January 2, 2012
In Edgar-winner King’s captivating sixth Max Freeman thriller (after 2007’s Acts of Nature), the Florida PI, formerly a Philadelphia street cop, agrees to help nurse Luz Carmen, a whistle-blower in a case concerning the theft of Medicare and Medicaid patient numbers. Luz fears more for the life of her brother, who’s delivering the numbers to the crooks in the fraud scheme, than for her own. Max also has to worry about protecting his detective girlfriend, Sherry Richards, to whom a troubled deputy has given the names of some shady associates. Max and Luz wind up hiding in the Everglades, where Max finds solace (“the leaving of noise and machinery and stops signs and unnatural lighting... calms even the most turbulent soul”). Sharp characterization and the vivid picture of South Florida’s dwindling natural treasures more than compensate for a standard plot involving police treachery. Agent: Philip Spitzer, Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency.