An audio book.
Sexy Daisy tricks older Dale Milton into driving her home from a bar while drunk - a set up. She's done it before. Rex, a cop, gets him to stop. Dale shoots and kills him.
Inspector Napoleon (Nap) Dumas is visited by police (Bates and Stacey Reynolds). He had a twin brother Leo (who he still often refers to as "you"). Leo and girlfriend Diana died together on a train line. Suicide? Murder? His parents (French father) are dead. He volunteers at a battered wives refuge (and attacks husbands who have behaved badly). 15 years before, he used to go out with Moira. When she disappeared he put her fingerprints on the database with instructions that he should be contacted if she found. Moira is Daisy, which why the police are visiting. Nap deduces that Dale was going through a divorce and had fallen into a trap that would damage his case. But the man in the car had a fake name. Perhaps he was a hit man paid to kill Rex?
He consults a schoolfriend. The dead people belonged to the "conspiracy club" - to do with a secret missile launching site nearby. The site didn't used to be secret - school trips were arranged to it - but security was increased when it became an "agriculture research centre" (when the missiles became nuclear?). 3 months after Leo/Diana's death it closed down. Other club members were Hank (brilliant but has mental problems - he's recently disappeared) and Beth (who's been out of contact for years. She's made an effort to hide her identity but they track her down).
Diana's father Oggy has guided Leo through his career. He's a police boss now. He says that on that final night he saw that Leo was high when he collected Diana.
A rumour on social media said that Hank flashed to schoolgirls. Nap tracks down the initiators and finds out it's not true - people wanted to get rid of a wierdo. Hank is found hung from a tree, castrated. He left a tape of that night.
Ellie, the boss of the wives refuge, tells him that she suspects he's been attacking husbands. He doesn't deny it. She tells him to stop.
Nap tracks down Andy Reeves, the boss of security of the old camp. He tells Reeves about the tape. Reeves assaults him, takes him to a warehouse to torture him. Moira saves Nap, killing Reeves. She takes him to the woods to relive the night. She says they were shot at. As she ran away she heard a scream. She reported nothing and has been on the run for 15 years. They go to her room and make love. Nap's still puzzled about why the murders are re-starting after 15 years. He doesn't believe that Hank killed himself. How did Moira escape from the professional hitman?
The FBI interview him with people (including a state prosecutor) around. Nap tells everyone what he thinks. An FBI agent starts to attack him. Nap knocks him out and escapes. He and Moira drive to see Beth. She says that Leo LSD'd Diana as a joke and took her to the wood. A prisoner escaped, and Diana got caught in the crossfire. Nap meets Oggy, already suspecting the truth. Oggy says he found Diana dead and killed Leo, faking their death. He was the hitman who killed Rex (he let Daisy go because she wasn't a witness to the original incident. He killed Hank. Nap stops Oggy killing Beth, him or himself. He realises that he might have caught his vigilanty tendencies from Oggy. He plans to live with Moira,
Fast paced. A good read. Some phrases attracted my attention -
- "Daisy wore a clingy black dress with a neckline so deep it could tutor philosophy" (parodying the hard-boiled style?)
- "the play button descends with an audible click" (but aren't all clicks audible?)
- "Hank's eyes dart about like scared birds trying to find a place to land" (from Nap's PoV - which explains why it's a cliche?)
Other reviews
- Kirkus reviews (What secret could the Conspiracy Club have discovered that would remain so dangerous for so long? Sadly, the answers are neither as interesting nor even as surprising as the setup. This may be the first time most of perennially bestselling Coben’s readers will beat his hard-used hero to the solution.)
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