictions after a lengthy investigation and ajudication.  The "club" continued to be in the news with on-and-off scandal and minor criminal complaints for the next decade.  Outlaw Bikers?  No.  The persons charged and convicted in these incidents were all police officers.   This department's personnel represent the exception, and not the rule, as do the fictional "bad boy" bikers in Heavens's Door.  

Just sayin': In every bunch, there's a few...  People should be judged by their actions and not by broadly-brushed assumptions based on looks or the uninformed perceptions of genteel society.  "Thriller" novels play well on those stereotypes, but just because a few bikers threw a gang war in Quebec one decade doesn't mean that all motorcycle clubs, or individual members, are violent or criminally involved.