Description:

From Publishers Weekly

Florida, hurricanes and crime make a potent mix, as shown in Edgar-winner King's fifth entry in his Max Freeman PI series (_The Blue Edge of Midnight_, etc.). The vacation trip that Max and his cop girlfriend, Sherry Richards, take to his Everglades cabin and then to a friend's even more remote fishing camp turns into a struggle for survival when hurricane Simone shifts course unpredictably. A trio of unscrupulous thieves scavenging in the hurricane's wake and a pair of deadly security guards out to protect an illegal asset compound the danger. King vividly describes the hurricane's force and the different ways people respond to it. Sherry displays her grit and Max his ingenuity in a series of desperate gambles as the story builds to an explosive climax. This is a worthy addition to a Florida subgenre that includes Carl Hiaasen's Stormy Weather and Tim Dorsey's Hurricane Punch. (Aug.)
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From

Starred Review The latest entry in the Max Freeman series (King won an Edgar with the debut of cop-turned-recluse Freeman in 2002's Blue Eye of Midnight) is every bit as polished and absorbing as its four predecessors, and it trumps King's own standards for description with a stunning depiction of a hurricane and its aftermath. A longtime Philadelphia crime reporter, King knows cops well, and it shows in the hero he has crafted. Ex-cop Freeman has been holed up in a former research shack deep in the Florida Everglades, accepting some detective work from an old lawyer friend but mostly hiding himself away from his horror at having killed a 12-year-old boy in a robbery attempt. Each novel inches Freeman away from his grief and into life; King is both a master plotter and an able psychologist. In his latest, Freeman and his new love, a South Florida detective, are enjoying a break at Max's retreat when a hurricane rips apart the shack, nearly killing Freeman's girlfriend. This novel is more adventure-suspense tale than mystery, as the couple struggles to survive, first against the hurricane and then against the villains who flood into the Everglades. King juxtaposes Max's first-person narration with third-person accounts of criminals in a breathtaking series of survival moves. Gripping. Fletcher, Connie