cover image Damaged: A Maggie O'Dell Novel

Damaged: A Maggie O'Dell Novel

Alex Kava, Doubleday, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-385-53199-3

At the start of Kava's exciting, if grisly, eighth Maggie O'Dell novel (after Black Friday), Liz Bailey, a 27-year-old Coast Guard rescue swimmer, retrieves a stainless steel cooler from Florida's Pensacola Bay. Inside are human body parts. FBI special agent Maggie and Charlie Wurth, the Department of Homeland Security's deputy director, once again team to investigate. Meanwhile, Maggie's hunky new boyfriend, Col. Benjamin Platt, comes to Florida in search of monstrous bacteria killing too many soldiers. The two cases connect through a body-parts broker who calls himself Joe Black. Black may be as charming as Brad Pitt, who played Death in the film Meet Joe Black, but he's a cold-blooded murderer who uses natural disasters and shady funeral directors, like Liz's brother-in-law, to stock his business. Maggie must venture into the eye of Hurricane Isaac as this intense thriller builds to an eye-popping revelation that will leave fans eager for the sequel. 6-city author tour. (July)