THE GOODBYE MAN

5 stars out of 5

It's always a treat to see a new series from a favorite author, and I absolutely loved The Never Game, which launched this one last year. I loved this - the second - as well, albeit not quite as much, but the reason is nothing more than a personal peccadillo; the primary setting isn't, shall we say, a favorite of mine. That said, you can bet your mother's G.I. boots I'll be waiting eagerly to see what's next for self-described "reward-seeker" Colter Shaw.

As he sets out to find two young male runaways who reportedly committed serious hate crimes, he learns that the local police are on the trail as well, but with a difference: Unlike Shaw, they have no intention of capturing them alive. That doesn't sit well with Shaw, and when he and the cops find the boys, he starts to take preventive action. But suddenly, he and the cops are flummoxed when one of the boys does something unthinkable. Shaw manages to get the other boy out of harm's way, in the process learning that his cohort may have been under the influence of a cult. Home-grown survivalist and realist that he is, Shaw sets out to learn more.

As all this is transpiring, Shaw's mind remains on finding out what his late father - whose death may have been helped along by unsavory characters - was working on that seems to be connected to the growing drug trade. But most of the story's action takes place on the grounds of the Osiris Foundation, the public name for a highly secretive organization that claims to help people who are carrying around a ton of emotional baggage (a "cure" that comes with two very high price tags).

It is the nitty-gritty of that operation and Shaw's personal investigation thereof that keeps the pace moving quickly and kept me on the edge of my seat much of the way through. I also got more insights into where the quirky Shaw is coming from. In that regard, had I not read the first book, I'm pretty sure I'd have had no trouble relating to this one. Still, IMHO it's always a good idea to start any series as close to the beginning as possible - and in this case that's not very hard to do. Both are definitely worth reading, and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read advance copies of both.

The Goodbye Man by Jeffery Deaver (G.P. Putnam's Sons, May 2020); 432 pp.