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BURIED SECRETS is Joseph Finder's second installment in his series about Nick Heller, a former military Special Forces operative, who has set up his own business in Boston as what he like call a "private spy." He's also a bit of a "fixer" for well-placed government officials (VANISHED), and he's not shy about calling in any favors owed to him. He has loyalties of his own as well, and he responds with alacrity when an old friend, Marshall Marcus, frantically informs him that his daughter, Alexa, has been kidnapped. Marshall will pay anything to get his only child back, but he is adamant that the police and federal authorities not be alerted to the situation. Finder has set Nick up with a superb cast of sidekicks, including Dorothy, his techno-savvy employee, and "Romeo," a monstrously mutilated Special Ops vet, who tools around town in his hi-tech RV. But when Alexa is buried alive in a casket and the images are webcast to Marshall and Nick, the investigator knows that lead time is going to be as finite as the air in the coffin. Nick discovers that Diana, his ex-girlfriend, is now working at the Boston FBI office. He enlists her help, but the agent in charge of cases like this one spies on him instead and is more interested in bringing Marshall to trial. Marshall, too, is lying about everything. Nick soon realizes that his biggest obstacle may be his own client's desire to protect himself and his new wife. The book is tightly written and action-packed. There are occasionally too many characters to keep track of. There are also some clichés: As soon as the novel opens with a quote from Edgar Allan Poe, a shovel (or backhoe) and casket are bound to follow. And since Steig Larsson's THE GIRL… series, sociopathic killers seem to pop up everywhere. Holter Graham is a prolific, professional, and extremely reliable narrator of audio books. He has recorded the works of Nicholas Sparks, Stephen King, and other bestselling authors. He also narrated VANISHED, so he is already comfortable with the cast of BURIED SECRETS. His Nick is smart, cagey, but too impulsive. Graham has a knack for capturing each voice from Alexa's querulous teen notes to Marshall's sorrowful and manipulative pleas. Together, Finder and Graham have created a thoroughly engaging summer listen. § Karla Jay is a legally blind audio book addict, who lives in New York City, where she is Distinguished Professor of English and Women's Studies at Pace University.
Reviewed by Karla Jay, June 2011
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