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Matt Coyle has been in the sports collectible business, the golf business, and the restaurant business. It is his experience in the restaurant business in LaJolla, California that provides the background for his first novel, Yesterday's Echo, the first in the series of Rick Cahill crime novels. Matt graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara and lives in San Diego with his wife Deborah and their yellow lab, Angus.
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 February 2021
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This took me back to fifteen years of age and my first Mickey Spillane. Crammed to the brim with cliches but somehow rising above it all. The ex-cop, Cahill, working in a bar; the gangster's moll, Melody. leading him into a hell from which he wonders whether he'll ever awake. Dirty cops, criminals, and a dog called Midnight. All the ingredients for a gripping roller-coaster ride through La Jolla. Hold tight.
If I was an American with knowledge of the geography of the places described then this story would have been easier to read. However I persevered and found that the characters worked well to make for the story work for the reader.
Rick Cahill, the manager of Muldoon’s Steak House, in La Jolla, California, is a tarnished ex-policeman who battles internal and external demons. Cahill, now eight years after the death of his wife, who he was once accused of murdering, is working the night shift when he needs to rescue a damsel in distress, TV reporter Melody Malana, from a guy who was about to assault her.
So, for her safety, Cahill takes the captivating Melody home to his place, where they of course fall naked onto his couch (repeatedly). Melody disappears the next morning. Later that day a pair of thugs appear at Cahill’s door and beat Cahill up because they are sure he knows her whereabouts and want him to tell them. Cahill's attempt to help Melody turns terribly wrong, and he becomes a suspect in the murder in a nearby motel of a man overdosed on heroine and the target of a police manhunt.
Told in the first-person, Mr. Coyle's flawlessly executed debut novel, “Yesterday's Echo” is a crime noir teeming with memorable characters and unexpected plot twists, which include sex, drugs, and hidden secrets.
“Yesterday’s Echo”, won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel in 2014, The San Diego Book Award for Best Mystery, the IBPA Ben Franklin Silver Award for Best New Voice in Fiction, and was a Macavity Finalist for Best First Novel.