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Charlie Noble, former coast-guard-officer-turned-marine-PI, is back. This time, he is hot on the trail of a human trafficking scheme that begins in Mexico...and ends in murder. Still reeling from the untimely death of his wife, Charlie begins to warm to the idea of a second chance at true love with new girlfriend Kate Sullivan. These plans are quickly docked when boating friends Marvin and Angela Baynes come to him with a horrifying discovery--the body of an unidentified young woman impaled on the flukes of their boat anchor. The Bayneses themselves lost a child years ago. No stranger to loss, Charlie finds it impossible not to help them--even though it could mean putting his new romance in jeopardy. Charlie enlists a friend, Raven, a Native American salvage diver. Together, the pair plunge beneath the waters of Puget Sound to seek out any clues about the identity of the dead woman and how she wound up there. But they find more bodies instead--all young, all female, all Hispanic. Soon Charlie finds himself navigating a course that leads him through the choppy waters of transporting human cargo, and right into the seedy underworld of the Northwest's sex trade. With its fresh, nautical flavor, riveting mystery, and incredible depth of humanity,Precious Cargo is a winner from Clyde Ford that is truly unique--and compulsively readable.… (more)
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When detective Charlie Noble is called upon to
As the case unravels, Charlie and Raven make the connection that all of the dead females are Mexican, most likely young immigrants who have been murdered. Their investigation leads them to a suspicious father-and-son team, the Kincaids. Convinced that they are guilty, Charlie tracks the Kincaids down, ultimately discovering that they are, in fact, human traffickers.
To further complicate matters, Charlie and Raven soon encounter a local woman from the harbor, who startlingly admits to murdering the girls when she discovers them in bed with the younger Kincaid. Was this really a crime of passion? Or was this perhaps another twist within a sordid underworld of prostitution and human trafficking?
It is up to Charlie to piece together the missing elements of this baffling caseāthe only way he can save other young women from winding up at the bottom of the sea.
What would you do? Clyde Ford called Charlie Noble, a
Our hero engages a Native American diver, Raven, who has relationships with nautical and nature people all around the waterways. In the course of the adventure, it is discovered that the young lady who became a submerged corpse was ensnared in the sex trade beginning in Mexico and ending in Pacific Northwest. The bad guys, from Texas, come into the peaceful waterways in a huge yacht that looks like it should have been in the harbors on Monte Carlo for its parties not the inlets of these straits.
Clyde Ford writes an excellent, engaging, and easily readable story. Against the background of murder in the human trafficking business, and beauty of the natural settings, the romance of Charlie and Kate is an endearing story all in its own. Two people with their own lives lived before meeting have their own needs, which they struggle to comes to grips with, as Charlie engages in the life-and-death struggle to solve the crime. At least one of the struggles has a clever and charming twist, so silence is best on this.
I read the book straight through, fascinated with what would happen to the lovers and the unfolding of the central mystery.
A hearty recommendation for a fine story written by a world class author.