After 20 years, Stephen White has decided to end his popular series featuring Boulder psychologist Dr. Alan Gregory. The penultimate book, Line of Fire, starts to bring the saga full circle.

Wildfires rage across the Colorado countryside, and the call for evacuation could come at any time. A new client has a strange story to tell, and a colleague has begun showing signs of a nervous breakdown. A secret between Gregory and police officer Sam Purdy, revealed in 2007’s Dry Ice, has started to emerge, and it’s the one thing that could shatter Gregory’s marriage, destroy his career and put him behind bars for decades. Matters would only be worse for Purdy.

White was a practicing clinical psychologist for more than 15 years, so he brings the needed authenticity to Gregory’s cases. The fly-on-the-wall feel during his sessions with clients adds an emotional element to the proceedings that gives the characters added realism.

White has created an amazing cast of characters, and seeing the end in sight is sad. But White has had an run of almost 20 Gregory novels. Fans will love how the threads from the other books weave into a complex tapestry. Newcomers will find a compelling mystery set against the beautiful Colorado landscape amid raging wildfires.

The end of Line of Fire is a bit abrupt, but there’s one more novel coming to provide closure.

Jeff Ayers reviewed this book for The Associated Press.