Physical and mental stress have left private investigator Pete Fernandez exhausted, overwhelmed, and dead . . .
Well, clinically speaking, anyhow, as Pete’s heart stopped beating after enduring the carnage that Segura’s last book, Blackout, ended with. Here, a full year later, he’s a broken man in every sense of the word. Physical therapy helps some, but his battered body—which doctors stitched back together as best they could—is scarred and tired. Worse even are the mental scars, which Pete is dealing with by talking to a therapist. Together, the treatment plans help him live some semblance of a regular life, a life that now includes running a small Miami-based independent bookstore instead of cracking cases full-time.
Of course, that all changes when an old Cuban mobster seeks his help and asks him to investigate the death of his son, a skilled musician, and locate his daughter-in-law who has gone missing. Allowing himself to be pulled back into the game one last time, Pete and his partner Kathy Bentley—who recently became engaged to someone not named Pete, much to his dismay—begin scouring the Miami nightlife for clues as to what really happened.
What they find, though, is bigger than they anything else they’ve faced, as the duo is quickly pulled into a world of lies, conspiracies, and cold-blooded killers.
Alex Segura, who’s long been one of the more underrated crime novelists working today, brings the Miami setting to life in the same way that James Lee Burke has made a career out of capturing the ambiance of Lousiana, or how C.J. Box’s deep knowledge of Wyoming often makes the setting itself a character within the story. With this one, readers will find themselves under the lights of Miami’s club scene, and Segura uses plenty of descriptions to make things pop visually, adding that extra something to the story. Moreover, the setting fits Segura’s gritty style perfectly, and while there are a lot of plotlines playing out at the same time, he manages to keep things simple enough that they aren’t hard to follow. More impressive is how he ties everything up, closing arcs from past books while delivering solid twists for good measure.
Simply put, Miami Midnight is superb . . . and while it’s sad to see this terrific series come to end, all eyes are on Alex Segura heading into 2020 to see how he’ll top himself moving forward.
Book Details
Author: Alex Segura
Series: Pete Fernandez #5
Pages: 336 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 1947993593
Publisher: Polis Books
Release Date: August 13, 2019
Book Spy Rating: 8.0/10
Praised as “One of the hardest working, most thoughtful, and fairest reviewers out there” by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, Ryan Steck has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). Steck also works full-time as a freelance editor and pens a monthly thriller column for CrimeReads. For more information, be sure to follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He currently lives in Southwest Michigan with his wife and their six children.