Copyright 2013 by Columbus Rose Ltd. Published by Grand Central Publishing, New York.
This eponymous mystery is #6 in the series by David Baldacci featuring Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, two former Secret Service agents who formed their own private investigation business. It is a small, 2-person operation (though at the end of the book they take on an employee). Being fit and attractive and forced to spend long hours together, there is some sexual tension between them, but in this book it is (almost) all business.
In this book they acquire a client – a 16-year-old high school student and swimmer who they happen to see running down the street carrying an antique revolver. It is never quite clear why he had the gun, but it doesn’t matter – it is just a “meet cute”, a device to get the plot rolling.
Maxwell chases the boy down, subdues him and calms him down. She learns that his father – an army reservist who was called to duty in Afghanistan – has been killed in action. She comforts the boy, takes him home and explains the situation to his stepmother, who married the father just a short time before he went overseas. They leave, having done their good deed for the day, but Michelle does not return the gun. She wants an excuse to return because she senses something is not quite right.
Nope, not right at all. Soon the questions start piling up. Is the father really dead? Is he really a reservist? Is the stepmom really his wife? It is the start of a slide down a slippery slope into a very deep mystery involving huge amounts of cash, treason, kidnapping, murder, the settling of a 25-year-old grudge and a renewed relationship between King and his ex-wife. They have to survive several attempts on their lives to get to the bottom of it all.
It is a fun ride. Quick-moving with interesting characters and plot.
8 out of 10.