Krishna
We have reviewed several of this author’s books. For example The Stone Monkey featuring detective Lincoln Rhymes and The Sleeping Doll featuring Kathryn Dance.
Warning : Unlike my usual policy, this review does contain spoilers. I did this because, in this instance, I felt that I needed to give some details even to help you make sense of the story, but if you do not want spoilers, I’d advise you to skip this review. All you need to know is that this book is definitely worth reading!
This book has been written with Isabella Maldonado. Want to mention this fact for the sake of completeness. But since the book very closely follows Deaver’s style of twist within a twist etc, this is pretty much like reading one of Deaver’s other books.
Walter Kemp stalks and photographs the most elusive female Mountain Kingsnake in the forest. But on his way back, he is attacked by a man with a poison spider tattooed on his fingers using a shovel to bludgeon him to death.
Dennison Fallow was the man who killed him.
Selina is sitting in a coffee shop when an attractive stranger asks for a pen to finish his crossword puzzle, Attractive though he is, the spider tattoo on his finger creeps her out and so they do not pursue a connection.
We learn that Selina is the sister of our detective Sanchez. When later Dennison attacks her when she leaves the coffee shop in a secluded spot, Selina reacts. First she pretends to be unconscious when she falls, studying the attacker, Using the basic techniques Sanchez taught her, Selina wounds the attacker and also manages to grab his phone.
The phone turns out to be a ‘burner’ but Sanchez goes to her ex flame Professor Jake Heron who is the best in cryptology as the contents are in a code that cannot be broken by the police. He and Sanchez had a fallout years ago and Jake wants to send her back ASAP. He goes to a friend who breaks two of the files – pictures of Selina and Walter Kemp. They now know that the killer is targeting Selina particularly and it is not a random attack.
We learn cute trivia too. Cobwebs (of course Denison is fascinated with spiders) comes from Old English Copps, which means – you guessed it – ‘spider’.
Meanwhile Heron gets into trouble for being overzealous. He gives a direct order to the assitant of Sanchez (much to her annoyance) and gets called out by her boss. The boss reluctantly agreed to let Heron continue. Meanwhile, he picks locks to go into the gunrunner’s house but they find him murdered, and so Heron is off the hook again. He went in only because he saw something. The gunrunner has been killed by Dennison. He walked right by Sanchez and Heron pretending to be a dog walker from a kidnapped dog!
After a breathtaking chase, Sanchez loses him because he made a school bus topple. They get valuable clues – that he calls himself ‘Spider’, that he is linked with the murder of Walter, he is a gambler (from the little white ball he used)
He meanwhile kills a successful restaurant meat wholesaler and steals his fillet knife. First, Sanchez and Heron think that he has boiled the victim in the vessels but that turns out to be beef. The body of the owner is found hanging from a high crane, taped up in a curved position, rather like a spider.
His friend, the computer wizard with a handle called fEar17 (I think) finds out that he is up against the old nemesis, Heron, who is helping Sanchez. He thinks ‘Game On’ the same challenging message he had sent him in his earlier tussles with Heron.
They also learn that all the victims so far have been successful folks and that their profile has appeared in a particular magazine. The plot thickens.
He then targets a fitness influencer called Tanya Hilton. His accomplice has figured that she has multiple locks in her house which are hard to break but also finds out about the fitness club. Dressed as an attendant there, Dennison sees her swimming and then, with the fillet knife, goes into her bathroom to wait for her.
Carmen and Heron reach there on time. He runs away, shooting Heron in the chest but Heron was wearing Kevlar and escapes with bruises. Next he targets another person called Natalie and again, Carmen arrives, runs after him and keeps him pinned until the police come. However, FeAR aka Tristan Kane saves the day by threatening the officer and having him fake an accident whereby Dennison escapes.
Poley’s mom Jennifer is sexy and beautiful and most nerds have a crush on her. However, there is a triple twist here – Deaver style. First, she is in a sexual relationship with Dennison. Second, she herself is a very highly skilled, professional assassin hired by the very rich. The third twist? Jennifer is the wife of Charlie Benedict, a killer disguised as a psychiatrist, and who ‘groomed’ Dennison when he realized the latter’s potential.
Another little trick : The whole ‘serial killing’ and haters website where they kill successful people was a diversion. They were after one victim only, and the rest was window dressing. The password to the site was ‘crackable’ to give them a false motive so that the police would not look elsewhere. Sanchez is the one who clues into all this and alerts Heron.
He takes the help of Natalie and figures out that she was the intended victim. With Poley, her son, Jennifer and Dennison come to finish the job of killing Natalie but they are just one step ahead of her and she meets them with a gun.
Now Jennifer sends Poley to run and rats out on him to the police. He is critically shot and is in the hospital (or dead?) and she tries to escape in a car. Her car gets the tires busted by a sniper and she is caught.
Meanwhile Dennison runs into a warehouse and lies in wait for Sanchez who is pursuing him. But she outwits him again and arrests him. In the interrogation, she reveals that the last victim planned by Jennifer was he, Dennison. He is shocked but reveals his secrets, sinking Jennifer’s employer and his merger.
Meanwhile FeAR-15 has transferred Jennifer’s money to his account in Caribbean and has gone to Trinidad and Tobago to live out his life comfortably and take further assassinations.
Now, Jack is recruited by Sanchez’s boss to work with her and he accepts.
Meanwhile, he also makes peace between Sanchez and her sister by revealing that his father was murdered, and did not kill himself, removing one big barrier between them.
Jack’s final act is to financially and legally, clean out all funds of FeAR-15 whose new handle is DR-one.
Amazing story, as only Jeffrey can do. Twists within twists and it is fun to read.
8/10
— Krishna