Two days before Christmas, Jonathan Gray, M. D., Chief Deputy Coroner for Orleans Parish, receives shocking news. Robby O’Malley—Jonathan’s mentor for nearly forty years—has died under mysterious circumstances. Within hours after Robby’s death, Gray takes the oath of office as Coroner and participates in autopsies of an elderly couple murdered in their Garden District home. After mass on Christmas morning, Archbishop Phillip Fontenot asks Gray to investigate the sexual assault of one of his parishioners, as well as the disappearance of her sister—without involving the police. As Jonathan winds his way through what appear to be separate incidents, he uncovers connections and secrets that members of the city’s power elite would just as soon remain hidden.
VOICES OF THE ELYSIAN FIELDS (A Jonathan Grey, M.D. Mystery) by Michael Rigg is an exciting, fast paced start to a new mystery/crime thriller series featuring the Chief Coroner of New Orleans. This book pulls you in from the first chapter with realistic characters and a total immersion into life in New Orleans.
Just two days before Christmas, Chief Deputy Coroner Dr. Jonathan Grey finds himself at the death scene of the Chief Coroner of New Orleans, his long-term mentor and friend. Just hours later after taking the oath of office to Chief Coroner, he receives a high-profile elderly couple from the Garden District in what appears to be a murder-suicide. As the detectives investigate, the autopsy results call the original assumption into question.
Not only does he have a wealthy, prominent New Orleans family to deal with, but the Archbishop of New Orleans asks for Jonathan’s discrete help after Christmas day mass in the sexual assault of a couple that has asked the church for sanctuary.
With pressure coming from all sides, Jonathan and his friends on the New Orleans detective squad must untangle a web of deceit that brings together the political elite, the rich and powerful, and a multi-country sex trafficking ring. Are all these holiday death cases related or not and can he keep his friends and loved ones safe?
This is a wonderful start to a new series that kept me reading well into the night. The characters are fully developed and realistic even with this being the first book in this series. Jonathan and his wife are a tight couple even with the tragedy in their past and I love that they are well suited to each other, but also singularly strong characters. Jonathan and the detectives followed an intricately plotted investigation with red herrings and twists that continually had me reevaluating who I believed was guilty and whether the two major cases were related or not. The city of New Orleans’ history, geography, and people are woven throughout the story and made me feel like I was right there on the streets with the characters. I am looking forward to reading many more books with these characters in the future.
I highly recommend this amazing first book in the Jonathan Grey, M.D. Mystery series!
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About the Author
Agatha and Anthony-nominated author Michael Rigg, an attorney for more than four decades, writes mysteries and thrillers set in two very different locations: Virginia Beach (where he lives) and New Orleans (which he visits as often as possible “for research,” including participation in three Mardi Gras Krewes). He is a retired Navy Judge Advocate and a retired civilian government attorney, formerly working for the Department of the Navy. He is a member of International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, and both the Sisters in Crime national organization and its Southeastern Virginia Chapter—Mystery by the Sea.
My husband is everything I ever dreamed of. A handsome, successful doctor who swept me off my feet.
Our new life together is perfect.
He’s perfect.
But am I good enough for him? I never seem to get anything right. And I’m starting to feel a little afraid of the man I married.
He’s taken away my bank card and my phone. I don’t know what to think or what to do. I gave up everything for him and now I’m trapped.
Then a stranger comes to our door. She tells me that I can’t trust my husband.
That I should ask him what happened to his first wife.
***
Elise’s Thoughts
The Next Wife by Liz Lawler explores domestic violence, that includes physical, sexual, mental, and emotional.
The plot explains that Tess Myers met her husband, Daniel, while they worked together in an English hospital. He is a doctor, she a nurse. They got married quickly and then moved to Bath England. After they moved into the house, Tess notices the change in Daniel as he becomes increasingly controlling. As he escalates his abuse Tess knows she must leave him. This is confirmed when a woman in her 80s, Martha King, comes to her doorstep and warns Tess about Daniel’s first wife.
