◾So that you recognize and grow with characters, it’s always nice to start with the first book in a series. But in the case of the Rick Cahill series, it’s pretty easy to pick up any book without feeling lost.

◾I think I’ve read 8 of the 10 books in this series, so I was thrilled to start The Odysee’s End. Sadly, I read that this is possibly the last book in the series, though Coyle has the ability to continue breathing life into his character, so who knows?

◾Almost from the start, Cahill is faced with some big problems, which can be a page-turner for the reader but pretty stressful to the MC. It’s these circumstances that cause Cahill to make a deal with his longtime adversary. After all, he feels trapped, and in his current circumstances, can things get worse?

◾The pages began to turn as my curiosity grew.

Concerns
Despite my fondness for Cahill as a private investigator, a few things bothered me. Firstly, his medical condition wasn't included enough, and I felt that it should have been given more attention. Secondly, the story started quickly but soon became sluggish, only picking up speed around the halfway mark.

Final Thoughts
While I’ve enjoyed Matt Coyle’s books, this wasn’t one of my favorites. Perhaps there were too many threads and none of them had the limelight long enough to pull in emotional suspense or excitement.

That said, I still wouldn’t have wanted to overlook this book. Is it the last in the series? I see references to it being the last, but only Matt Coyle knows for sure.

🔲My thanks to Oceanview Publishing and Netgalley for the digital ARC of this book.

Rick Cahill is back!

I have read an earlier novel in this series featuring this particular hard-boiled private investigator - this series struck me as being one of the better ones of this kind.

Cahill is living on borrowed time. He has sustained the kind of brain damage from earlier scuffles with dangerous criminals that will soon lead to dementia and death. His ex wife can no longer tolerate his obsessive need to face down violent criminals. But a a significant and shady figure from his past then asks him to track down a relative who has gone missing. Cahill in unable to decline. His search for the missing woman soon brings him into the sights of Russian mobsters and corrupt FBI agents.

This is not the kind of case that will reassure his wife that retiring from this way of life is on the cards any time soon.

Either way, whether he will live at least long enough to tell the tale with such powerful adversaries becomes a truly nail-biting question. Coyle expertly ratchets up the tension, where it is, not certain Cahill's 'client' is being completely honest about everything, and whether or not he will be betrayed to his adversaries.

It can help to have read earlier novels in this series, but readers may rest assured that each novel can be read as a standalone,

Rick Cahill has CTE and the symtoms are getting worse and more frequent. He's trying to put his affairs in order but the world keeps getting in the way. His only regret is that he has not done what he thinks is enough to insure his daughter's future. Playing on that regret, Rick will accept a job to find a mobster's daughter. The job is full of complications, as always, but the end could provide a nest egg for his daughter. The job will take Rick into and out of several interactions with those less than helpful characters from his past. A great thriller with a hard kernel at the middle.

This book is almost the end of Rick, but I really hope that isn’t the case. Coyne deals respectfully with CTE, and I want to see how it continues to progress in this character. A fast read that checks all the boxes.

Private investigator Rick Cahill isn't having a great time of it, what with fighting what probably is a terminal brain disorder and missing the heck out of his wife Leah, who chose to get out of the line of fire that's all too common in his line of work and take their young daughter Krista (whom he misses even more) with her. His disease seems to be worsening a bit, with the accompanying rages of violence cropping up when he least needs them as he fights his urges to save humanity.

From out of nowhere, he gets a visit from an adversary who once inexplicably saved his life. Now, it seems, an aging Peter Stone has kidney failure and wants Rick to find his daughter in hopes that she can be a donor and save - or at least prolong - his life. Problem is, Stone, who opted out of the Witness Protection program to contact Rick, has no idea where the daughter is - and the daughter has no idea he's her father. Rick finds the job downright repugnant, at least until he learns that he'll be paid $50,000 for the job - money he can set aside for Krista's future.

Compounding the issue is that another deadly adversary, Russian mobster Sergei Volkov, is about to get out of prison much earlier than expected. Volkov has axes to grind with both Rick and Stone, albeit different ones; Stone's testimony helped seal Volkov's prison sentence, while his beef with Rick is more of a family matter. Either is quite capable of ending Rick's life at any given moment - either personally or by ordering their minions to do the job.

