Wrong Light: A Rick Cahill Novel

A mysterious stalker known as Pluto is fixated on sultry-voiced Naomi, the star of a radio talk show based in San Diego, Calif., in Coyle’s suspenseful if flawed fifth novel featuring PI Rick Cahill (after 2017’s Blood Truth). Naomi doesn’t take Pluto’s threats seriously, but Rick does when someone breaks into Naomi’s car and steals her pistol and the car’s registration. Rick’s attempts to protect her are sidetracked when Tatiana Volkov, the daughter of a Russian mafia boss, who has a hold over him from an earlier book, orders him to stake out mobster Peter Stone’s house daily from dusk until midnight. If he refuses or fails, Tatiana will have him killed. It makes no sense, but he has no choice. Rick asks fellow PI Moira MacFarlane to cover Naomi while he watches Stone. The Stone surveillance takes several puzzling turns that portend nothing good for Cahill, and the body count rises as a killer closes in on Naomi. Distinctive characters and a powerful narrative compensate for the implausibly complex plot of this grim tale. [em]Agent: Kimberley Cameron, Kimberley Cameron & Assoc. (Dec.) [/em]