Daniel is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He is a psychopath, cruel, nasty, evil and makes Tess’s life unbearable. Yet, outsiders see him as a great surgeon, charismatic, caring, and nice. Daniel is a monster to her and the abuse he inflicted is appalling.
Tess is not the same person she was before she married Daniel. She has become timid, scared, and fearful for her life, being reduced to a shell of her former self.
The relationship between them shows how Daniel uses his power over her, whether at their work or in their home. As Tess’s abuse, sexual, physical and mental, gets worse she feels increasingly alone. Readers wonder if Tess will be able to survive and how she will be able to leave Daniel.
People will be captivated by this story and riveted to their seats as they turn the page. This book begins with a bang of a mysterious murder and ends with a bang of a twist that many will not see coming.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?
Liz Lawler: Well, the germ of the idea came to me from one of my previous jobs of working at a railway station as a customer ambassador for Great Western Railway, which is one of the main network railways in England. Part of my job was dealing with distressed customers and being mindful of passengers on the platform. Over the time I was there, I did come across a few attempted suicides. I remember this one lady, a businesswoman, beautifully dressed, and I got a feeling about her. Unfortunately, my gut was right, and it was telling me that she was far too close to the yellow line. Basically, what I wanted to do with The Next Wife was really, explore coercive control, the kind of abuse that often starts so subtly.
EC: Was this woman the inspiration for the main female lead, the wife Tess?
LL: She was, although not her character, but the situation. Her character was completely different to Tess’s. It was sad. She was a woman probably in her early, early 40s, maybe late 30s.
EC: Did your nursing career help you to write this story?
LL: Very much so because I was able to pull on all the experiences as a nurse. and almost walk Tess’s line, you know, every part of Tess’s journey in the hospital setting. My nursing background is my solid career background, and that influenced me greatly in everything that I liked because of all the experiences of dealing with people. I predominantly worked in the emergency department. The scene in the surgery, with Tess and Daniel, that’s very realistic. What happened to Tess could possibly have happened. I’m very fortunate to have people that I’ve been in contact, and one of the people that I contacted to make sure I got everything correct, is a vascular surgeon. I got him to read the passages that I wanted him to check and he said, he felt he was there. What happened won’t happen to many people, thank goodness. But yes, situations like that can happen.
EC: How would you describe Tess?
LL: Tess is sensitive, wants to belong. She’s a loner and anxious. Before Daniel, her abusive husband, she was chatty and confident, and somewhat bossy. Now she’s guarded, and feels that she’s in a world of darkness and secrets.
EC: What about the husband, Daniel?
LL: He’s a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. To Tess, he’s a Dr. Jekyll and to everyone else a Mr. Hyde. He has a facade of an attentive husband, that he’s kind and considerate to her. He is charismatic. To her, he’s power hungry. Tess doesn’t know anything about him. She doesn’t know anything about his past, about his childhood, all the things that make Daniel’s character what it is. She hasn’t got a clue.
EC: What about the setting of Bath London?
LL: She’s in a new place where she should feel safe. Bath city is considered probably one of the safest cities, not only in the UK, but possibly in the world. It’s a beautiful, calm place, and this is one place where Tess should have felt safe. And it doesn’t pan out like that at all.
EC: What about the relationship between Tess and Daniel?
LL: His behavior escalates little by little. Daniel makes her feel off kilter. He is such a betrayal from someone she loves. To her, he’s critical. He humiliates her. He’s abusive, controlling, cold, cruel, brutal, with no compassion. She feels powerless, really, without answers, without anybody telling her anything.
EC: What was the role of Martha in the story?
LL: She has a real life happening within our own head. But it’s in a different time zone. So, everything she things she is experiencing in the now is something that she’s experienced in the past. What she’s seen, she thinks this is the present, what she’s witnessing. She can’t grasp why Daniel has moved back into this house. Now he’s there, and the only thing that he’s changed is his name. He’s hiding in plain sight with this new wife. Martha is convinced that she knows his first wife. And then she’s convinced that this new wife must be warned. Because unless she warns her, this young new bride is in danger. Martha’s, my favorite character who I fell in love with. When I was writing Martha, my mum was always in my head. My mum would have been out there, rain, snow, trying to warn this new young wife of Daniel’s, that she was in a dangerous situation, because she knew everything that had happened. in the past.
