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Paul McGrath Series, Book 2
From the publisher:
His cover: courthouse janitor. His cause: justice. But when Paul McGrath uncovers a shocking connection to a file of missing evidence, he finds the truth sometimes hits a little too close to home.
An intelligence agent-turned-courthouse janitor, Paul McGrath notices everything and everyone—but no one notices him. It’s the perfect cover for the justice he seeks for both his father and the people who’ve been wronged by a corrupt system. Now he’s discovered a missing file on Alex Pardew—the man who defrauded and likely murdered McGrath’s father but avoided conviction, thanks in large part to the loss of this very file. And what lies behind its disappearance is even worse than McGrath had feared.
Meanwhile, at the courthouse, he stumbles on the case of Len Hendrie, a small businessman who’s been accused of torching a venture capitalist’s mansion. Though Hendrie admits starting the fire, McGrath learns how the VC has preyed on average Joes to benefit himself—and his extensive wine collection. McGrath can’t resist looking deeper into this financial predator and soon finds himself in a gray area between his avenging moral compass and the limits of the law.
Then, just as the Hendrie case is heating up, McGrath receives word of the death of his father’s former housekeeper, sending him back to his family home to confront unfinished business from his past. And he’s about to find some unwelcome truths about the mother he lost as a child—and the father who hid even more secrets than he realized.
Paul McGrath was an Intelligence agent for the U.S. Army when he received word that his father had been murdered. Hurrying home, he is in time to witness the trial of the suspected murderer and to see him go free when a file detailing the alleged crime goes missing. Paul then takes a job as a janitor in the courthouse in which the trial took place in order to look for the file and what happened to it. This action takes place in the first book detailing McGrath’s taking the job. The current novel is the second book and takes up Paul McGrath’s continuing search.
A second situation comes up in which a man is going to trial for setting fire to another’s house. He tells McGrath that he did it because the man that owned the house preys upon the people that he handles investments for in order to defraud them of some of the funds. The situation runs concurrently with the search for the missing file. Should be interesting with the disguise as janitor quite a novel idea. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of action with a lot of conversation making up most of the story. That factor does detract from events depicted. There is a section of the book dedicated to the events bringing the characters to the present day and is interesting taken on its own. But if Grant intends to continue with the character it might be more advantageous returning him to his job as an intelligence officer rather than keeping him confined to cleaning floors in the courthouse.
1/2020 Paul Lane
TOO CLOSE TO HOME by Andrew Grant. Ballantine Books (January 7, 2020). ISBN 978-0525619628. 336p.
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