Rick really doesn't know who to trust - including the daughter - except for his loyal partner Moira, who agrees to help and plays a big role in the investigation that tries to get somewhere fast but for the most part gets bogged down in motel rooms and endless speculation. Alas, I can't be more specific without giving away too much, except to say that getting to the end isn't without serious complications for all the characters in this, the 10th installment of the series. As for me, I'll be waiting for the next one as usual - with these books, there's rarely a dull moment. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review this one.

This potential end to the Rick Cahill series ends with Cahill quitting the Private Investigator life, selling his home in San Diego and moving up to Santa Barbara to be closer to his wife Leah and daughter Krista. Before that can happen, however, he has one last case to solve. Former mob boss and nemesis Peter Stone hires Cahill to find Stone’s daughter Angela Albright (who apparently does not know Stone is her father) to protect her from Sergei Volkov (another mob boss who Stone sent to prison before disappearing into WITSEC), who is being released from prison early. Finding Angela before being nearly killed in a shootout as the mob tries to recover access keys to cryptocurrency gives Cahill quite a challenge that will keep reader’s riveted. Not having had an opportunity to read Cahill’s earlier adventures did not diminish my appreciation of this story, but Matt Coyle drops in enough references to earlier escapades to intrigue this reader to track down some of those stories.

Odyssey's End had me up late, furiously reading so I could find out how this series ended. This book, like the others I have read in the series, is fast-paced with ever mounting tension. The characters are memorable, and Rick Cahill is so darn likeable! The first thing I did when I finished was order the first two for my husband for Christmas!

This is the tenth book in the PI Rick Cahill series but can easily be read as a stand alone.
Rick suffers from CTE, which is commonly known brain injury that often occurs in contact sports.
Rick has some tough decisions to make especially when his wife Leah tells him to pack up his business and move back to Santa Barbara.
Rick decides to take on one more case with his partner Moira but could this case be far to much for him to handle?

This book was slow to get into but once I got hooked I couldn't stop reading and finished it quickly. I haven't read the rest of the series but I will now!

Thank you to the author, Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the 10th and final book in a series, and the first book I've read by this author, In spite of this extensive back catalogue, I had no problem reading this as a stand-alone. The protagonist is a private investigator who seems to have lived a hard-hitting life and made more than his share of enemies. The plot is a mystery that isn't really much of one, and the pacing is very slow for much of the book - which culminates in an extremely violent and bloody showdown and shoot-out. Not really my thing, but I did find the juxtaposition between the nitty-gritty violence and the emotional depth the character showed very well done.

In the words of the songsmith who wrote the memorable ballad from the vintage TV series, “Hee Haw”: “If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. Gloom, despair, and agony on me.” Those words perfectly describe Rick Cahill, the hero of a series of novels by author Matt Coyle. Besides the usual emotional trauma fictional private investigators face and the resulting growing list of enemies and regrets, Cahill has some major physical problems. In an earlier book, he was temporarily blinded due to an injury he received during a case. He’s now suffering from CTE, a progressive brain disease leading to dementia and premature death. In his latest adventure, “Odyssey’s End,” Cahill grapples with his own mortality and some enemies from the past. It’s a melancholy and, at times, slow-moving adventure but an entertaining read for hardboiled detective fans.

In “Odyssey’s End,” Cahill is hired by an old frenemy, Peter Stone, to find Stone’s estranged daughter. Cahill doesn’t relish the prospect of working for Stone, a shady business person who both tried to kill him and saved his life in the past. But Stone offers him big money for the assignment, and Cahill can use the fee to provide for his own daughter. It won’t surprise anyone who has ever read a detective novel, but Stone hasn’t been entirely honest. The case soon involves a nasty Russian gangster, some possibly crooked FBI agents, and a missing cryptocurrency billionaire.

There’s not much mystery involved in “Odyssey’s End”; the book is more of a PI procedural. Cahill follows one potential witness halfway across California, then stakes out her home. He also spends a lot of time in a cheap motel. His phone has many neat apps that allow him to track down some leads. But, in the end, the case (and the book) boils down to a shootout where Cahill has to protect someone from a highly trained, well-armed hit squad. To make matters worse, he’s limping around on a sprained ankle. The author does an excellent job crafting suspenseful action scenes, allowing Cahill to use his ingenuity to out-duel some of the goons chasing him.

