Turgid and uninteresting. ( )

A disappointing effort! Matt and his buddy, Jock, are just a little too perfect. Jock makes a phone call and magically data and resources are at his beck and call. Matt has connections which make his investigation of a friend's son's murder very expeditious. Overall, Matt Royal and his friend, Jock, are not anything readers haven't seen before. ( )

Collateral Damage by H. Terrell Griffin
4 STARS

Collateral Damage is a Matt Royal Mystery.

It is full of drama,action, mystery. Matt is starting to really like J.D. Longboat's only police detective. Something is going on Longboat killing people. Thier is 4 murders on the same day.
The characters are still loyal and strong friendships tying them together. Doc. who served in Vietnam and saved Matt's life comes asking for help in solving his son's murder. Matt starts looking into them and then he is attacked. Logan and Jock start looking into it with him. Matt for being a retired lawyer and now a beach bum sure gets into a lot of trouble.

Collateral Damage book discription taken off of Netgalley web site.

Description

Matt Royal is in trouble and probably in love, but he's not sure. His buddies, Logan Hamilton and Jock Algren, come to his aid and together they try to figure out why a young bridegroom was killed on the beach of their southwest Florida island and what, if anything, that murder has to do with other murders that took place aboard a dinner cruise boat the same day. Fun in the sun becomes a deadly chase when Matt and his friends run into some very bad guys who seem to have no compunction about killing people.

Collateral Damage has a bunch of strings that they are having a hard time untangling to find what is really going on. What is Doc. not telling Matt and J.D. It is fast paced story. You don't want to put down till you are through. At least I have not wanted to. This is the 5th Matt Royal story that I have read in the last few days. I think I have missed two of them that I will have to go get them.

I was given this ebook to read in exchange of honest review by Netgalley.
12/05/2011 Pub Oceanview Publishing ( )

Another retired lawyer living in Florida. Matt Royal was also a special forces marine with Vietnam experience. Good mystery with lots of action. ( )

Matt Royal is a retired lawyer who lives at the beach on a Florida Key. One morning there is a knock at his door and his visitor is an old army buddy, Charles Desmond (Doc) who saved his life in Vietnam. Doc is here to ask Matt to help him find the person who murdered his son on the beach.

Enlisting the help of another friend, Jock, who is very high in a Federal Agency who can delve into areas that Matt has no access, and working with the local authorities, Matt uncovers connections of Desmond's son's murder with 2 other murders that occurred on the same day. Fighting off 2 separate attempts on his own life, concerns deepen when the local detective that he was working with disappears at the same time as his client.

The action is fast paced, the writing makes the reader feel the hot breezes of the keys as well as the sweltering humidity. Kept on the edge of your seat until the very end, the reader is given a great ride even though the clues to the solution are openly presented and easily devised.

Initially, I was a bit concerned because this is the 6th book in the Matt Royal series and I have not read any of the previous adventures but that will be remedied, most definitely. However, it does well as a stand alone mystery with just a few references to previous adventures that don't seem to effect the story other than character definition. ( )