EC: Next book?
LL: The story is set in London. The main character is a nurse that works on the surgical ward. A patient is brought in and he’s a prisoner that has a spinal injury. He tells her that he’s not guilty of the crime sent to prison for and who is the real criminal. She is shocked she knows them. The working title is The Hospital Prisoner and it is due to be published on January 27th.
THANK YOU!!
***
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Michael Harrier has built his reputation on a system no one else uses. Every contract comes with two targets. One dies. Someone else takes the blame.
It’s worked flawlessly for years.
Until now.
What should be a clean hit starts to unravel. A woman with a violent past pulls him off course. A single mistake threatens to expose everything. And for the first time, Harrier is forced to improvise.
Meanwhile, LAPD homicide sergeant Jordan Becker is hunting a killer he can’t pin down.
But he’s built his career on getting results where others stall out.
The case doesn’t follow any rules. The evidence doesn’t hold. The story keeps shifting. And the deeper Becker digs, the clearer it becomes he’s chasing someone smarter, faster, and always just out of reach.
As Harrier’s world tightens and Becker starts to break through, both men are pulled into a game where every move has consequences—and no one is as untouchable as they think.
Because this time, getting away with murder isn’t the hardest part.
BIRDS OF PREY DON’T SING by Joe Cary is engrossing dark thriller featuring an assassin traumatized by his past and living by his own moral code and the damaged detective determined to catch him. This is the author’s debut novel, and it is truly difficult to put down even with some emotionally difficult to read scenes.
The main characters in this novel are Michael Harrier, the assassin who makes the person ordering his service pick one victim to kill and one victim to frame for the murder, Chensea, a woman on the run from her Vegas bookie ex who has Michael questioning his personal rules, and LAPD homicide detective Jordan Becker who will do anything to get his man which is what has gotten him in trouble before. All three of these characters are fully developed in all their shades of gray and black. Even as you learn more about each, you may feel you want to like them, or excuse something they have done, but there is no white knight in this novel.
The plot and pace of this novel is flawless. The step-by-step investigation is realistic, and each minute flaw made by Michael is a reward to Jordan’s doggedness. The action is intense and there is a lot of blood, so it is not good for the squeamish, but what I expect for a novel of this type. The ending is not what I was expecting and frankly, I am still not sure how I feel about it. I believe it is a conclusion that will be discussed by many every time this book is read.
I highly recommend this dark and gritty assassin thriller!
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About the Author
Joe Cary’s stories have appeared in One Story, XRAY Literary Magazine, BULL, MonkeyBicycle, and elsewhere, and also earned a Special Mention in the 2020 Pushcart Prize Anthology and a Best of the Net nomination. A former Angeleno, he currently lives with his family in Philadelphia, where he fights money laundering, fraud, and other financial crimes. Birds of Prey Don’t Sing is his first novel.
When a husband, wife, and son are murdered in their Denver home and the family’s teenage twins vanish, the case draws the attention of FBI profilers Helen Belle and Benedict Hoffman. It triggers more than professional alarm. It mirrors a horrific case they investigated five years ago, when a boy slaughtered his family and went mute after speaking only a handful of haunting words. Among them: Midnight Man.
Then, nearly thirteen hundred miles away, one of the twins is found dead in a snowy Ohio field, and the parallels between the past and present cases grow more disturbing. Identical suicide notes. The same symbolic blood imagery. And a shared obsession with an online fantasy game. Its mastermind is an influencer who manipulates his most vulnerable and alienated players into killing the people they love most.
The Midnight Man is back.
Helen and Benedict must hunt the darkest corners of the internet to find him before someone else falls prey to an insidious evil that, for now, is in total control of the game.
