Doomed Legacy, the ninth book in Coyle’s Rick Cahill private investigator series, reads well as a stand-alone book with just enough back story splashed in to orient the reader. Cahill is not on the best of terms with the local law enforcement stemming from days when he was the primary suspect for his wife’s murder. His life seems to be turning around: he’s reconciling with his good friend, Turk, after a major disagreement; his girlfriend, Leah, who saw him through being shot in the face in Santa Barbara, is now his wife and they have a toddler daughter; in addition, a fellow PI, Moira, has worked with Cahill on a few cases and pitches in with this case. He’s now seeing a neurologist regarding some changes in the way his brain is functioning and learns he has CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) from multiple concussions during his years of playing sports and being beaten up as a private investigate and cop.
Cahill is a great wounded hero, and Coyle does a superb job of capturing Cahill’s efforts to deal with his new diagnosis. Cahill—a moody PI, tough, hard-boiled, and unapologetic—has been side-tracked by his wife and is doing only background checks for employers. Doomed Legacy centers around the murder of a woman who talks to Rick about possible abnormalities in the handling of the company’s background checks—critical because that company also works with the Defense Department. The reader is immediately taken on a whirlwind tour of the West Coast as Cahill moved from San Diego to Santa Barbara to Monterrey while tracking down multiple plot lines: a serial rapist, the DOD employee background checks, police coverups, and Chinese spies.
So far I’ve read half of this series and will definitely continue working through the remainder.
********************
Doomed Legacy (Oceanview Publishing, November 15, 2022) is available through:
********************
The remaining books in the Rick Cahill series can be found at these same outlets.
You can see my reviews for Blind Vigil here.
********************
This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn a small amount from qualifying purchases.
