| A relatively new author, Thomas B. Cavanagh writes a good detective story. He lives in Central Florida and uses this as the locale for his three books, Murderland, Head Games, and Prodigal Son. He won the Florida Book Awards Gold Medal 2007 for popular fiction with Head Games.
While Murderland stands by itself, Head Games and Prodigal Son start a new series that will keep the reader’s attention. Mike Garrity, a former police detective plays the main protagonist in both stories. In Prodigal Son, Garrity has survived the removal of his brain tumor, and now must figure out what to do with his new found life. He tries his hand at being a Private Investigator, and soon finds himself working on two investigations.
Garrity’s investigations include a teen suicide and a missing computer geek mixed with some corruptible politicians, crooked developers, grifters, drugs, a hurricane named Lorraine. Cavanagh manages to incorporate all of the bad side of Florida into a well written private investigator story. Cavanagh provides Garrity with a totally dysfunctional family life including two ex-wives Becky and Cam, and his daughter Jennifer. The fine mix of bad guys and family tension keep the protagonist from achieving super hero status. Nothing like dealing with some teen age daughter complications after an adrenaline laced car chase to keep a protagonist believable.
Cavanagh writes an unpredictable story with good character development and action. He keeps the reader guessing as he provides scenes of fist fights, car chases, and shoot outs. He also provides intermittent romance, and family strife. I found the characters enjoyable and the plot believable. No story ruining surprises along the way, and consistency between the two books, but yet the story line did not become predictable. I hope Cavanagh follows with a third book in the series.
Bruce G. Smith 3/25/2009
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