I was disappointed that the author didn’t work Cahill’s CTE into the storyline. Cahill is aware of his impending decline and makes some lifestyle and financial decisions on that basis. But, as far as I know, he doesn’t exhibit any disease symptoms. Instead, the book just has an overall downbeat tone as Cahill takes stock of his lifestyle and choices. In that respect, he’s not that different from many other fictional detectives who seem to have a perpetually gloomy nature. But this somber atmosphere slows the book down more than it needs.

“Odyssey’s End” is the second Cahill novel I’ve read, and it isn’t as good as my first introduction to the detective. Still, the author is a skilled writer who has created an interesting lead character. He also knows how to stage exciting, suspenseful action scenes. Rick Cahill may be approaching the end of his road, but Matt Coyle is making sure readers are entertained along the way.

NOTE: The publisher graciously gave me a copy of this book. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of that review are entirely my own.

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.

Cahill's life is getting messier by the second after Stone (who was in the Witness Protection Program)appears at his door. In his quest to find Stone's daughter, Cahill sees himself tangled in a mix of lies, crimes, and deeply ingrained fight for power and money which will put his and his family's life in danger. Odyssey's End is a fast-paced story and well-written that grabs the reader's attention from the beginnning and it has an unexpected ending. Great entertainment!
I thank Mr. Coyle, his publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

Cahill’s Last Case

Peter Stone shows up at 7:30 a.m. at Cahill's front door. Stone is dangerous as he has tried both to kill Cahill and save his life. Stone went into witness protection shortly after testifying against a Russian Mob boss, Volkov, who is being released from prison after only four years of a twenty-year sentence. Stone tells Cahill that he has Parkinson's palsy and needs a kidney transplant. As an aging Parkinson’s patient in WITSEC, he would be at the very end of any transplant list. He wants to hire Cahill to find his daughter, Angela Albright, so Stone can tell her that she is his daughter and ask if she would donate a kidney. Why is Stone hiring Cahill? She has disappeared. From this simple start, a very complex novel emerges.

The main storyline consists of one thread: the hunt for Angela. It should be simple, but it is far from simple. There are many obstacles hindering Cahill’s investigation. Her friends do not know or will not tell where Angela is. Cahill learns that Volkov wants to find her because Raskin, her current boyfriend, worked for him and stole from him. He also worked earlier for Stone and stole from him. Add to these issues, years before Cahill killed Volkov’s daughter. Lastly, two apparently rogue FBI agents start hounding Cahill looking for Raskin. My interest was quickly captured and kept to the end of the book.

The development of Cahill’s character has several threads providing much insight. He realizes he wants to quit his current profession and move to Santa Barbara near his estranged wife and young daughter. But, first, he needs to finish this job because Stone is paying him $50,000, which would be a great start to funding his daughter’s education. Fellow PI Moira McFarlane joins him in this hunt, and more information on their relationship is revealed. All the long-term storylines across the novels I have read are wrapped up in this novel, which left me very satisfied with the series.

The aspects of a novel that can cause some readers to stop reading are present in this novel. There are no intimate scenes. Vulgar and rude language are present at a relatively low level. Impious language is even more infrequent. A few scenes portray minor violence until the end. A significant firefight is described in much detail. This level of a battle scene isn’t more than some I have seen on TV. This novel should not be objectionable to most readers.

\This novel is the sixth of ten in the Rick Cahill series I have read. I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. I do recommend reading this novel. I would recommend reading a few of the other novels in this series. I am looking forward to a new series from Matt Coyle. I rate this novel with five stars.

I received this novel's free prepublication e-book version through NetGalley from Oceanview Publishing. My review is based solely on my own reading experience of this book. I wish to thank Oceanview Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this novel early.

