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Clay Wolfe, the nattily-dressed, roguishly-charming, ex-Boston-homicide-cop-turned-PI, is unfurling; growing up – expanding his reach (both emotionally and professionally) into thornier, darker and more challenging arenas – a fascinating budding shift for this already top-notch PI crime series.

Book 3 in the Clay Wolfe story, – situated amongst miles of pristine coastline embracing “sweeping views” of the Atlantic Ocean, the picturesque town of Port Essex and its rugged neighboring seaside, – sees Clay locking horns with his most chilling adversaries yet: the ethically-explosive field of genome (DNA) engineering, personified by some of the creepiest psychopaths one imaginative author could possibly dream up.

As he wrestles with lost love and his own burgeoning mid-life yearnings, Clay’s newest investigations spiral to include a top-secret laboratory security breach, mysterious Russians, missing and perhaps dismembered persons, a hideously-evil underworld “fixer”, corporate shenanigans and a crime and body count which shifts into life-threatening for Clay and his team as they battle situations rapidly escalating from ominous to downright deadly.

This motley team, surely the wildest assortment of crime-fighting partners to grace the pages of a crime series, permeates the pages with their colorful banter – including Monty Python references and so many weak and bordering-on-lewd puns that this reader found herself playing along – encouraging us by their camaraderie to settle in again and visit with old friends (albeit of the heavily-armed, impossibly-courageous and Navy Seal military-trained variety).

(Readers Note and Callout: My personal favorite of the team has to be Crystal. Who could not love a tiny, foul-mouthed, zebra-striped-dress-wearing, helmet-haired ex-heroin addict, now Clay’s admin-assistant, who is as raw and gutsy as she is oddly-endearing? In this reader’s eyes, Crystal is a gem in the making.)

Are we destined to perpetuate the sins of our heritage?

How far would each of us go to ensure the safety and good heath of our progeny? And their progeny?

As the author grapples with the big issues – it becomes clear (and increasingly ironic) that fighting crime, itself a violently-selective endeavor, often honed by military training, is not immune to the very-same ethical quagmire perpetuated by crime itself.

Is eliminating the “bad”, the same thing as supporting “the good”? And who occupies the “Godly” position of delineating sides?

No spoilers here, you will need to read this wonderful edition to an always-compelling series to find out more.

A great big thank you to the author for an ARC of this book.

All thoughts presented are my own.