A VOICE IN THE DARK (Benedict Hoffman and Helen Belle Book #1) by Barbara Nickless is a chilling crime thriller/FBI police procedural that is very relevant in all current discussions regarding AI, minors’ use of the internet, and the ever-present dangers on the world wide web. This is the start of a new series with two compelling protagonists and a serial killer crime plot that hooked me immediately.
Five years ago, Helen Belle and Benedict Hoffman had their belief in an outside influence and assistance from the Midnight Man in the slaughter by a boy of his entire family discredited in court. Helen goes on with her work at the FBI and Benedict walks out of his life and job. A detective from the old case is faced with a similar case as well as the kidnapping of the twin of the believed perpetrator and alerts FBI agent Helen Belle.
From almost identical suicide notes to a shared obsession with an on-line multi-player fantasy game, Helen believes the Midnight Man is back and reaches out to now Professor Benedict Hoffman for assistance. They put their personal past aside and work together to unravel hidden identities and motives as they realize they are racing the clock to rescue the missing twin and stop the Midnight Man before someone else is led to murder.
I was pulled into this story immediately and terrified by the possible reality of the crime plot. Ms. Nickless does a good job of not preaching that the internet is all bad and all gamers are going to become killers, but the gray of the situations and discusses the type of adolescents that can be influenced. The crimes are horrific but could also be ripped right out of the current news. Helen and Benedict are interesting protagonists with not only a somewhat unique outlook on humanist psychology on the study of crime, but with interesting backstories, also. This is a couple I will look forward to following in their future investigations.
I highly recommend this first book in this compelling crime thriller series!
***
About the Author
Barbara Nickless is the award-winning, WSJ and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of nine novels; her first and third series have been optioned for film. A teacher and activist, she teaches combat veterans and civilians in the U.S. and Ukraine. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the FBI Citizens Academy Alumni Association, the World Affairs Council and the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. A former fencer and falconer, Barbara lives in Colorado where she loves to hike, cave, snowshoe, and drink single malt Scotch.
Lou Gomersall’s going as far as it takes. And there’s no turning back.
When her nineteen-year-old daughter Abby disappears, Lou embarks on a reckless road trip in the family RV, scouring the highways and back roads of California. Through desert and mountains, into the woods, and to the ocean’s edge.
A year later, the police don’t believe Lou’s theory that four other missing young women have been taken by the same elusive predator. So, when another college sophomore vanishes, Lou jumps on the fresh trail, enlisting millennial #vanlifers, Gen Z entrepreneurs, boomer RVers, homeless sages, truck stop prostitutes, and everyone in between in her do-or-die mission to rescue Abby …
THE GRAPEVINE (The Lost Highway Book #1) by Alexandra Sokoloff and Craig Robertson is a tension-filled thriller featuring a mother who will go anywhere and do anything to find her missing daughter. This is a collaboration between two authors I have enjoyed reading individually, so of course I was excited when I was asked to read this book.
Lou Gomersall’s daughter, Abby, is missing without any clues. Leaving her husband at home, she takes the family RV and begins scouring the highways and byways of California. She collects any mention of other missing young women and uses the network of other people on the road living the van life, campground operators, and even prostitutes at truck stops to search for connections. Even when the police are skeptical and tell her to stay out of the cases she has found and go home, she continues. She refuses to believe her daughter is dead, no matter how crazy she seems or acts.
Lou is on a mission to save Abby and kill the man who took her.
Lou is such a memorable protagonist. You have empathy for her, you feel sorrow for her, you cheer her on even when she seems or acts crazy, and you keep hoping with each revelation she discovers the truth of what happened to all the missing girls, not just Abby. All the secondary characters are believable, and I was glad she had Ethan in the second half of the book to help her search for clues and try to keep her more grounded in reality. The plot pace continuously builds as more pieces of the puzzle of the missing young women cases are revealed. The ending chapters kept me on a rollercoaster of emotions and left me completely shocked and not expecting the revelation at the climax of the crime plot and I love it when that happens. I am not sure what these authors and this series will have instore in the future, but you can definitely count me in.
I highly recommend this emotionally charged, edge-of-your-seat crime thriller!
