Spotlight on Lost Tomorrows by Matt Coyle

Latest installment of award-winning Rick Cahill series explores revenge and tragedy in electrifying thriller

SAN DIEGO – Weaving the tragedies of the past into the realities of the present, Anthony-award winning author Matt Coyle’s gripping new mystery “Lost Tomorrows” (Dec. 3, 2019, Oceanview) — the latest installment of the beloved Rick Cahill series — carries revenge, redemption, and the hopes of new love in all one action-packed thriller.

When Rick Cahill receives an unexpected call that his former police partner, Krista Landingham, has been found dead, he realizes he can’t avoid his past any longer. Hired by her sister to investigate Krista’s death, Rick follows clues toward the terrible truth that his former partner’s death wasn’t an accident but rather a murder. Along the way, Rick unearths secrets long-hidden about the tragic death of his wife.

With his past colliding with his present, Rick must make a decision: Will he embrace the terrible actions necessary for revenge and redemption, or is he a different kind of man?

MATT COYLE is the author of the Rick Cahill mysteries. His books have won the Anthony Award, Ben Franklin Silver Award, Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Silver Award, and San Diego Book Award, and have been nominated for multiple Anthony Awards, Macavity Awards, Shamus Awards, Lefty Awards, and San Diego Book Awards. Matt has a degree in English from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Private Eye Writers of America, and the International Association of Crime Writers. Aside from writing novels, Matt hosts the Crime Corner podcast on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network and lives in San Diego with his yellow Lab, Angus.

Early praise for Lost Tomorrows:

“Sharp, suspenseful, and poignant, LOST TOMORROWS hits like a breaking wave and pulls readers into its relentless undertow. Matt Coyle is at the top of his game.”

— Meg Gardiner, Edgar Award-winning author of the Unsub series

"Private investigator Rick Cahill returns in Matt Coyle's new book, LOST TOMORROWS.  Cahill has been run out of town, wrongly accused of killing his wife. He's depressed, drinking and emotionally wrung out. A new murder investigation draws him back to the town that hates him, and he's forced to partner up with his primary accuser. Like the entire Cahill series, the story is suspenseful, tightly written, full of curveballs and memorable characters and very, very smart.  Welcome back, Rick. We're really glad to see you."

— Joe Ide, author of the award-winning IQ series

“. . . For those who admire old-school PI style, there's plenty to savor here.”

— Booklist

  

An Interview with

Matt Coyle

 “Lost Tomorrows” is the sixth installment of the Rick Cahill mysteries. What compels you to continue to explore Rick’s story?

Since the death of his wife 14 years ago, Rick’s whole life has been a quest for redemption. Each case he takes, each story I write, is a chance for him to get closer to completing his quest. Sadly for Rick, he rarely feels close to achieving redemption.

Where did the idea for your protagonist, Rick Cahill, come from?

I knew I wanted a disgraced ex-cop with something dark and unresolved in his past. However, it wasn’t until a sentence came to me for the ether (my subconscious) while I was revising the first draft of the first book that I really began to get a sense of who Rick Cahill was. The sentence, which became the first sentence in “Yesterday’s Echo”: The first time I saw her she made me remember and she made me forget. With that line, I realized Rick’s past was much darker than I originally anticipated. Something truly awful had happened to him that changed his life irrevocably.

Last December, you quit your job to become a full-time writer. How has this decision shaped your life and work?

It’s given me much needed time to tackle all facets of a writer’s life. Not just the writing but the marketing necessary to build a career.

You have quite the resume when it comes to the genres of mystery and crime fiction. Why do you love mysteries so much?

I love mysteries/crime fiction because it allows you to explore character, solve a puzzle, and seek justice all in one story. Justice may not be achievable, or if it is, it may not be the criminal justice system’s version of it. I write P.I. fiction because I like the idea of one man or woman fighting powerful forces to find their own justice.

In “Lost Tomorrows,” you dive into some ways that the past interacts with the present. Why did you choose to explore this idea, and have you seen it play out in your own life?

I don’t think it started as a conscious decision, but the more I wrote Rick Cahill the more I realized that every action he took was an effort to get square him with the past. Beyond that, I realized that every bad decision he’s made in his past has to have repercussions that affect his present. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the title of the first book, “Yesterday’s Echo,” is really the arc of Rick’s life. The echos are always chasing him.

Sadly, an aspect of this played out in my own life. No details, but a knee jerk action I took in a dispute when I was young had lasting consequences for me and my family. Nothing violent, tragic or illegal, just something I wish I hadn’t done.

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.