The third installment of D’Amico’s Neil Baggio series finds the ex-FBI agent hero facing off with Jason Gaines, a businessman with ambitions of being a legendary villain. The case starts when activist Erin Beddington disappears after protesting against shady practices at Gaines Chemical. With help from girlfriend Maria Garcia (now the star of her own spinoff series), private investigator Baggio tries to unravel the case—and not get him or his team killed. Doing so entails digging into his (and the series’s) past, as Baggio interviews his former boss-turned-convicted serial killer Frank Cappelano in jail for insight into the functioning of the criminal mind. But as events unravel, Neil suspects that Frank and the Gaines case may not be entirely unconnected.

As always, D’Amico tells much of his story through dialogue, meaning the pages whip past but sometimes at the expense of telling scenic detail. Neil’s cat-and-mouse interviews with Frank will engage readers fascinated by serial killers, criminal profiling, and backstory of the previous books in the series, but Colloquium, which often finds both men musing on the past, is not recommended as a jumping-on point for new readers. (Start with Veritas.) Cagy Frank himself narrates some chapters, lending an acidic note to the narrative voice while inviting readers to speculate what his long game might be.

Baggio’s self-conscious tendency to compare the situations he’s in—action sequences, rich dude’s offices—to movies can undercut suspense and immersion in the moment. (The bit about nobody in action movies ever having to use the bathroom, though, is spot-on.) Still, he remains a memorable protagonist, quipping, always driven, at times obsessive, putting in the hard work to perform “at peak capacity as often as possible,” and, as his business and team grow, facing his mistakes with clear eyes, including red flags he misses this time around. The twists sting, and readers on D’Amico’s wavelength will be eager for more.

Takeaway: The Neil Baggio suspense series faces a chemical company and a serial killer and surprise twists.

Great for fans of: Daniel Judson’s The Temporary Agent, W. E. B. Griffin’s The Investigators

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A