Synopsis
Max Freeman is at a crossroads. No longer content to live solely in his remote shack in the Everglades, he is looking to move beyond his self-imposed isolation. So when his onetime girlfriend, Detective Sherry Richards, asks for his help as a private investigator in nailing an ex-cop she suspects of killing several young women in South Florida, Max is ready to help her see justice done.
But there’s a problem. Sherry’s suspect is a former police officer from Philadelphia who served with Max a brother-in-blue who once saved Max’s life. Matters are made worse when Max’s own aggressive investigation leads him to believe that Sherry’s crusade to protect these women is about to roll over a possibly innocent man.
Caught between his loyalty to Sherry and his debt to his fellow ex-cop, Max’s search for the truth will take him back to the streets of Philadelphia, where he will dig into his fellow officer’s troubled past…only to come face-to-face with his own. And while Max continues his quest, a controlling, cunning killer inexorably closes in on what could be his next victim…
Publishers Weekly
In his fourth outing (after 2004's Shadow Men), King's pensive hero, Florida PI Max Freeman, spends more time tooling around Fort Lauderdale and his native Philadelphia than in his beloved Everglades. Max is protecting a dozen immigrant cruise ship employees, who were injured in a boiler explosion, while his pal, attorney Billy Manchester, tries to exact additional compensation for them from the ship's owners. Then Fort Lauderdale police detective Sherry Richards, a former lover and colleague, asks Max's help in tracking down Philadelphia ex-cop Colin O'Shea, whom Sherry suspects killed three pretty female bartenders. Max takes on the job, though he doubts O'Shea, with whom he once worked, is the guilty party. King skillfully alternates between the search for the murderer on the one hand and Max's attempts to guard the ship employees on the other. Max returns to Philadelphia, where he learns more about O'Shea and allays some of his personal demons. Though King's basic plots aren't particularly original, his smooth pacing, which creates tension, vivid place descriptions (for instance, a haunting search through a swamp) and insight into human behavior make this series a welcome addition to the Florida PI subgenre. Agent, Philip Spitzer. (Mar. 21) FYI: King's debut, The Blue Edge of Midnight, won an Edgar Award. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.