The Maze: A John Corey Novel

Bestseller DeMille’s ponderous eighth John Corey novel (after 2015’s Radiant Angel) drags Corey—former NYPD detective, former contract agent with the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force, former member of the Diplomatic Surveillance Group, and former adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice—out of his enforced retirement. One of Corey’s former lovers, Det. Beth Penrose of the Suffolk County Homicide Squad, urges him to take a job with a private investigation firm on Long Island called Security Solutions. After much dithering, Corey finally succumbs to Beth’s entreaties and winds up in a treacherous maze of vice, graft, and blackmail, and on the trail of a serial killer. Fortunately, the dirty cops and lowlifes employed by the detective agency are as old-school as Corey, who ends up looking for incriminating evidence among Security Solutions’ recent videocassettes and paper ledgers, which are stored in a basement secured by a padlock. Armed with his trusty Glock, a crowbar, and unlimited cockiness, Corey manfully succeeds in fighting crime. This is for die-hard fans only. Agents: Sloan Harris and Jennifer Joel, ICM Partners. (Oct.)