Breakwater (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798273446274)

As Hurricane Ophelia bears down on Tampa Bay, a catatonic patient slips the mag-locks at Cypress Shoals State Hospital and turns a flooded city into a ritual-marking "thresholds" with pennies, psalms, and precision. Detective Marisol Cruz, a ranger-turned-EMT named Ethan Pike, and psychiatrist Dr. Asha Sinha race across bridges, marinas, and culverts while Hunter Vale composes his crimes in triplets-bells, bottles, and monofilament ticking time on steel. Each scene is scrubbed clean but for a deliberate "miss," each door a test: will they step when he says step? The chase surges from storm to courtroom-voir dire to penalty phase-braiding fieldwork with deposition transcripts and cross-examinations that circle Sun City, Westshore, and Riverview, where a retired ballplayer and a slick "garage lawyer" become grim waypoints. Scored in movements-Breakwater, Fugue, Cadenza-this is a propulsive, hurricane-soaked thriller about crossings, consequence, and the cost of refusing someone else's rhythm.