Rick Cahill PI receives a call from a man who has torn down the house where Rick grew up and found a safe in the wall. Rick goes to pick it up and has an old .25 pistol and $15,000 in hundred dollar bills. There is a safe deposit box key also and so the mystery begins. All of this has something to do with his dad's leaving the La Joya PD 28 years ago and a still unsolved murder from that time. About the same time he is hired by his ex girlfriend to follow her husband who she thinks is having an affair. Rick worshiped his dad until her left the force and drank himself to death. This story takes us through how he finds what happened in the unsolved murder and how it is related to what is going on in his life today. Great old gumshoe kind of work by Rick and his friend Moria.

4 stars

Our story opens with Rick going to his old home where he lived with his now deceased father. The current owner is remodeling and found a safe under the floor. He wants Rick to have it.

He then gets a call from a former girlfriend Kim who is now married. She wants him to follow her husband Jeffrey to ascertain if he is cheating on her. Reluctantly, Rick takes the case. In no time at all Rick and Moria his sometimes assistant track the man to a hotel where he meets with a woman. After taking pictures, Rick notices someone else in the area. It is Peter Stone, a man who tried to kill him some years earlier. He tracks him to the woman’s room. Things are getting interesting – and odd. What would this guy have to do with the woman and by association, the Kim’s husband?

Meanwhile, Rick leaves the safe at a locksmith’s to have it drilled open. He finds a packet of money, a key and a gun in the safe. The key belongs to a safe deposit box that Rick tracks down quickly. He learns that there is also a checking account with a co-signor on it named Antoinette King. This account has been active for eighteen years – since his father died.

Kim asks Rick to tail the woman with whom Jeffrey met on the balcony of the hotel. Rick is reluctant because tailing someone without authority is unethical. Rick and Moira begin to tail the woman named Sophia Domingo.

The book takes off on an interesting trail of bribes, extortion, deceit and lies. All this has to do with shady dealing and property development deals.

This is a well written and plotted novel. I enjoyed reading it. The characters are likeable and sufficient background information is given to flesh out the characters, but not so much that it detracts from the story. The suspense builds nicely and the novel moves along apace. This is my first Matt Coyle novel, but I am sure it won’t be my last.

I want to thank Netgalley and Oceanview Publishing for forwarding to me a copy of this book to read.

I had never heard of Matt Coyle (Author) before or Rick Cahill, the anti-hero PI now in his fourth book but am glad that I have now had the chance to discover them and look forward to reading the previous three books in the series. I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the writing in what could have been a very hackneyed storyline. The story of jaded PI who left the Police Department under a cloud, helping his ex-girlfriend whilst trying to comes to grips with ghosts of his fathers past in lesser hands could have been extremely cliched but as written by Mr Coyle was an extremely enjoyable read. I highly recommend this book to all lovers of good detective books

My favorite character used to be Jack Reached, but no more. Rick Cahill has taken that place for me. We readers sometimes find that one special character and author who just resonates with them and I have never related to or enjoyed a series as much as this wonderful series by Matt Coyle.
It just gets better with each new book. Lucky for me and those readers fortunate enough to discover this authors work. Bravo! Mr. Coyle! Long live Rick Cahill!!!!