BLIND VIGIL

5 stars out of 5

No doubt I sound like a broken record, but I really, really like

this series. The central character, Rick Cahill, is the perfect combination of tough background and no-nonsense approach to his life and his job as a private detective (empathy, perhaps not so much). As this one begins, though, he's having a hard time; he's still recovering from being shot in the face nine months earlier, which, among other things, left him totally blind.

He's not sure where his path will lead next, but given his condition, being a private eye is pretty much out of the question when neither of yours is working. But then he gets a call from old partner Moira MacFarlane, who tells him another old (but now estranged) friend Turk Moldoon wants to hire her to find out if his girlfriend Shay is cheating on him. Moira says she needs Rick's insights when she goes to interview Turk - if the man doesn't seem on the up and up, she doesn't want to take the case.

Turk doesn't seem all that happy to see Rick again, but he's desperate to learn the truth about his girlfriend. Meantime, Rick must deal with his own issues that come with adjusting to blindness and a somewhat long-distance romance with his partner Leah. Soon, though, he's drawn into the case in a way he never expected as Turk finds himself the primary suspect in a murder case. Just about everyone involved, including Moira, think Turk is guilty. But Rick is certain his old friend isn't capable of such an act and sets out to prove it - even if he can't see his own hand in front of his mangled-up face.

Much of the book focuses on how Rick deals with his injuries - and I must say to that end he's got amazing intestinal fortitude (I'm pretty sure I'd just hole up in my house and let the rest of the world pass me by unseen). Rick isn't one to feel sorry for himself, though - at least not when his friend is looking at a lifetime in prison. There's plenty of action, some of which puts Rick's life in danger, all making for a terrific adventure that made me sorry when I got to the end. Thanks once again to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy.

Blind Vigil by Matt Coyle (Oceanview Publishing, December 2020); 336 pp.