Our authors are avid readers, too! Suanne Schafer, the acclaimed author of A DIFFERENT KIND OF FIRE and HUNTING THE DEVIL, regularly posts book reviews on her website. Here’s what she had to say about fellow NovelNetwork author Matt Coyle‘s recent release, BLIND VIGIL:
Blind Vigil is the seventh book in Coyle’s Rick Cahill private investigator series, but 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. He has one good male friend, Turk, who becomes involved in the murder of his fiancée. In book six, Cahill is shot in the face and nearly loses his life. He recovers but has lost his vision.
The secondary characters are well-developed. Cahill has a new girlfriend, Leah, who has seen him through the long road to recovery and learning to live with his blindness—all while running her interior decorating business in Santa Barbara. In addition, a fellow PI, Moira, has worked with Cahill on a few cases. These are the primary characters in Blind Vigil.
Cahill is a great wounded hero, and Coyle does a superb job of capturing Cahill’s efforts to deal with his lost eyesight, showing how he becomes reliant on his other senses and counts steps and uses his cane to get around. Cahill is a moody PI, tough, hard-boiled, and unapologetic, in the tradition of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. His loyalty to his friends can blind him (ha!) to the truth. I enjoyed Blind Vigil enough that I’ll have to backtrack to read books one through six.
Both Matt Coyle and Suanne Schafer are available to visit with book clubs via NovelNetwork.com.