What if you found out that your child you thought was dead….might not be?

And your ex-wife may have hidden this information from you?

Those two questions creates the theme in Recovery Man (Book 6 of the Retrieval Artist Series) by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. For the first six books of the series, we had not learned much about Miles Flint’s personal life. We knew from the backstory in The Disappeared (Book 1 of the series) that his daughter, Emmeline, was killed and the criminal who committed the murder prosecuted.  Also, that Miles and his wife, Rhonda divorces some time after that. Well, Recovery Man delves into Flint’s personal life in a surprising and profound way and takes the series in a new direction.

Flint was following-up on a case after Paloma’s (his mentor) death in Book 5 of the Series. The information he finds out is somehow connected to the supposed death of Emmeline. The Retrieval Artist investigates this connection and learns some disturbing information about his ex-wife that will alter his career and life forever.

Recovery Man is a good entry point for new readers who may want to try out the Retrieval Artist Series.  Rusch does an excellent job of weaving in the backstory without bogging down the pace of the novel.  Also, I feel that new readers can get a good grasp of the Retrieval Artist’s character development without having to go back and read the first five books of the series.  However, I will write that once you have read Recovery Man, you will definitely want to go back and read the prior books in the series.

I thought the Paloma (Book 5) was my favorite one of the series.  Recovery Man has replaced Paloma as my favorite book of the series. I highly recommend these thought-provoking science fiction thrillers and I’m looking forward to reading Duplicate Effort, the next book in the series.