Rick Cahill is a PI who is now suffering from CTE, a degenerative brain injury. His wife has left him, because she fears that his cases, which often turn violent, don’t allow a safe environment for her or their almost 2 year old daughter. Rick fears he may not live long enough to provide well for his daughter, so against his better judgment he accepts a missing persons case from an untrustworthy man who promises to pay him $50,000. But the case quickly devolves into conspiracy, rogue FBI agents, and multiple murders.
I believe this was Coyle's 9th Rick Cahill novel, but it reads just fine as a stand-alone.

Odyssey’s End by Matt Cole is riveting from the beginning to the end. Rick Cahill introduces himself as a P.I. who has decided he needs to find a new job if he wants to keep his wife and daughter. He also lets the reader know that he had CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy due to his violent past. While we watch him uncover one useless clue after the next and wonder how his hunches might possibly work out. Cahill is a truly nice guy, heading for the end. Recommend reading this story ASAP.

The Rick Cahill series revolves around a likable private investigator who is dealing with a tentative diagnosis of CTE (the brain injury so common to football players, which can only be definitely diagnosed after death, apparently). He is desperate to stay alive and healthy enough to raise his young daughter. Cahill lives in San Diego / La Jolla, California. In the book prior to this one, Cahill’s wife took their toddler daughter to Santa Barbara to live with her parents, after their lives were put in danger from the case he had been working on.

Cahill is struggling to keep bouts of sudden rage under control (a symptom of the disease). An old adversary, Peter Stone, shows up, asking for Cahill’s help in finding his adult daughter, who disappeared a few weeks before. This is a huge surprise, as Stone is supposed to be in witness protection somewhere. And the daughter has no idea that Stone is her father. So it’s already complicated. Cahill is offered a lot of money to do this, so he accepts the job, thinking the funds will help give his daughter a bit of a financial cushion in later years.

Things get further complicated and dangerous, when two FBI agents show up, asking about Stone and another person who Cahill has never heard of. Add in another visit from a mob goon and Rick is glad his family isn’t nearby.

Cahill enlists the help of his best friend and fellow PI, Moira. There’s a lot of action and lots of clues along the way. The author includes realistic tidbits about the hardships a PI encounters during long stakeouts. The book kept me interested and kept me guessing.

I’ve now read the last three books in this series and it was easy to jump into the middle of series, so you could definitely read this as a standalone. It looks to me that Odyssey’s End is going to be the last Rick Cahill book and if so, it was a good way to end the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Oceanview Publishing for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Odyssey’s End is the tenth book in the Rick Cahill series, a solid private investigator series that continues to provide a raw, gritty toughness tinged with deeper emotional issues. Over the journey Cahill has been through the wringer and is now suffering from CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a condition that will eventually kill him. The clock is absolutely ticking.

Cahill is hired by Peter Stone, a one-time adversary but more lately a friend of convenience, to track down his daughter, Angela Albright. Stone has his issues. He’s been locked away in Witness Protection, he has cancer and also requires a kidney transplant, but is more concerned that Russian Mob kingpin Sergei Volkov is about to get early release from prison. Volkov’s impending release means huge trouble for both Stone and Cahill, not to mention their families.

Taking the case definitely went against Cahill’s better judgement. After all, he doesn’t particularly like Stone and he certainly doesn’t trust him. But when he was offered $50,000 for the job, his thoughts immediately turned to his daughter Krista and what that type of money could do to secure her future was too much to pass up.

Speaking of which, Cahill’s thoughts tended to turn towards both Krista, his 2 year old daughter, and his wife Leah, from whom he is now separated. It’s his job as a private investigator that’s driven the wedge between them and the fact that, just being around him, is proving extremely dangerous. He’s supposedly going to choose between his job and his family, but something (such as $50,000 pay days) always seems to come up.

The problem is, by taking the case he has once again put himself in the firing line of some bad guys. And these guys aren’t just bad guys, they’re brutally uncompromising and won’t think twice about taking out your whole family if you stand in their way bad.

Unlike earlier books in the series, I found this to be extremely slow moving for a significant portion of the book. There is a lot of time where Cahill is sitting around in his motel room or in his car contemplating: the sorry state of his life; the fact that Volkov is out of prison and the danger that poses; his wish to see his daughter more often.

