Duck Darley is not exactly what most people would want in a private investigator. Having spent 13 months in prison for drug dealing, he's now addicted to alcohol and painkillers, with a dominatrix as a partner. But Duck's also a "finder," and many wealthy clients are happy to have him quietly take care of things. When 18-year-old Madeline McKay goes missing, her mother asks Duck to find her. Madeline and her Olympian older brother had been part of Duck's youthful world of competitive swimming. As Duck is pulled back into this environment, he discovers its darker side, a culture of brutality, violence, and depravity. Duck's search for Madeleine soon makes him a target. VERDICT This gritty debut by a Canadian Olympic swimmer is an intense, action-packed mystery, with an unconventional, flawed protagonist. The bleak tone and main character will not appeal to every reader, but those who remember Steve Ulfelder's Conway Sax, a convicted felon and recovering addict and alcoholic, may appreciate this sometimes graphically violent novel.—LH

Olympic swimmer Barrett dives into the disturbing side of competitive sport in his savage thriller debut, a series launch. Once an Olympic-class swimmer, Lawrence "Duck" Darley took to drink and spent time in prison. Now an unlicensed PI specializing in uncovering the infidelities of the rich, Duck contracts with wealthy New Yorker Margaret McKay, the widowed mother of an old swimming buddy of his, to quietly find her troubled 18-year-old daughter, Madeline. A promising swimmer, Madeline texted her mother "I'm so sorry" a few days earlier, then disappeared, last seen by her brother at the family's country house in Rhinebeck. Duck's part-time partner in detection, dominatrix Cass Kimball, brings competence, toughness, and sex industry connections to the search for the missing Madeline. Barrett relies on familiar genre tropes—illicit affairs, drug deals, blackmail, and the Russian mafia—but dials them up for high shock value. The expected if still satisfying ending leaves Darley so broken that it's hard to imagine how he'll be enticed into the next investigation. Agent: Alec Shane, Writers House. (Dec.)