The Rabbit Hole

by Mike Nicol

Fish Pescado and Vicki Kahn are back!

Money. Money. Money. Tons of it. In US dollars. And it’s all being funnelled into a government tender snagged by family-owned Amalfi Civils. Which would be great for business if CEO Angela wasn’t fighting with her CFO brother Rej. Where Angela sees corruption, Rej sees cabinet ministers, politicians, officials eager to lend a hand. For a fee. It’s a big pot so he’s happy to oblige. And if needs be he’ll take out his sister to keep the lucre.

There are other players in this game. The CIA for one. The State Security Agency for another. And a black op using lawyer and spy Vicki Kahn as a honeytrap to ensnare Rej’s middleman – the very same middleman that her lover, PI Fish Pescado, is investigating. With these stakes, it’s only time before the killing starts.

450 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2021

About the author

Born in Cape Town, Mike Nicol was educated there and in Johannesburg, where he began his working life as a journalist. During the 1980s he moved back to Cape Town and worked on the magazine Leadership for a number of years. Towards the end of that decade he published his first novel, The Powers That Be, resigned from the magazine and began what he calls "the scary life of a freelance journalist and writer."

Reviews

[Paige Nick]

If you’re a fan of a crime thriller series, with global political espionage, corruption, murder (well, nobody is a fan of either corruption or murder in real life, but you know I mean in fiction) and a good old skop, skiet and donner. Especially one set locally in and around the hot spots, restaurants and beaches of Cape Town and Muizenberg, then you need some Mike Nicol in your life.
The Rabbit Hole, which i finished last night, is the fourth in the Vicki Kahn, Fish Pescado series. Vicki is a spy and a secret government agent, and her boyfriend, Fish Pescado, is a private eye surfer guy. They both have their own volatile cases to deal with, and sometimes their clients and cases overlap.
You don’t need to have read the others in the series to know what’s going on, but it’s also nice to work your way through the series and keep up with some of the recurring characters, before they’re shot, stabbed, blackmailed or kidnapped.
Mike Nicol has written twenty-four books! What?! I had to go back and check that wasn’t a typo, but they say it’s true. So he knows his way around a pen, and he certainly knows his way around a complex but taut plot line. This is a bang for your buck kind of novel, a nice, thick, chunky read, with more plot lines, twists and turns than a soap opera.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual writing style - staccato sentences - apparently called 'flash action'. It works to keep the pace fast.

The complicated plot keeps the reader paying attention. And many threads only come together in the last few chapters.

I loved the local flavour. Janet, the 'personal bergie' is a wonderful, colourful character.

I look forward to the next in this series.

[Philip Goodstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed. More violence than was necessary and a confused plot.