Latest Books Odyssey’s End with Matt Coyle

Brain disease worsening, Rick Cahill risks everything—even his life—to provide for his fractured family’s future

San Diego private investigator Rick Cahill’s past comes back to haunt him when he’s at his most vulnerable. His wife, Leah, has fled with their daughter, Krista, to her parents’ home in Santa Barbara. She fears Rick’s violent outbursts brought on by his potentially fatal brain disorder, CTE—and she doesn’t trust that he’ll ever be able to tame his manic desire to bring his own brand of justice to an unjust world.

Rick desperately wants to reunite his family and help provide for Krista’s future—one he fears he won’t be alive to see. A jumpstart toward that future appears in the form of Peter Stone, Rick’s longtime enemy. Stone offers Rick $50,000 to find a woman he claims can save his life with a kidney transplant. Rick can’t pass up the chance to buttress Krista’s future.

When what seems like a simple missing person case spirals out of control into cryptocurrency machinations, dead bodies, and an outgunned faceoff, Rick is forced to battle evil from his past. Can he stay alive long enough to see his family one last time?

Matt Coyle
© Abouna Photo

Award-winning author Matt Coyle recently spent time with The Big Thrill to discuss Book #10 in his bestselling Rick Cahill crime series, ODYSSEY’S END.

Can you pinpoint a moment or incident that sparked the idea for this book?

I can say there was a specific moment or instance that sparked the idea for the book, but I knew there was something that would be essential for the book. I had to isolate my protagonist, Rick Cahill, somewhere where he’d he be up against overwhelming odds and have no way to call for help. Luckily, almost by accident, I found the perfect spot that made sense to the story and wasn’t just stuck in for isolation’s sake.

When you first created your protagonist for this book, did you see an empty space in crime lit that you wanted to fill? What can you share about the inspiration for that character?

First, I just wanted to write a book and finally attempt to achieve a lifetime goal. However, in the writing of that first book, Yesterday’s Echo, I realized that I had just begun to write a series and that I did want to write a unique protagonist. I wanted him to be flawed, and when needed, a man of violence. Neither are hardly unique, but I wanted Rick to wrestle with his flaws and feel the soul crushing impact of his violence. I wanted him to be physically capable, but not invincible and all the violence, both physical and emotional, had to have repercussions that he couldn’t escape.

A novel is such a major undertaking; there’s the writing of it, of course, then you’re spending months and months revising, polishing, and then promoting it. How did you know this was the book you wanted to spend the next couple of years on?

With the progression of my protagonist Rick Cahill through the previous nine books, I knew that ODYSSEY’S END was the book that I had to write. His journey had taken him to this point. There was no other place to go. Saying that, it was still a very difficult book to write and I was concerned about almost the entire time I was writing it. Thankfully, when it was revised and polished, it became a book I’m very proud of.

In addition to a great read, what do you hope readers will take away from this story?

That life was not meant to be lived alone and that sometimes the only reward for living by your principals is believing that you’re doing the right thing.

What can you share about what you’re working on next?

After writing a ten-book series about a character I love, I’m writing something completely different with different characters and different problems.