This is a hell of a way to learn about an award-winning author, Matt Coyle, who writes his mysteries in the same neighborhood where I’ve been living for the last 45 years. It’s not the first of his 10-book series. Rather, the last one, Odyssey’s End, his 10th book about Rick Cahill, an ex-cop whose current marriage is falling apart as the result of his dangerous dedication to his work as a private investigator and the onset of his progressive neurocognitive disorder, CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). Instead of being able to read the first book and move forward through the series to understand his character development, I’ve begun at the end. Actually, I’m indebted to Oceanview Publishing for alerting me to the presence of this author. It may be going through the back door, but now I know I’ve got 9 books to enjoy, which I’ll read in the intended order, and come back around to the end where I started. This book could easily serve as a stand-alone novel, and the info on Coyle’s website suggests that all of the books in the series could be stand-alone works. It’s just not the way I usually go about learning an author’s body of work.
In this novel, his wife Leah has moved out of their La Jolla home, and she has taken their 20-month-old daughter Krista to Santa Barbara so she could live there with her parents, at least on a temporary basis. Leah’s parents were not fans of Rick and the risks that he took. He admitted that he had led a life of violence and he had lots of grotesque scars for such activities. Rick and Leah agreed to a 50% custody arrangement, but that meant repeatedly doing the 4 ½ hour drive (at least) from La Jolla to Santa Barbara. Leah was tired of the bad men with whom Rick worked and the danger it caused to Rick, herself, and now their precious girl. It was killing Rick to be away from his daughter. He also did not want to endanger Leah and Krista any more, and given the promise of advancing symptoms of cognitive problems, he agonized over the idea of quitting his job, moving to Santa Barbara, and leaving the town where he grew up. This story was about two bad guys who were enemies of one another and both were trying to force Rick to work for them to recover a vast fortune of ill-gotten gains. Rick also realized that a key figure in their efforts was another woman who would likely be killed if he did not protect her.
In short, this is a great plot filled with compelling characters. It gets a 5-star rating from me. I’ve already obtained book one, Yesterday’s Echo.
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