Twenty-two years ago Sami Kierce had just graduated from college and was backpacking across Europe before starting classes at Columbia University Medical School.
In a nightclub on Spain's Costal del Sol, Sami met a pretty girl called Anna and spent the next few days with her - drinking, dancing, taking drugs, having sex, and so on.
Then one morning Sami woke up with a bloody knife in his hand, and Anna's dead body beside him. Sami - who was sure he'd been drugged - threw away the knife, informed the police, and took the next plane home.
Two decades later Kierce - who had felt too frightened, distressed, and disturbed to pursue a medical career - was a police detective. Being something of a wild card cop, Sami made one mistake too many and got thrown off the force.
Kierce is a now a family man, with a wife named Molly and a baby called Henry.
To make ends meet, Sami is employed as an unlicensed private detective for a New York law firm, working for an attorney named Arthur.
Kierce also teaches a criminology class called 'No Shit, Sherlock' at an adult night school on NYC's Lower East Side. Sami observes, "The pamphlet advertising my course calls me a 'world renowned ex-police detective' alongside a headshot of me so unflattering the DMV is jealous."
Sami's gung-ho criminology students include three golden age women who call themselves 'The Pink Panthers';
a trio of young women who have a true-crime podcast called 'Three Red Hots';
Golfer Gary, who always wears a golf shirt with a logo from some ritzy club;
two bohemian types named Debbie and Raymond; and more.
Kierce is teaching his class one night when a doppelganger for Anna (if she was 20 years older) enters the classroom.
Kierce startles to see 'Anna', and she notices and runs out. Sami follows the woman to a luxurious estate in Connecticut, where he's threatened by two security guards and ejected.
Sami feels compelled to find out about this woman, who - if she's really Anna - derailed his life. Sammy recalls, "I was supposed to be a physician. That had been my plan from as young as I can remember. If I hadn't gone to Spain and met Anna, I would have gone to Columbia University medical school that fall. I'd have done the four years. I'd have picked a specialty - I was interested in cardiology - and gone on to my internship and residency."
Kierce investigates Anna with the help of his 'No Shit, Sherlock' students, who turn out to be excellent detectives.
Meanwhile, Sami is faced with an additional heartrending problem. Tad Grayson, who was convicted of murdering Sami's fiancée Nicole two decades ago, is being released from prison for a faulty prosecution. Grayson can be retried if new evidence is found, and Sami puts his night school pupils on that case as well.
As the two inquiries proceed, there are surprising revelations a homicide, and a tricky resolution.
Author Harlan Coben always writes good mysteries, and I enjoyed the book (even though one plot point is a bit predictable). Coben's first book featuring Detective Kierce, Fool Me Once, is a mini-series on Netflix, and this one is following suit.
Thanks to Netgalley, Harlan Coben, and Grand Central Publishing for a copy of the book.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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