How It Happened by Michael Koryta

 

This is partly a thriller--layered conspiracies, government agencies, blackmail, drugs--and partly a mystery--murder, conspiracy, blackmail, drugs; the genres are closely connected and play together well, especially at the hands of an author who understands them both, or at least understands what he's trying to do, as Koryta clearly does, here. There are some reveals that I saw coming, at least one "howdunnit" thing I twigged to pretty early, though the solution in the book wasn't exactly what I was thinking (but it was close). Part of why I think this mixes thriller and mystery, instead of just being a mystery, is that it's almost always clear who the main badguy is--though there's a secondary who's perhaps not so obvious--the primary questions are on the lines of whether the main will manage to survive, put a stop to things, put the badguys away, that sort of thing. The fact the main has studied how interrogations go bad, in the form of leading to bad confessions (it's the Reid technique) and has strong thoughts about law enforcement and criminal justice that probably aren't consistent with what most people would expect of an FBI agent ... that's the author being particularly clear-eyed, I think. Also, the thread in the novel about opiates wreaking havoc in rural/coastal Maine (and elsewhere) in like 2016 is definitely resonant. Koryta understand story and character and the setting he's working in here, almost flawlessly; there are some rough spots near the beginning, but things smooth out rapidly.