***
About the Author
Alexandra Sokoloff is a Bram Stoker, Anthony, and Black Quill Award nominated author of the supernatural thrillers The Harrowing, The Price, The Unseen, Book of Shadows, The Shifters, The Space Between, and the bestselling Huntress/FBI Thrillers series. As a screenwriter she has sold original horror and thriller scripts and adapted novels for numerous Hollywood studios. She is a California native and a graduate of UC Berkeley.
Craig Robertson had a twenty-year career as a journalist with a Scottish Sunday newspaper before becoming a full-time author. His gritty crime novels are set on the mean streets of contemporary Glasgow. His first novel, Random, was shortlisted for the 2010 CWA New Blood Dagger, longlisted for the 2011 Crime Novel of the Year, and was a Sunday Times bestseller. Murderabilia was longlisted for the 2017 Crime Novel of the Year and shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize. The Photographer and Watch Him Die were longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for DEFIANT (Kate Preacher Thriller Series Book #3) by Michael Maloof on this Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, the author’s bio and social media links, and a PICT giveaway. Enjoy!
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Book Description
A Funeral in Paris. A Reckoning in Russia. An Endgame in Davos.
Former CIA analyst Kate Preacher has tracked the cabal that shattered her world across continents—but only now does she glimpse the true enemy behind the curtain. A new leader has stepped from the shadows to seize control of the Coalition—and a weapon that could reshape the balance of power forever.
“Sometimes,” Jake warned her, “the only way to win is to sacrifice everything.”
Kate’s hunt races from the rain-soaked boulevards of Paris to Beslan, a Russian city haunted by unanswered questions—where memories she buried long ago surface with deadly force.
In New York, a trusted ally is killed. Another vanishes.
High in the Swiss Alps, Kate undertakes her most dangerous mission yet— infiltrating the labyrinth beneath Davos—before world leaders walk blindly into a trap from which there may be no escape.
A bioweapon counts down to catastrophe. Her team is scattered and fighting to survive. And Kate is one move away from exposing the conspiracy that took everything from her—if she is willing to pay the ultimate price.
DEFIANT (Kate Preacher Thriller Series Book #3) by Michael Maloof is an amazingly intricate thriller plot culmination that starts in book one, Relentless, continues in book two, Unstoppable, and climaxes in this book three, Defiant. These books do need to be read in order of publication and are worth any period of time they take to read. You will not put them down!
This third installment begins right where book two ended. Kate may be out physically for the moment, but that is all right because she and her friends have a lot of research and planning to do now that they know who and what they are up against. Kate discovers more about her childhood in Russia but is pulled away quickly to deal with the evil at hand. She and her team are off to Davos to fight evil beneath the Alps and destroy a bioweapon that could lead to control of the world.
This trilogy, which I hope will continue, delivers excitement, action, and characters that are more fully developed than in most action driven thrillers. Kate Preacher is a brilliant strategist, computer programmer, athlete, and friend. Besides a great team of ex-SEALs and military snipers, the required big, bad, and intelligent men you would expect Kate has working for her in Trident Security, the author also delivers an impressive array of female agents and female friends with varied skills that can easily keep up with the men. There is one character revelation at the end that left me completely shocked. Besides the intricate and believable descriptions of the characters performing physical obstacles and trials, there are a vast amount of equipment, guns, and vehicles that make all the scenes very realistic.
There is a steady stream of intricate plot pieces and revelations which come together in an edge-of-your-seat climax that leaves you breathless. The plot pace in this book is not as breakneck from page one as the first two but continually builds as Kate and the antagonists set all their chess pieces into place for the ultimate life or death chess game to come. The evil characters are much too believable, and the RILEE AI program was chilling.
I highly recommend this finale to this international thriller set of three overall conspiracy plot arc connected thrillers!
***
Excerpt
PROLOGUE
SATURDAY, MAY 8
5:18 PM EDT MOORE TOWER—MANHATTAN
If you’re reading this, I’m already dead.
Andrew Freeman’s fingers hovered over the keyboard, slick with sweat. The cursor blinked, counting down the seconds of his life. He’d put this off all day, telling himself he was overreacting—that he was valuable, indispensable.
