One Good Eye, by Kevin Wade (REVIEW) — No Escaping the History Between Childhood Friends

There are two ways that childhood friendships can go, in adulthood.

One involves you leaving most (or all) of your school pals behind as soon as you move away (move on, whatever).

The other is hanging onto those earliest friends—and all the shared history—regardless of whether any common interests end up surviving past graduation.

Kevin Wade’s One Good Eye is a story of the latter...

 

Under normal circumstances, small-town Police Chief Jeep Mullane wouldn’t have any cause to answer a distress call about a home invasion from a resident of the neighboring—and very wealthy—Long Island community... but these aren’t normal conditions.

For one thing, the whole eastern seaboard is in the midst of dealing with a raging hurricane, meaning it’s all-hands-on-deck time for anyone in emergency services.

But it’s another reason that’s far more important. 

The caller, Jenny Racine—Jeep’s next-door neighbor in high school, now an influencer worth millions, who moved back to Long Island to build her mansion—specifically asked for him by name.

Jeep rushes to the scene... only to be met with opposition. 

Someone broke in, beat her up badly, then ran off into the storm... yet Jenny wants no official record of the assault, nor any police investigation at all.

The thing is, she called him... and Jeep’s not about to let twenty-five years of history (with all its frustrations, arguments, and in general being on-again/off-again best friends) get in the way of doing his job. 

He’ll just do it quietly. Off the books.

The trouble with that plan is no one he talks to is any too thrilled with him poking around... not the feds who harass him, members of two local biker gangs, a cop doing some moonlighting, Jenny’s estranged ex-Special Forces hubby (also a friend of Jeep’s), or the police department’s sole private investigator (the only person Jeep trusts to keep his forbidden sleuthing on the down-low).

But the more secrets Jeep uncovers about friends and acquaintances he’s known for most of his life, the less certain he becomes about what’s actually going on.

The only thing he’s sure of is that the longer things continue, the greater the danger his friends are in... and he’s in, as well.

 

One Good Eye is actually the second book in the Jeep Mullane series, but the first I’ve read. Wade does an excellent job of getting the reader up-to-speed on how all the players are interconnected, though, so I never felt lost.

Alternating current action with long-ago incidents, he shows why things are happening... and why each person reacts as they do. (It’s an effective way of letting readers reach their own conclusions, and I appreciated it.)

As for Jeep, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more of him. By turns intuitive, exasperated, funny, awkward, and sharp, he’s a fresh voice in crime fiction. 

The Long Island Gold Coast setting—full of complicated relationships between townies and the wealthy, and between old money and new—also manages to feel a bit different... nothing I’ve seen done a dozen times before.

One Good Eye was an easy book to race through, with a fascinating set of characters, a tumultuous setting, and a whole world of history that informs everything. 

In fact, the only thing I didn’t like about it... was reaching the last page. 🙃

More Jeep, please, Mr. Wade.
~GlamKitty

 

[My sincere thanks to Celadon Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are, as always, entirely my own.]