“For when his waters are dark and in turmoil, the gentle tide of her love will sooth his restless sea.”

Matt Ransom is back in this third installment of Bobby Underwood’s sexy and emotionally resonating series. Underwood is a master of character development. I thought I had a good handle of who Ransom was from reading THE VELVET SEA and THE TENDER SHORE, but I learned even more in this fantastic tale of the 22nd century. Matt is a highly intelligent Civil Regulator with a passion for history and an enormous capacity for love. Dealing with his own supposed flaws and the evils he has to face in his work, he still has enough awareness to realize he is missing something in his relationship with others, and resolves to do something about it. With the help of his wonderful wife, LeAnn, he finds a way to open his heart a little wider, and at the same time returns to the muck in an attempt to solve a mystery that turns out to involve a particularly nasty and extremely evil crime.

One of the things I love about this series is witnessing the love between a husband and wife, even after many years together. The way Matt speaks of LeAnn is such a beautiful and refreshing thing in these books.

“She was wearing a white undershirt; the kind Clark Gable had made famous in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT well over two centuries ago. She wore a black leather jacket over it, and black pants. She had simply brushed her long black hair straight. We could have been on our way to get an ice cream rather than on our way to Paris. She always excited me, even after all this time. We loved each other, and maybe it was simply knowing she was crazy about me and up for anything spontaneous as long as it was with me that made her so sexy. She wasn’t frivolous, she was just wonderful, and I worshipped the ground she walked on. I thanked God every day that the ground she walked on was always next to me.”

Matt is also surrounded with an array of friends whose trust he’s earned with his uncommon ability to reach the hearts of everyone he meets. He will need all the help he can get in this fast-paced, highly stylized narrative. Underwood uses a unique style with this futuristic thriller. It reads like an old-fashioned pulp mystery from yesteryear, yet reaches levels far above that style with its descriptive, moving atmosphere and flawless dialogue. It’s much more than the sum of its parts; there’s a theme running throughout championing the importance of friendship, love, and faith that raises it above anything else in the genre.

“For perhaps the greatest gift is simply to love, and to be loved by someone, for it is that gift which heals all wounds.” ( )