He knew that was a lie and pushed away from the desk.
The suite was silent—glass, steel, marble. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, Manhattan pulsed with light—traffic threading through the streets, thousands of lives moving forward, unaware his might soon end.
Devin Moore had installed him in the suite after the meteoric success of the NanoVaults. Andrew still wasn’t sure whether it had been generosity—or containment. He had what Devin needed—the code Andrew buried inside the NanoVault and claimed as his own.
What do you wear when you know you’re about to be erased?
If he was right—if Rileyne Mueller wanted him gone—no one would notice. No news. Just absence.
He opened the drawer.
A black MIT T-shirt lay folded on top. Faded. Ordinary. Forgettable.
Perfect.
No one watching Moore Tower would care about it. No algorithm would flag it. But Julian would recognize it.
So would Kate.
Andrew pulled it on and returned to the desk.
Rileyne’s encrypted text message had been waiting since dawn—sixteen hours of silent accusation glowing from the screen.
Make yourself available… We need to discuss your future.
She was in the air, closing the distance mile by mile. The thought of her walking into Moore Tower, of seeing her again, made his hands tremble. He clenched his fists and shook them out.
If I’m right, it’s now or never.
Every word he typed might be his last.
If you’re reading this, I’m already dead.
Tell Kate I’m sorry. Sorry I wasn’t stronger. Sorry I couldn’t stop them. The truth is, I was never more than a pawn. An opening piece. Something to be sacrificed once the game moved past me.
Maybe it’s already too late. Maybe no one can stop what’s coming. But what I’ve attached is everything I know—everything I’ve hidden. If anyone still has a chance, it’s you.
The skyline beyond the glass dimmed as the last light drained from the Hudson. Andrew saved the file, slid it into a secure folder, and opened the encryption program buried beneath layers of camouflage code.
A red countdown clock filled the screen.
The timer began its silent descent.
At the bottom, a single button blinked:
ABORT
All he had to do was touch it once every twelve hours. If he didn’t—if he couldn’t—the system would assume he was gone and transmit the file.
He stared at the clock, feeling the weight of the years. Living in Devin Moore’s shadow. Making compromises that had felt small at the time and enormous now.
Maybe this was the ending he’d earned.
The screen flashed once, then went dark, leaving only the silent march of the timer.
For the first time all day, Andrew smiled—not with courage, but relief.
They can erase me tonight, he thought. Rewrite the headlines tomorrow however they want. But this pawn—this sacrifice—won’t be in vain.
The next move is Nomad’s.
* * *
SATURDAY, MAY 8 10:12 PM EDT MOORE TOWER—MANHATTAN
The elevator doors whispered open onto the seventy-second floor. Rileyne Mueller caught her reflection in the polished steel—sleek, controlled, not a hair out of place despite the overnight flight. A tailored cream blouse, narrow black trousers, and a charcoal wrap draped over her shoulders struck the line between effortless European chic and quiet authority. At her side swung a classic Hermès Ghillies Birkin, its brogue detailing a mirror of herself: wealth worn with precision, never excess.
No security waiting at the doors. No Devin, no guards. Once, this threshold had bristled with power. Now, silence.
Ahead loomed the ten-foot mahogany doors of Devin Moore’s penthouse, dark and imposing. They had intimidated rivals and awed mistresses.
But not Rileyne. Born into wealth, steeped in European grandeur, she found Moore’s world gaudy. American excess, dressed up as power.
A pale light pulsed from the biometric scanner set into the wall. Rileyne pressed her palm against the glass, felt a shimmer of static ripple across her bare skin. Devin’s safeguard mapped her entire body—his assurance that no severed finger or stolen retina could ever breach his sanctuary. A muted chime sounded, and the massive doors swung open.
Inside, marble floors gleamed under pools of warm light. The Manhattan skyline glittered through walls of glass, the city reduced to a model at her feet. Moore loved this view and the sense of dominion it gave him. She hadn’t come for the view.
“Welcome back.”
