She Treads Softly: Deadly Cove

Thursday, December 7, 2023

Deadly Cove

Deadly Cove by Brendan DuBois
12/12/23; 300 pages
Severn River Publishing
Lewis Cole #7

Deadly Cove by Brendan DuBois is the very highly recommended seventh mystery in the Lewis Cole series. Originally published on 7/5/2011, Deadly Cove is part of a re-release of the outstanding series by Severn River Publishing. I'm quite enjoying this exceptional series and look forward to the next installment.

Magazine columnist and ex-Department of Defense research analyst Lewis Cole has a new editor at Shoreline, who requires him to submit articles to justify his salary. Cole is covering an anti-nuclear protest when a shot kills local peace activist Bronson Toles. His friend, Paula Quinn, was next to Toles and the experience is devastating to her. Toles was a countercultural hero who runs the Stone Chapel, a pioneering music venue. Cole begins to investigate his background and that of Curt Chesak, coordinator for the Nuclear Freedom Front. This puts Cole and his friend, Detective Sargent Diane Woods, in harms way.

This is an absolutely excellent addition to the series. Although Deadly Cove can be read as a stand-alone, I would recommend starting earlier in the series so you can meet the characters and have some additional background information on them. Cole is back, protecting those closest to him. Additionally, DuBois provides every possible position concerning nuclear plants in the narrative and is honest enough to acknowledge that solving the mystery doesn't involve the power plant.

The writing continues to be accomplished while Cole is placed in all manner of precarious situations. His mind is sharp and his instinct are great. He needs theses skills to survive the violence and soul-searching involved in this investigation. He continues to be a sympathetic character and one that readers will root for.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Severn River Publishing via Edelweiss.

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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.