MOTIVE

When the grandson of a retired police captain is killed, the former cop and his buddies reconvene a group of detectives called the Coterie to assist the investigation in this novel.

At first glance, it appears to be a routine, tragic accident. Sean Morgan is run over and killed by a Ford sedan in front of his grandfather Joe’s apartment building. But as the police department conducts its investigation, evidence points to the possibility of a hit. Since Sean was driving Joe’s car, the question is whether the grandson was the intended victim. Or was Joe the real target? The police find the car, but it has been destroyed by fire. There’s no evidence, no perpetrator, and no discernible motive. After Joe retired six years ago, he started to drift away from his Coterie friends. But now, frustrated with the lethargic pace of the official police investigation, he reconnects with them at their usual hangout, the Towne Restaurant. The group agrees to pick up the slack and begin some investigating of its own. Joe’s pals are an unusual cluster of old-timers: Chaz Bohen, a retired lieutenant of the Burglary Squad and a gadgets and electronics whiz; retired homicide detective Harry Boyle, now a private investigator; retired Staff Sgt. Vern Chosky, who continues to teach martial arts; and two cops who are still on active duty: Willie “Big Will” Williams, commander of the Homicide Bureau, and the mysterious Lt. Alfred “Freddie” Taylor Sr. Adams’ police procedural maintains a slow but steady pace, with the narrative usually keeping readers one step ahead of the Coterie. But the full puzzle doesn’t come together until the end, and the final reveal of the motive adds an unexpected twist. There is a running senior citizen bathroom joke that wears thin, and some uncomfortable stereotypes surface along the way (for example, the jewelry selections of a drug kingpin and the perpetually shrewish voice of Chaz’s wife). Still, the author provides several entertaining action scenes, as when 80-year-old Vern takes down a young street thug. And the complexity of Chaz’s electronic surveillance setup brings the Coterie’s detective work solidly into the 21st century.

An engaging beach read about an eclectic team of sleuths.