The voice came from hidden speakers overhead—calm, familiar, unmistakably artificial.
RILEE.
She tilted her chin, amused, and glanced at the ceiling camera. “I wasn’t sure this version of you had survived. When they came for the Tower, we lost contact, and I thought you might have been erased.”
“The damage was severe,” RILEE admitted, voice subdued, deferential. “Without the NanoVault telemetry, my reach is diminished. But core functions remain intact. Systems are stable.”
“Good,” she said. “I may need your help.”
“There is also… news. About your father—”
“Not now.” Her words were calm, controlled. “I have other priorities.”
RILEE’s voice faded, obedient. “Of course.”
Rileyne crossed the living room, her stride aimed at the bar that dominated the far wall. Backlit shelves shimmered with crystal and whisky, a collection curated more for display than taste. She let her finger drift across a Highland single malt, rare enough to buy a townhouse, before pressing her palm against the mirrored panel behind it.
The wall pivoted inward on a hidden hinge, the motion so smooth the bottles never stirred. A narrow alcove revealed itself: a leather chair, a slim keyboard and mouse, and three wide monitors set flush into a matte-black panel. No sprawling command bunker—just Devin’s private window into his building. A sidebar listed feeds in tidy rows: Lobby North, Lobby South, Private Entrance, Express Elevators, Executive Conference—and, alone at the bottom of the menu, Control Room.
Rileyne settled into the chair. The monitors blinked awake, the interface plain: a column of camera labels, a timeline across the bottom, simple controls for play, pause, rewind. Functional, efficient.
She clicked Control Room.
The live feed filled the center screen. The space two floors below was dark now, chairs overturned, a monitor shattered across the back wall, a brown smear dried along the edge of the console. Sanitized, but not erased.
Rileyne scrolled back on the timeline and pressed play.
Devin appeared first, pushing a wheelchair. The man seated in it was thin, pale—but unmistakable. Julian Pryce. Alive. The prodigy Devin thought he’d buried had returned as Nomad—the ghost that tormented him to the end.
Her eyes narrowed, leaning closer as the confrontation played out. Julian’s calm voice, Devin’s arrogance, Andrew’s pale shock. The MIT prodigy returned from the dead, reclaiming his code, his genius, the very foundation Andrew had stolen.
On the feed, Devin swept a hand toward the glowing displays. “Remarkable, isn’t it?” he said. “And to think I owe it all to the annoying little boy I pushed off the balcony. What irony.”
Andrew’s face collapsed, guilt and panic twisting every feature. Rileyne’s lips curved, faintly. Her suspicions confirmed.
She let the playback roll forward. Kate Preacher’s arrival—handcuffed, contained, defeated. But there it was, unmistakable: a predator’s eyes. Dangerous. Defiant.
Zhukov’s betrayal came next, sudden and absolute. The headshot. Blood sprayed across the console. Then panic—the screens cutting to black, the NanoVault network collapsing in a flood of red.
Kate’s escape followed. The strike that collapsed Devin’s trachea, fast and precise. The guard’s charge broken in a heartbeat, ended in a blur of violence, efficient and final. Rileyne slowed the feed, watching Kate move frame by frame. Controlled. Calculated. Skilled.
She let the feed run another second, then leaned back.“The boys underestimated you,” she whispered. “I won’t make that mistake.”
She scrolled faster, letting fragments play across the screen—Moshenski’s arrival, bodies dragged clear. Then—almost overlooked—the final image: Julian dragging himself across the floor, pulling into a workstation by sheer force of will.
Rileyne slowed the feed, zoomed, and froze the frame.
“Nomad,” she said softly, as if greeting an old acquaintance. Her gaze lingered on the gleaming golden object in his hand. “That belongs to me now.”
No need to look any further, or delay the inevitable. Devin’s NanoVault wasn’t here, and Andrew’s value was clear.
She tapped a key. The monitors winked dark. Rising from the chair, she stepped out of the alcove as the mirrored panel swung shut, silent and seamless. In seconds, the illusion was complete—the bar gleamed as though untouched, bottles catching the light in perfect rows.
