Here's a googled pix of author O'Neil.
Cole is a background checker in Florida where he recently settled after a frustrating legal matter deals him a severe professional setback. His life is downsized and he's content for now but his newest assignment is grating his nerves. He is told to work to deny an insurance claim for a young man killed during a biking accident. Convinced his supervisor is in error, he attempts to continue his investigation of the death and comes to believes the victim was mistaken for another man.
Stubbornly pursuing this insurance case, Cole reaches what he feels is a good spot in his work when he arrives home and finds a threat in a "bullet sitting straight up and insolent on my kitchen table." That threat is not dismissed as Cole gets help from a private detective acquaintance and--along with his and operatives--unearth a sticky mess involving questionable businessmen.
Some book club discussion included the following:
- the book is a "good summer read"
- an informative book about all elements covered
- liked the mystery and characters but not the writing (felt the writing was aimed for those at a young reading level)
- liked the humor in the book
- the theme of justice was nicely presented in Cole's sense of feeling wronged at on the job and the victim doing wronged too and in another situation where a mental challenged employed man faced a tough situation--he was fairly supported by others
- Cole is flexible with his pared down lifestyle and makes do without much fuss.
O'Neil has three additional "Frank Cole mystery" books in print with the newest Contest of Wills published this year.
