HOPE DIES LAST

Investigators Callie James and Cash Logan are back in action to locate a stolen Venezuelan fortune in Weissbourd’s latest series entry.

This fourth novel starring professional and romantic partners Cash and Callie is a high-stakes thriller that journeys to the glittering shores of Miami and the shadowy corridors of global finance and corruption. In a gripping prologue, a journalist, Luis, comes to his cousin Alvaro’s South Beach nightclub with a flash drive containing a photo that may be connected to the theft of $350 million from Venezuela’s military. Within hours, Luis is dead; Alvaro’s wife, Sara, is brutally attacked; and Cash, who’s Sara’s father, and Callie are drawn back into an investigative career they thought they’d left behind. Soon, they discover the stolen money has been funneled into Florida real estate developments through lawyer Alberto Leon and his client, Stanley White. Cash and Callie’s team includes Cash’s daughter, Sara, and two trusted allies, the Macher and Andre. Together, along with a Miami police detective named Rafael, they unravel a conspiracy involving international crime, betrayal, greed, and power. By the novel’s end, the team has suffered emotional loss at the hands of a violent adversary who employs arson, kidnappings and murder. An epilogue and afterword wrap up the fates of the characters, including an unexpected twist that has one of the main villains on the loose again. Weissbourd’s background as a film producer is on full display in a novel that often feels cinematic in scope. Scenes alternate between moments of explosive violence and intimate family reflection, giving emotional weight to the constant peril. Each scene unfolds with dialogue-driven tension and richly textured locales; Miami’s nightlife and South Beach’s vivid elegance serve as vibrant backdrops; one safehouse is a “lively, art-deco building” decked out in “lots of pink, aqua blue, and bright yellow.” In the end, the novel is about the persistence of hope in the face of overwhelming darkness. Weissbourd’s latest installment shows himself to be a master of sophisticated suspense, and readers will hope that Callie and Cash have many adventures to come.

A thrilling but deeply human tale of international intrigue.