BLOOD BANK

Hamptons cabinetmaker Sam Acquillo reluctantly returns to sleuthing to track down someone whose work, as he’d be the first to tell you, is a lot more important than his.

Though there’s no obvious sign that biochemist Oriana Octavio, who left her personal belongings behind when she vanished, has been kidnapped or that anything else bad has happened to her, her mother and her kid brother, Oscar, are both worried because going AWOL isn’t her brand. So Oscar asks his neighbor Sam if he’ll investigate. Sam, whom the Covid pandemic seems to have kept off the radar since Deep Dive (2019), is no more eager than ever to take on the work, but he’s sold on the urgency of the case when he learns that Oriana was working with Sheldon Trusedale on a genetic treatment for Alzheimer’s that could be game-changing. No sooner has Sam learned that BioLogics, the firm Oriana and Trusedale founded, is getting major financial backing from Zurich venture capitalist Dario Hunziker than Trusedale is found dead, his car wrapped around a tree. Has Ingenuit, the firm competing with BioLogics in a race toward the treatment, declared open war on its rival? Are they the power behind Jerome Woodson, the thug who tries to scare Sam off the case? What can Sam and Det. Ellie Pike possibly learn by going undercover in the Casbah, a gambling joint owned by Sally Al Khatib, the player who actually hired Woodson? If Oriana Octavio is still alive, as Sam maintains she is, where on earth is she? Or could she actually be hiding in plain sight?

Fans of the series will enjoy its usual low-key pleasures, capped by a nifty climactic surprise.