When Jim “Zig” Zigarowski gets the call, he jumps to help. There is a soldier who needs his help, a man who served his country and is heading for his funeral. Now he needs the help of a talented mortician to prepare him for his family one last time, and Zig says yes. He’ll always say yes when it comes to helping soldiers. But it’s not until Zig shows up for Archie Mint and gets him prepared for his showing that Zig realizes that there is more happening than he first thought.

He decides to stay for the funeral, to try to figure out what is really going on. And that’s where he sees her. Nola Brown appears at the back of the room, and it’s clear from the reaction of the soldiers who had been keeping an eye on things that she is why they were there. When Nola ducks back out of the room, several soldiers follow her, as does Zig.

Zig knows Nola from when she was a kid, a peer to his daughter Maggie, one night even saving Maggie’s life. But he also knows her from two years ago, when she reappeared in her life and turned it upside down. They stumbled on a pocket of crime in the military and put their lives on the line to find out who was behind it and stop them. Nola had saved Zig’s life, but he hadn’t seen her since. Until Archie’s funeral. And then she disappears again.

However, Zig stumbles on someone else looking for Nola, a policeman named Roddy LaPointe, Nola’s twin brother.

As Zig tries to figure out the connection between Archie Mint and Nola, Nola tries to figure out who killed Archie. It looked like a robbery gone wrong, but is that what really happened? When Zig finds out about a top secret military operation to help protect citizens in times of war. But digging up these secrets is attracting the wrong kind of attention, and Zig, Roddy, and Nola are all fighting to stay alive long enough to solve the mystery of Archie’s death.

Zig and Nola are back in The Lightning Rod, a follow-up to The Escape Artist, where we first meet these characters. Author Brad Meltzer has created these individuals who are smart and broken, driven and caring, and the stories that he crafts around them are compelling and powerful. Normally, when talking about a series of books, I’ll point out that the books can be read in any order, because usually authors will write books that can be standalone novels as well as a series. But that’s no the case here. You don’t have to read The Escape Artist to enjoy The Lightning Rod, but Meltzer does give away the ending of the first book in this one, so it you want to experience the ending of the book with all the surprises, then you do have to read The Escape Artist before jumping in to this one.

I got to listen to this on audio, and I thought narrator Scott Brick did a fabulous job with the drama and adventure in this story. While The Lightning Rod has a lot of big action scenes, there are also a lot of quiet scenes, and Brick was able to dramatize the big action and brought the right tone to the more personal moments.

I am a huge fan of this series. I think it brings so much heart, along with lots of action and love for the military. While there are these big mysteries to solve, there are also very human characters who are trying to figure out how to heal from large life traumas. These books have it all, and I am all in for it. I can’t wait to see where these characters go next.

Egalleys for The Lightning Rod were provided by William Morrow through NetGalley, with many thanks, but I bought the audio myself through Audible.