Rob Avery is back, with the second smart, nicely crafted crime story in the series narrated by our protagonist, Sim Greene. Following a life-altering roller coaster ride of murder and deception and a lost love in the first book, Sim boarded his beloved Figaro and sailed south from Southern California to Panama and up to the Caribbean, looking for a new life with a bit less drama. But the Virgin Islands turn out to deliver everything but the peace and tranquility that lures tourists by the thousands. Instead, Sim finds corruption at levels he could not have imagined, and an unlikely ally in his quest to get his friend Al out from under false murder charges.
Avery is a sailor-writer who absolutely delivers in this niche genre of crime mysteries with a sailing setting. Broad Reach and the first book in the series, Close Hauled, are both done right. These books kept me turning pages and forsaking everything else until I was finished—sleep and meals trips to the bathroom taken unwillingly.
If you haven’t yet read Close Hauled, read it first. When you’re done, Broad Reach will be waiting for you to rip in to. But then you’ll have to endure with the rest of us the wait until the next book comes. I hope it’s not long.
Broad Reach: A Sim Greene Mystery by Rob Avery (Jack Tar Press 2017)
