When All Light Fails: A Ryan DeMarco Mystery

At the start of Silvis’s elegiac if slightly overstuffed fifth and final outing for Pennsylvania PI Ryan DeMarco (after 2020’s No Woods as Dark as These), DeMarco survives being shot in the chest during an ambush outside an abandoned mill where he’s been lured by an old adversary, Daksh Khatri. Meanwhile, state police officer Daniella Flores, who has rushed to DeMarco’s rescue, suffers a serious leg injury when the fleeing Khatri rams her car with his. While in the hospital, the former state police sergeant waxes philosophical as he reviews various cases he has worked over the years. Daniella, who’s in the same hospital, and his devoted girlfriend, Jayme Matson, are much on his mind. After DeMarco recovers, a judge seeks his help determining the paternity of a child the judge thinks may be his. Jayme joins DeMarco on the long path to the bloody and tragic resolution. As usual, Silvis delivers crisp action sequences, but most memorable are DeMarco’s long, ruminative digressions that sum up the career of a complicated, honorable man. Readers will be sorry to see the last of him. Agent: Sandy Lu, Book Wyrm Literary. (Aug.)