She Treads Softly: Lost Tomorrows

Monday, December 2, 2019

Lost Tomorrows

Lost Tomorrows by Matt Coyle
Oceanview Publishing: 12/3/19
eBook review copy; 368 pages
ISBN-13: 9781608093632
Rick Cahill #6

Lost Tomorrows by Matt Coyle is a highly recommended noir whodunit featuring a troubled private investigator and the sixth book in the series.

San Diego P. I. Rick Cahill receives a phone call learning that his former partner on the Santa Barbara Police Department, Krista Landingham, is dead. When Rick goes to the funeral, his past is ever present and thrust into his face by the officers attending the funeral. His wife, Colleen, was murdered in the city and Rick was considered guilty by the police, but certain key people, like his former partner, knew he could not have been the guilty party. Now Leah, Krista's sister, wants Rick to assist another P.I. and look into her sister's death. She thinks Krista's death was murder, not an accident. Rick soon begins to wonder if Krista's death is somehow linked to Colleen's death because she had just reopened and started investigating the cold case.

This is my first Rick Cahill mystery and I could easily follow the backstory of the first person narrative without reading the other books in the series. What happened in his past is either explained if it is important to the plot and/or hinted at if it involves his character and background. The premise is set up immediately and the action escalates. The case is carefully presented and you can follow the twists and leads clearly as the investigation unfolds. The chapters are short and concise, helping move the plot along quickly.

Rick is a well-developed character and Coyle presents all his strengths and flaws. He is likely clinically depressed, but he is also an intelligent, attentive investigator who will follow any leads. Rick shows vulnerability and a hesitation to open himself up to any relationship as he doesn't think he deserves any happiness. This book could easily entice readers to read the previous books in the series to try an unlock more of what caused Rick's damaged psyche.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Oceanview Publishing.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.