Review by Booklist Review
It's been two years since drug lord Sammy Sykes murdered PI Nils Shapiro's wife, and Nils' desire for retribution has only strengthened with time. While Nils visits Sykes' daughter, a disgraced ex-cop, in prison, a guard catches his attention and sets the wheels in motion for exacting his revenge. From here, readers are taken on a wild ride, as charmingly stubborn Nils finds himself embroiled in two mysteries: finding Sykes and finding the missing husband of an enchanting stranger he meets on a plane. While the cases aren't connected, they both result in Nils reaching an impasse. The changes Nils undergoes throughout this book are both positive and negative, but at his core, he remains driven by his loyalty to those he loves most. The fifth book in Goldman's Nils Shapiro series, following Dead West (2020), can be read as a stand-alone, but those starting here will miss some of the backstory. A somewhat dark, often humorous, and entertaining escapist read.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Goldman's taut fifth thriller featuring Nils Shapiro (after Dead West) finds the private investigator out for revenge against Midwestern drug dealer Sammy Sykes, who killed his wife, Minneapolis police chief Gabriella Shapiro, two years ago. Despite vigorous efforts to track him down, Sykes remains at large. Frustrated by the cops' lack of progress, Nils takes matters into his own hands by meeting with Sykes's daughter, Anna, who served as a mole on the police force for her father and has since been put behind bars. Afterward, Nils tangles with one of Sykes's men who'd wormed his way onto the prison staff, then unravels a conspiracy that takes him all the way to Amsterdam, where the drug lord may be hiding. En route to the novel's operatic conclusion, Goldman serves up provocative information about the late Gabriella that smartly complicates the series' stakes. Brisk pacing and breathless action make this a good bet for fans of Harlan Coben. Agent: Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary. (Dec.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Two years after his wife's death, private investigator Nils Shapiro is finally poised to find and punish her killer. Most people know Sammy Sykes as a celebrity pitchman, but Nils knows him as the drug lord who ordered the hit on Gabriella Nuñez, the Minneapolis police chief who was his wife and colleague. Now that he's gotten a huge payout, retired from the force, and returned to Stone Arch Investigations with his old friend Anders Ellegaard, Nils is intent on making Sammy pay the price. During his supervised visit with Sammy's daughter, dirty ex-cop Anna Sykes, Nils notices a subtle tell that prison guard William Schmiechen is on Sammy's payroll, and that's all it takes to start him on a trail of criminal contacts that winds from Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Munich before ending in Salzburg. Along the way, he mentions to wealth manager Casey Van der Ven, who's sitting next to him on a transatlantic flight, that he's a private eye, and when she asks him to find her missing husband, cheese importer Ivan Dijkstra, the tale moves decisively into Jack Reacher territory, as Nils pursues one case that's come to him out of nowhere and another that couldn't be more personal. Confronting Sammy under less than ideal circumstances, he's ready to let him off the hook until his quarry threatens his 6-year-old daughter, Evelyn. From that point on, there's no going back. Goldman piles on the complications and unwinds the mysteries in a taut, grimly humorous first-person narrative that explains his title better than any single incident in the story. Perfect reading for an airplane, foreign hotel, or anywhere else you have a few hours to enliven. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
