Flight Risk

At the start of Priest’s lively sequel to 2021’s Grave Reservations, Det. Grady Merritt of the Seattle PD and his teenage daughter, Molly, are searching Mount Rainier for their lost dog, Cairo, when Cairo appears with a human leg in its mouth. Where did the leg come from? And where’s the rest of the person? From Cairo’s poop, Molly recovers a man’s wedding ring, which Grady brings to psychic Leda Foley to test for possible clues. Meanwhile, Leda is looking into the case of a local landscaper who disappeared from a construction site several weeks before and whom nobody reported missing. Though resolving the two cases begins slowly, Leda and Grady eventually discover links between the two and, with the help of some “woo-woo stuff” from Leda, the investigations proceed in surprising and ultimately highly satisfying directions. The dynamic between Generation-X Leda and the staid Grady, a widower, is friendly and realistic. After overcoming his initial skepticism having been overcome, Grady has faith in Leda’s ability to make connections that prove key to solving the conundrums they face. Readers will be eager to see whether anything beyond a collegiality develops between them in their next adventure. Agent: Stacia Decker, Dunow, Carlson, & Lerner. (Nov.)