Into the Fire

Once Was Lost is Book 6 by Matthew Iden in A Marty Singer Mystery Series. 

Marty Singer encounters a unique circumstance when his girlfriend (Julie) and "adopted" daughter (Amanda) co-opt him to help a guy (Tommy) who's running from his gangster uncle (Patrick) and his goons since hoping to get into WITSEC after testifying against his uncle. However, everything went completely wrong in those efforts, several marshals were murdered, and his wife was snatched outside the federal building. He takes off running with his young son and for the moment is safe and helping out as a handyman at FirstStep women's shelter where Amanda works and occasionally Julie does pro bono work for them. 

The problem lies in the fact that Tommy is a jerk, and Marty has to force himself to tolerate him longer than the first few minutes of meeting him. The long term plan is to help him disappear and Chuck Rhee is able to hook them up with a friend of his who has mastered skip-tracing as well as helping those who need to never be found. It's far more convoluted than Marty would like and there's a real rush on the itinerary which makes doing it seem impossible and very expensive. Tommy is all but broke, and Marty isn't fond of dipping into his retirement fund – maybe especially for Tommy, but his kid is a sweetheart and is handling the mess he and his dad are living. 

There were some difficult moments in this story but there were also some laugh out loud descriptions of other moments and thoughts. Singer is a sarcastic, cynical, sometimes teddy-bear of a man, but he's quick-witted and often hilarious with his snide comments out loud and to himself. Self-deprecating but privately bombastic, he's a good guy who's becoming more and more aware of his limitations. 

The two critical twists that Marty misses aggravate him and make him question why and how he missed them. 

Matthew Iden's Marty Singer is well-written and therefore well-defined, but like most of us, he's still surprising himself every now and then. Definitely imperfect but overall respectable, he does his absolute best when he engages in helping someone – even when he'd rather not. 

Enjoyable series with a strong protagonist and good peripheral enhancements. 

Profanity present. 

Father, please continue to bless Matthew's prolific career, family, and life. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.