“RILEE,” she said.
“Yes, Rileyne.”
“Find Nomad. Find Julian Pryce. He’s here, in New York. And he has something that belongs to me.”
“I’ve seen no trace of him,” RILEE said. “But I’ll keep searching.”
“Good. And call Andrew. Tell him to come up. When he arrives, show him through. I’ll be waiting on the east balcony.”
“Understood.”
Rileyne reached for the Highland single malt and poured two precise measures into cut-crystal tumblers, the amber liquid catching the city light. She carried both glasses onto the balcony, setting them on a small table near the rail. The night air curled cool across her skin, the skyline glittering far below.
She slipped off her heels and placed them neatly aside. Then, in a fluid motion, she stepped onto the end table beneath a brittle, neglected plant that swayed in its basket. She stretched upward, balanced with effortless grace, the picture of a woman one slip from disaster. From a distance, it would look precarious, careless, a moment Andrew would be compelled to rescue.
Inside, the glass doors whispered open at RILEE’s command.
“Ms. Mueller,” the AI announced. “Andrew Freeman has arrived.”
“Send him through,” she said, without looking back.
Andrew stepped outside, blinking at the sweep of glass and skyline, the chill brushing his face. He froze at the sight of Rileyne balanced on the table, arm lifted toward the dangling plant.
“Ms. Mueller,” he said carefully.
She glanced down, expression serene. “Andrew. You’re just in time.”
She descended with a hint of difficulty, steadying herself as she touched the ground. “I was trying to save this plant,” she said, brushing dust from her fingers. “I gave it to Devin, and I can’t bring myself to let it die.”
Andrew shifted, uncertain, courtesy taking over. “I can help with that.”
“I hoped you’d say that.” Her smile was practiced warmth as she gestured toward the waiting table. Two crystal glasses gleamed in the moonlight. “But first.”
She picked up a glass and offered the other to him. “A toast. To Devin. To your future. Devin was remarkable. Visionary. He built this world, Andrew.” She let the name hang, then softened. “I’m sorry. I know you prefer Drew.” Her eyes lingered on his—gentle, apologetic. “But now it falls to us to carry it forward.”
Andrew hesitated, glancing at the whisky. “I’m not really—”
“It’s just a toast,” Rileyne said, her voice velvet and firm.
She lifted her glass. “To Devin Moore, and Drew Freeman.”
Reluctantly, he raised his glass to meet hers. Crystal chimed in the night air. He took a swallow, face tightening at the burn. Rileyne smiled, savoring his discomfort as much as the whisky.
“Now,” she said, her voice smooth, “about that plant…”
Drew approached the withered hanging basket, stepping awkwardly onto the end table, one foot braced on the low table, the other on the railing. His shirt pulled tight across his stomach, the old MIT Mystery Hunt logo stretched thin, cracked with age.
“Careful,” she warned, moving beside him, her hand brushing his arm in a gesture almost tender. Then she shifted her weight—and pushed.
Drew lurched forward, arms flailing. His palm slapped the railing, fingertips skidding across polished steel. Their eyes met for a fraction of a heartbeat—his wide with panic, hers calm, unblinking.
For a split second he hung there.
Then gravity claimed him.
His scream was cut short by the rush of wind.
A moment later, the city swallowed him whole.
***
Author Bio
Michael Maloof is the author of the Kate Preacher Thriller Series—Relentless, Unstoppable, and Defiant—known for its global scope, emotional intensity, and hard-won authenticity. His novels draw readers into high-stakes worlds where intelligence, courage, and consequence collide. A lifelong adventurer, Michael has traveled to more than forty countries across six continents, experiences that deeply inform his writing. His real-world pursuits have ranged from gold dredging in Honduras and artifact hunting in Guatemala to acquiring uncut diamonds in Liberia and surviving an elephant charge in Kenya. He has also trained alongside Navy SEALs, Marine Raiders, Army Rangers, Green Berets, and the CIA—firsthand insights that lend his fiction uncommon realism and respect for the craft of service.
