LABYRINTH

4 stars out of 5

I'm a big fan of this series, in particular the FBI duo (and married couple) Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock. Oh sure, they're always a little too "perfect," but I enjoy them, their interaction and respective talents - a lot. So it was that I looked forward to reading this, their 23rd adventure.
  
And I have to say that while I enjoyed it, the whole thing seemed just a bit, well, sappy compared with others I've read. Much of that, I think, is because early on, Sherlock is involved in an auto accident that results in substantial memory loss - primarily of people. Her skills seem to be intact, so Savich has no real qualms about involving her in whatever he's investigating; but he also spends a ton of time trying to convince her (and himself) that she'll get her memory back, and that part, to me, is a bit overdone.

After her car was hit, Sherlock's car spun out and, in turn, struck and wounded a man who they learn is a CIA agent being chased by a couple of (presumably) bad guys. Now, the goal is to find him and keep him safe - if in fact he's still alive. While all this is going on, another FBI teammate, Griffin Hammersmith, is grabbing some R&R in tiny Gaffer's Ridge, Virginia, when he "hears" distress cries from a damsel who's been kidnapped and stashed in a houxe he's passing by. When he rescues her, she says she heard her captor - whose family basically owns the town - admit to murdering three teenage girls who have gone missing recently. Needless to say, the man denies everything, putting Hammersmith and Dr. Carson DeSilva, the woman he saved, at serious odds with said powerful family.

The two plots overlap here and there, allowing interaction among Savich, Sherlock, Hammersmith and deSilva, the latter a much-accomplished journalist. Also on display are the special psychic talents of Sherlock and Hammersmith, who share those abilities with select other characters who use it in not-so-friendly ways.

All of this makes readers wonder: Who will win the war of the minds? How far up the CIA food chain does responsibility for Sherlock's accident reach? And will she ever remember the people she once loved, including Savich and their young son Sean?

All in all, it's another fun adventure that is, as always, well worth reading.

Labyrinth by Catherine Coulter (Gallery Books, July 2019); 512 pp.