Matt Royal displays an amusing gift for understatement—whether intended by the author or not—in Griffin's fourth mystery to feature the retired trial lawyer and Vietnam vet who makes Florida's Longboat Key his home (after 2008's Blood Island
). When the book's love interest asks Royal what's going on after his car has been firebombed and, in another violent incident, shots fired at him, Royal responds, “I'm not sure. Someone's trying to kill me, I think.” Someone is indeed trying to stop Royal from pursuing the hit man who blew out the brains of a close friend, history professor Laurence Wyatt. Wyatt and a fellow Florida academic, who was gunned down on the same day, had been researching the Nazis and Vichy France. Amid the predictable shootouts and hostage takings, readers should be prepared for some awkward prose (e.g., “The death of a friend impales you with a barbed javelin of despair”). (Nov.)
