Perfect for hard-boiled PI and Noir fans who like a tainted hero living by his own code. Naomi Hendrix’s sexy voice hovering over the radio waves isn’t the only thing haunting the Southern California nights. A demented soul is stalking Naomi, hiding in the shadows of the night, waiting for the right moment to snatch her and fulfill a twisted fantasy. When Naomi’s radio station hires PI Rick … radio station hires PI Rick Cahill to protect Naomi and track down the stalker, he discovers that Naomi is hiding secrets about her past that could help unmask the man. However, before Rick can extract the truth from Naomi, he is thrust into a missing person’s case—an abduction he may have unwittingly caused. The investigating detective questions Rick’s motives for getting involved and pressures him to stop meddling. While Rick pursues Naomi’s stalker and battles the police, evil ricochets from his own past and embroils Rick in a race to find the truth about an old nemesis. Is settling the score worth losing everything?
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With Wrong Light, Matt Coyle is on top of his game and Rick Cahill ascends to the top ranks of the classic private eyes.
“Wrong Light” by Matt Coyle is part of The Rick Cahill series. Rick Cahill has a past, and the past never stays in the past. Coyle weaves details from previous books into the context of this story so new readers can get up to speed without endless pages of rehashing of old plots. Cahill’s first person narrative provides all the background anyone needs at the time it is needed.
Rick Cahill is a PI with a long and troubled history, but he seems to be adjusting to life and doing his job. He is trying to cope, trying to be competent, and attempting to accept responsibility for his past and his present. “My whole job depended on people acting differently in their secret lives than they did in public.”
“Wrong Light” opens with a voice that grabs readers as well as Cahill.
“Her voice, a low purr ripe with memories of long ago crushes, vibrated along the night’s spine. It pulled you close and whispered in your ear. You’re not alone. We’ll get through this. I won’t abandon you.” I’d listened to it on the radio during nighttime stakeouts. Nine til midnight. Five nights a week. 1350 Heart of San Diego on your AM dial. Naomi at Night. No last name. None needed. Her voice was all that mattered. And your imagination.”
The radio station had received an unusual fan letter; someone was threatening “Naomi at Night.” The police did not see the letter as a threat, but something was not right, so the station hired Cahill to find out what was going on.
Coyle pulls readers into Cahill’s world of uncertainty, doubt, and conflicting information. The narrative is casual, matter of fact, as if Cahill and the reader were sharing stories over dinner. He talks to readers and to himself; he shares his thoughts. Things do not always go well, and readers learn what he learns, question what he questions, and fear what he fears. Piece by piece information comes to light but that “light” brings more questions and few answers. Cahill seems to have enemies wherever he goes, and he uncovers only more lies and more secrets. “Maybe it was time to stop thinking. Was I wrong? Or maybe, I was wrong about everything.”
Coyle develops a sense of place with geographic details that astute readers can follow on Google maps. His shout out to football fans of “the Traitors— I mean, Chargers” immediately grounds the narrative in San Diego. The descriptions make such contributions that this would not be the same story if it were set somewhere else.
“The morning sun sparkled across the San Elijo Lagoon. The northern end of paradise. But paradise was just a pretty bow around the eighth largest city in the country that had its fair share of kooks and psychopaths. They just had golden suntans and blond hair.”
Coyle’s realism, logistics, action, and ordinary, tedious, and mundane things combine to make “Wrong Light” an incredibly normal and incredibly complicated book. I received a copy of “Wrong Light” from Matt Coyle, and Oceanview Publishing. The “wrong Light” shines on many characters in the book, but that “wrong light” falls mainly on Rick Cahill. Will there be a better light for Rick in the future? I hope so, and I cannot wait for the next book to find out.
It only goes to show that the hero does not have to be an alcoholic misanthrope to drive good noir.
Rick Cahill’s keen mind, clear eye, and open heart form the aperture through which he experiences, and is changed by, his battle with the darkest natures of mankind, hedonism, greed, apathy, and sadism. A good guy in a very bad land, who constantly struggles with an internal dilemma: his code versus his own survival. The question is: will he lose his soul?
I totally get it why Michael Connelly said about WRONG LIGHT: “With Wrong Light Matt Coyle is on top of his game and Rick Cahill ascends to the top ranks of the classic private eyes. Recommended for crime fiction readers who expect excellence. Once you read a Rick Cahill thriller, it’s easy to get hooked!
Another great adventure for P.I. Rick Cahill who is balancing two cases and trying to survive. Throw in a missing person case in which he might also be involved and he is in a world of trouble. He was hired to find out who is stalking Naomi Hendrix, a night radio talk show hostess. Naomi has a complicated history and at first doesn’t believe she has a stalker. Her story keeps changing and she has an “I can take care of myself” attitude, but soon realizes that she does need Rick’s help. At the same time a former threat, from his past, has come back to add to Rick’s troubles. He calls in help from one of his best friends and an unwilling F.B.I agent. The action is non-stop in this fifth book in the Rick Cahill series. Will Rick be able to protect Naomi? Will he be able to stay alive long enough to not only find the stalker, but put an end to the threat from his past? I received a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to give an honest review. (by paytonpuppy)
An equation involving everyone from the Russian mob to Irish travelers to ex-cops, Coyle’s Wrong Light is a fascinating, fast-paced, spidery-webbed novel.
Interesting, tight plot, with just enough twists to keep it interesting. Believable characters. A good story well told.
Runexspectef end
Got this on another author’s recommendation. Read it and find a new main character to follow. You will not be disappointed.
I am not yet finished. It is a little confusing at this point, though maybe the ending will tie things up.
First time reading this author. I will be back for more if his books.
Part pacy thriller and part fair-play puzzle, Wrong Light delivers, even if you read it as a page-turner alone. But delve a little deeper and there’s so much more. Coyle honours the gum-shoe tradition but confounds expectations; he both celebrates and laments masculinity; and he writes with respect of the price his hero pays for the life he lives.
PI Rick Cahill is hired by a radio station to protect Naomi Hendrix, the sultry voice that has everyone in awe on a nightly basis. It seems like she’s picked up a stalker who calls himself Pluto. He has a fantasy and he has a plan.
While Cahill accepts the job, he has misgivings about Naomi …. she seems to have secrets from her past that she’s not sharing.
Meanwhile a missing person puts him at odds with the police and then he gets a call from an old enemy … one that he owes a favor to.
While Rick pursues Naomi’s stalker and battles the police, evil ricochets from his own past and embroils Rick in a race to find the truth about an old nemesis. Is settling the score worth losing everything?
This is a well written, action-packed, page turner. Although 5th in a series, this reads well as a stand alone. I literally could not put this one down until I finished reading every single page .. I was riveted by the story and the action. There are twists and turns that seem to appear out of nowhere. I was not prepared for the surprising, yet fitting, ending.
Many thanks to the author / Oceanview Publishing / Netgalley / Edelweiss for the advanced digital copy of this crime fiction. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.