GLOW TRAP (Clay Wolfe / Port Essex Mystery 6) by Matt Cost-review and interview

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 13, 2025

What happens when a spy, a retired thief, and a person in the witness relocation program end up in the same coastal Maine town? Nothing, unless a man using an alias washes up on shore and threatens to tear the idyllic nature of said town apart at the seams.

The gang is back together in the deadliest game yet. Westy, the former Navy SEAL, Murphy the IRA member turned clammer, Cloutier the newspaper editor, and the foul-mouthed Crystal all join together to root out the insidious evil lurking in the belly of Port Essex.

Meanwhile, the romance between Clay and Baylee deepens, leading him to consider proposing. This thought process is propelled forward by her near-death experience. Will their love have a happy ending?

Clay Wolfe, Baylee Baker, the gang, and Port Essex become embroiled in their hottest and deadliest mystery yet. Will the spies, informants, and thieves be exposed in time before the killers can finish the job that they have begun?

•••••••

REVIEW: GLOW TRAP is the sixth and final instalment in Matt Cost’s contemporary, adult CLAY WOLFE / PORT ESSEX MYSTERY suspense series focusing on thirty-seven year old, former homicide detective turned private investigator Clay Wolfe, his girlfriend and partner Baylee Baker, and his intrepid team of undercover operatives and amateur sleuths. GLOW TRAP can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

Told from numerous omniscient third person perspectives GLOW TRAP follows several intersecting pathways when PI Clay Wolfe is asked to locate a missing landscaper whose side-gig as a drug dealer may have cost him his life; and a contracted investigation into the supposed drowning of a man whose fear of the water is no match for murderous intent. From Russian spies and double agents, to CIA operatives, questionable law enforcement and retired criminals, Clay Wolfe finds himself a target when the past comes full circle, reminding Clay that everything and everyone is not whom they appear to be.

The world building is detailed and complex as Clay Wolfe encounters a ghost from the past, a ghost he never knew existed in the here and now. Believing the good guy always wins, Clay, Baylee and the gang discover crime often pays but with the help of your friends, payment can be swift and steep. Trust is constrained as deceit and pretense threaten any semblance of peace for the people of Port Essex.

GLOW TRAP is a story of secrets and lies, betrayal and vengeance, murder and obsession, power and control, friendships and love. The premise is fascinating, compelling and thought-provoking ; the characters are numerous, familiar, dogged and tenacious.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Wolfe Trap
Mind Trap
Mouse Trap
Cosmic Trap
Pirate Trap

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

 

 

TRC: Hi Matt and welcome to The Reading Café. Congratulations on the release of GLOW TRAP the sixth and final instalment in your Clay Wolfe / Port Essex Mystery series.

We would like to start with some background information. Would you please tell us something about yourself?

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Matt Cost: I write histories and mysteries. Glow Trap is my eighteenth published book. Fifteen of them are part of four different series. The Mainely Mysteries, Clay Wolfe Trap series, the Brooklyn 8 Ballo series, and the Chronicles of Max Creed. Three are stand-alone historical fiction.

TRC:Who or what influenced your career in writing?

Matt Cost: My parents instilled a love of reading. Early favourites were the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Encyclopaedia Brown, and the Great Brain. These evolved into Louis L’Amour, Stephen King, Elmore Leonard, Robert Parker, and Carl Hiaasen.

TRC: What challenges or difficulties have you encountered writing and publishing?

Matt Cost: I’ve spent thirty years honing my craft in writing and that is just putting the work in and getting better. Once the writing is good enough, it can be very difficult to find an agent or publisher. And once that hurdle has been cleared, you still must market and promote to get your book out there. It is a grind, day in and day out, but it is a grind that I truly enjoy.

TRC:Would you please tell us something about the premise of GLOW TRAP and the Clay Wolfe/ Port Essex Mystery Series?

Matt Cost: The premise of GLOW TRAP was reading about a retired spy community living in a coastal Maine town. The idea is that when people leave the CIA and other agencies such as that, it is nice to go where others have lived the same life as you. So, I had thoughts of capitalizing on that. Unfortunately, Tess Gerritsen beat me to the punch with “Spy Coast”. I tweaked the idea to a retired spy, a former art thief, and a member of the WITSEC program, all of who’d banded together in the small coastal Maine town of Port Essex. When a man washes up dead on the rocks of town, Clay Wolfe and Baylee Baker are pulled into the fray to investigate, and all sorts of complications follow.

TRC: What kind of research/plotting did you do, and how long did you spend researching /plotting before beginning GLOW TRAP or The Clay Wolfe / Port Essex series?

