In this dark thriller by an author skilled in the art of crafting page-turners, Birmingham detective Cooper Devereaux makes his spectacular debut.

As a cop, Devereaux has a sketchy record, peppered with suspensions and questionable tactics. Off the job, he has recurring nightmares, mostly about his childhood and mostly about the day he learned his father had died. He was so young at the time and didn’t understand. Now he’s trying to cope and stay on the right side of the law. Devereaux has always lived on the ragged edge, and being a cop is about the only thing that keeps him running more or less straight. However, he’s a man who does things his way. Maybe that’s why he’s on yet another suspension when the report comes in that seven-year-old Ethan Crane has gone missing.

"In FALSE POSITIVE, the pace is as high octane as a roller-coaster ride, and just as twisty. Best yet, though, the ending is killer. My bet is that Detective Cooper Devereaux will gain an instant following."

Fortunately for everybody involved, Lt. Hale knows which of her detectives is best equipped to handle the case: Cooper Devereaux. And, coincidentally, Hale is handed a timely excuse to drop the complaint against him. But this time, the lieutenant is teaming Devereaux up with Jan Loflin, on loan from Vice, a woman bringing along crushing baggage of her own. While neither of the cops plays particularly well with others, they nonetheless join forces because the life of a little boy depends on it.

As everyone knows, the first few hours in a missing person case are critical, but with this kidnapper, timing is everything. Devereaux and Loflin realize that, if they don’t get it precisely right, they will never see Ethan alive again. The pair works hard to focus their efforts where they are most valuable, but Devereaux is almost fatally distracted by connections this case has to his youth. Clues keep dredging up old memories, but can he trust them? Maybe a better question is: Can he trust his new partner? Loflin seems to have plenty of ghosts she’s fighting. And she goes missing at some very inconvenient times.

Fortunately, Devereaux has friends --- or maybe they’d be more accurately described as contacts --- in many unconventional, possibly even criminal, worlds. Well, really, where better to find information about other criminals? That should come as no surprise, since Devereaux goes about his job in a manner that many in his department find, shall we say, disturbing. But the guy gets results. And when the stakes are as high as they are here, it’s easy to ignore propriety or worry about protocol.

In FALSE POSITIVE, the pace is as high octane as a roller-coaster ride, and just as twisty. Best yet, though, the ending is killer. My bet is that Detective Cooper Devereaux will gain an instant following. He’s a rough player with a conscience, a loner who won’t hesitate to back up his team, a man who thinks outside the box especially when the odds are against him. He’s a cop who knows when he’s right and acts on it, even if it means disobeying a direct order. Readers are going to love him, maybe despite their better judgment. Andrew Grant has a hit on his hands.