Consequently, there’s an overwhelming sense of drifting rather than investigating going on. And even when he comes up with a breakthrough piece of information that gives him a bead on finding Angela, it’s incredibly tenuous, so much so I’d call it an unbelievable reach. The danger, which is implied very early on, tends to be forgotten amidst all of the brooding until the all-action finale.

Apart from the ponderous nature of the story, there are upsides and they largely fall at the feet of Rick Cahill who is a singularly sympathetic character. His intentions are pure even if his methods are anything but. He’s carrying all kinds of handicaps, physical and mental, yet he continues to forge on, determined to right wrongs and play the part of the knight in shining armour.

For me, this didn’t quite have the same zing that the earlier Rick Cahill books provided. He feels beaten down and almost defeated. But I’m a fan of the series and am interested to see whether he bounces back from the events that Matt Coyle has put him through. Time will tell.

My thanks to publishers Oceanview Publishing via Netgalley for the digital ARC of this book that allowed me to read and enjoy Odyssey’s End.

I received an ARC through "NetGalley" and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

This story begins with Rick now sepoarated by his wife and daughter at home when he receives a visitor. This individual is Peter Stone, a person who tried to kill Rick as well as who also saved Rick's life. Peter who is in Witness Protection has come to hire Rick to find his daughter Angela for him. He gave Rick the story that he was dying and with a kidney from Angela, he might be saved. Peter told Rick that Angela did not know that Peter was her father and he didn't want Rick to tell her, just find her.

What seemed to be a simple missing case changes drastically when Rick is visited by the FBI. In addition, he was visited later by Sergei Volkov, a Russian mobster who Peter was a witness against. The FBI agents were aware that Rick had been visited by Peter. He was asked if he was hired to find Theodore Raskin. Rick became aware of the FBI because he caught them folloing him while hhe was looking for Angela. He called a sometime partner, Moira, and asked her to follow the FBI to find out where they went after they quit following him. As things heated up, Rick set his sight on Angela's daughter Cassandra. He believed that Angela would be in contact with her and he would then be able to locate her.

After time passed and Rick was still following Cassandra, an event happened when someone dropped Cassandra at her car. Rick then decided that he would follow that car and see where it led him. This resulted in Rick driving for over 200 miles. Once that vehicle finally reached its' destination, Rick went to question her, but she lied to him. As a result, Rick stayed in town thinking that this person would ultimately lead to Angela. Rick eventually went back to this person's home and did a search. He didn't find much, but something he saw stayed with him.

To discover what item he saw at that person's house, what the real reason Peter wanted to find Angela, and how Raskin's involvement with Angela played a role in the final outcome, then you need to read this book. The ending will answer all questions that you might have.

Odyssey's End by Matt Coyle is the action-packed, very highly recommended tenth crime thriller featuring San Diego private investigator Rick Cahill.

Difficulties are multiplying for PI Rick Cahill. Between the constant threat his work places them under combined with the rages his CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, can bring on, his wife Leah feels safer away from Rick. For their protection, Leah along with their daughter Krista, has moved back to her parent's home in Santa Barbara. Rick desperately misses them both so when he is offered $50,000, he accepts a job from his enemy Peter Stone. He plans to set the bulk of the money aside for Krista's future.

He is supposed to look for Stone's daughter, Angela Albright, because Stone needs a kidney transplant. However, the case immediately becomes more complicated and dangerous than Rick initially thought. Quickly the FBI is involved asking about an unknown player in the case, a man called Theodore Raskin. He calls friend and PI Moira in to assist him, too. Then the recently released Russian mobster Sergei Volkov is released from prison, placing Rick in an even more perilous situation.

All the novels in the Rick Cahill PI Crime Series are riveting, well-written thrillers with complicated, dangerous cases full of twists and surprises that are expertly brought to a conclusion by the end of the novel. Odyssey's End features an intricate, suspenseful case which places Rick right in the path of more danger and personal injuries. It is a great addition to the series.

I absolutely love this series and the character of Rick Cahill. Even though it is the tenth in the series, it can be read as a stand-alone novel after which you will want to check out the other novels in the series. It seems there are hints that this may be the last case for Rick. I hope not, but if it is I'm sure Matt Coyle will soon give us another series full of action and great, fully realized characters.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Oceanview Publishing.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Edelweiss, X, and Amazon.