Matt Cost: A lot of work goes into the initial book of a series, in this case, WOLFE TRAP. The creation of character descriptions, backstories, idiosyncrasies, speech, relationships, and whatnot is a major piece in the creation of a book. Luckily, a lot of that work has been done for the ensuing books. Research can be great or small. For MIND TRAP, I went down many rabbit holes concerning cults. I’d no idea how many, how powerful, how large—the cults of the world are. For MOUSE TRAP, I had to learn about genome editing, or the technology of CRISPR that allows scientists to change the DNA of babies in the embryo stage to cure disease, but also to change eye color, and possibly make them bigger, stronger, and smarter. COSMIC TRAP was learning about UAPs. A congressional task force has been appointed to investigate the excess of unexplained aerial phenomena that daily takes place in the skies. Their findings so far? There is something up there, but we don’t know what. PIRATE TRAP? Pirates of course. And GLOW TRAP got me into the CIA, spies, the witness relocation program, and so much more that I found to be fascinating.

TRC:Is any of the premise based in reality or fact?

Matt Cost: As mentioned, there is truly a coastal Maine town with a retired spy population. I just built on that to wonder where wealthy thieves who were never caught ended up as well as people in WITSEC. These are three categories of dangerous people living under the radar in our communities. Interesting fodder for a book.

TRC:Are any of the characters based on real people or people in your life?

Matt Cost: I use pieces of people to create my characters, but no one person is a real person in my life. Dogs? That is a different story. Frank and Flash both have real counterparts who live in my house.

TRC:Believability is an important factor in writing story lines especially stories of mystery and suspense. How do you keep the story line believable? Where do you believe some author’s fail?

Matt Cost: The adage that truth is stranger than fiction is extremely true. Some of my biggest difficulties are putting real events in the book and then realizing that they are so far-fetched that the reader will lose faith in the story, and I have to dampen them down.

TRC:Do you believe the cover image plays a deciding factor for many readers in the process of selecting a book or new series to read?

Matt Cost: I do. It is the first impression that a reader gets, whether in the bookstore or online, and something about it has to grab the reader to then read the description, and then hopefully, browse a page before deciding that the book is for them.

TRC: When writing a storyline, do the characters direct the writing or do you direct the characters?

Matt Cost: The characters absolutely lead me. That is one of the beautiful pieces of writing a series, because the protagonist and other regulars become family. At certain points, I must close the laptop and go for a dog walk in the woods and let the characters speak to me and let me know what they would do in certain situations. Then, I return, and am ready to go under their direction and supervision.

TRC: The mark of a good writer is to pull the reader into the storyline so that they experience the emotions along with the characters. What do you believe a writer must do to make this happen? Where do you believe writer’s fail in this endeavor?

Matt Cost: It is absolutely crucial to make the characters in the story real. That reality includes flaws as well as strengths, emotions and backstories, and the living embodiment of a human being who can be loved and hated. Then, these people have to be thrown into situations that evoke fear, happiness, anger, frustration, and other emotional turbulences to bring the reader skidding into the power of the story.

TRC:Do you listen to music while writing? If so, does the style of music influence the storyline direction? Characters?

Matt Cost: I write in my living room with my headphones on listening to cool jazz music. It walls me off from reality and allows me to enter my writing world, but I have no comprehension of the music being played.

TRC:What do you believe is the biggest misconception people have about authors?

Matt Cost: That we are making a ton of money. Only a few of us are. The rest are grinding it out.

TRC:What is something that few, if anyone, know about you?

Matt Cost: I enjoyed acting in school before sports made me quit that pursuit.

TRC:On what are you currently working? Do you have plans for a new series?

Matt Cost: I am writing the third book in my Chronicles of Max Creed. There is another series under contract with Level Best Books, the Jazz Jones & January Queen historical mysteries. The first book, 1955, will be out in October of 2026. And I am shopping around the debut of another series called BOB CHICAGO INVESTIGATES.

TRC:Would you like to add anything else?

Matt Cost:Thanks for inviting me onto your site and for your loyal reviews of my books!

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food: English muffin pizza.

OMG-best food ever !!!

Favorite Dessert: Tiramisu.

Favorite TV Show: Rockford Files.

Last Movie You Saw: Happy Gilmore 2.

Dark or Milk Chocolate: Dark.

Secret Celebrity Crush: Jodi Foster.

Last Vacation Destination: North Carolina.

Do you have any pets? Four dogs.

Last book you read: King of Ashes.

TRC:Thank you Matt for taking the time to answer our questions. Congratulations on the release of GLOW TRAP and the Clay Wolfe/ Port Essex series. We wish you all the best.