Mortal Dilemma

February 15, 2016
In Griffin’s busy 10th Matt Royal mystery (after 2015’s Chasing Justice), two people close to Matt are in jeopardy—his lover, J.D. Duncan, a detective with the Longboat Key, Fla., PD, and his best friend, Jock Algren, a top agent for a secret U.S. government agency. J.D. travels to the Florida panhandle to get new information about a three-year-old cold case murder. Back in Longboat Key, a professional assassin hired by a shady PI in Tallahassee waits for her return. Meanwhile in Key West, an unknown shooter wounds Jock, who has been feeling severely depressed after his last spy mission went awry. Matt and J.D. fly to Key West to visit Jock. At the hospital where he’s recovering, Jock tells Matt he thinks his shooting was just a ploy to lure Matt and J.D. to Key West. J.D. and Matt make a formidable pair of reluctant killers as they take on terrorists seeking revenge on Jock. The unwieldy plot careens to a bloody climax.

Starred review from April 1, 2016

The family you have and the one you make are everything. Griffin's tenth Matt Royal novel (after Chasing Justice) finds the ex-lawyer trying to help Jock Algren, a friend who has fallen into an emotional pit of self-loathing and despair after his latest secretive antiterrorism government assignment. Meanwhile, Royal's girlfriend, Det. J.D. Duncan, is investigating the deathbed confession of a murdered man that may also shed light on a cold case homicide. On her way home, Duncan is run off the road and shot at in an assassination attempt. Soon Royal realizes that someone is also trying to kill him. Are these incidents linked? Does this have anything to do with Algren's previous job that he won't talk about? Algren doesn't care if he lives or dies, but someone cares very much about making him live through the deaths of those he loves. VERDICT The action is fast paced, the characters dynamic, and the Key West, FL, setting adds a colorful backdrop to this edge-of-your-seat story. Highly recommended for thriller fans who enjoy the works of David Baldacci.--Susan Moritz, Silver Spring, MD

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