Rick Cahill! “What kind of trouble are you in now?”

Following 2022’s DOOMED LEGACY, Peter Stone reappears “[l]ike cancer after decades of remission” in ODYSSEY’S END. He was portrayed in Matt Coyle’s Anthony Award-winning debut, YESTERDAY’S ECHO. “Only fools and dead men ever trusted Peter Stone.”

"Astute readers may interpret the title to mean an end of private investigation in San Diego.... Don’t let your readers down, Mr. Coyle. Rick has become a friend. We need to know what’s in store for our buddy."

Stone has changed, though. In his 70s, he’s developed Parkinson’s. But there’s another reason he wants to hire Rick: to locate his daughter, Angela Albright, who doesn’t know of her biological dad or that he needs a kidney transplant. One of hers. Angela is in hiding, not from the father she doesn’t know exists, but maybe because Russian mob boss Sergei Volkov has been released from prison after only 54 months, a truncated sentence perhaps arranged by conniving Seattle FBI agents. And Stone’s testimony was instrumental in convicting the mobster. Volkov and his devil-daughter, Tatiana, were featured in 2018’s WRONG LIGHT.

Those FBI agents interrogate Rick, but he learns more from them than they do from him. They’re after Theodore Raskin, the founder of a bogus cryptocurrency exchange. Had Volkov from behind bars invested in Raskin’s crypto scheme --- which one renowned investor called “rat poison squared” --- and now uses that info for an FBI get-out-of-jail-free card?

Rick suffers from CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which causes outbursts of rage. His wife, Leah, flees San Diego with their infant daughter fearing the rage episodes that may harm them. The CTE has restricted his income, the reason he accepts Stone’s $50,000 fee to find Angela.

As the body count climbs, Rick’s venues for survival evaporate like desert dew. A shoot-’em-up rivaling the finale of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid appears to be the end of his odyssey. Despite his ex-cop dad’s mantra of doing what’s right even when the rules say it’s wrong, Rick is hellbent on bringing fairness to an unfair San Diego.

The word “odyssey” is defined as a long and eventful journey or experience. Is this the end of Rick’s adventures? Astute readers may interpret the book's title to mean an end of private investigation in San Diego. What lies ahead in Santa Barbara, where his wife and daughter now reside? Don’t let your readers down, Mr. Coyle. Rick has become a friend. We need to know what’s in store for our buddy.