Precious Cargo

Charlie Noble, former-Coast-Guard-officer-turned-marine-PI, is back. This time, he is hot on the trail of a human trafficking scheme that begins in Mexico…and ends in murder.

Publishers Weekly

In Ford's undistinguished second Charlie Noble thriller (after 2005's Red Herring), Noble has found a second career as a PI in Eagle Harbor, Wash., after his promising career with the Coast Guard was cut short by his refusal to doctor a report. Noble sets aside plans for a romantic getaway with his significant other, Kate Sullivan, his first major relationship since the death of his wife, after deciding to accept a new assignment. Marvin and Angela Baynes, who have been haunted by the decades-old disappearance of their only daughter, are horrified when a dead girl is pulled from the bottom of the sound by their boat's anchor. The couple hire Noble to identify both the victim and her killer. Aided by Raven, a skilled diver, Noble soon finds two other corpses and begins to probe the victims' link to a brothel. Readers should be prepared for routine prose ("Damn relationships... I hate 'em and I love 'em") and a by-the-numbers plot.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Clyde W. Ford is a mythologist, trained psychotherapist, and sought-after public speaker. He’s also a critically acclaimed author of nonfiction and fiction. He writes the Charlie Noble Mysteries, suspense thrillers set in the Pacific Northwest. He’s been a guest on the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” NPR, and other radio and television programs around the country. Clyde lives in Bellingham, Washington. He writes aboard his 30-foot Willard trawler, and cruises the waters of the Inside Passage.