The Stolen Coast

CrimeReads editor Murphy’s (An Honest Business) latest focuses on Jack Betancourt, who manages the unusual family business started by his father, an ex-spy. The family provides safe havens for people on the run, shuffling them around Onset, MA, a tourist town down the coast from Cape Cod founded by scavengers who preyed upon shipwrecked vessels. Elena, a former love interest who fled to New York, slides back into Onset with a scheme and a come-hither glint. She enlists Jack, who is not hard to persuade, in a plot to pilfer diamonds from a crooked lawyer working for international hoodlums. Jack knows he and Elena are doomed from the start—likely, one of them will bolt, or they’ll wind up buried together. Narrator Robert Petkoff offers a virtuoso performance, deftly delineating each character and precisely conveying their emotions. Curiously, he manages to engross listeners in the narrative while leaving them ambivalent about both Jack and Elena.