First published 1980
The death appears straightforward when someone takes their own life in the country club lobby. But what seems like a simple suicide quickly transforms into something far more sinister. Bodies begin accumulating at an alarming rate, each death connected to the original incident in ways that become increasingly complex. The protagonist finds himself drawn deeper into a web of secrets that the country club's elite members have worked hard to keep buried. Each clue he uncovers leads to another corpse, and the mounting death toll suggests that someone will kill repeatedly to protect whatever truth lies beneath the surface. As the investigation progresses, the elegant facade of the country club world crumbles to reveal the dangerous motivations driving the killer. The protagonist must navigate this treacherous landscape where trust is scarce and every revelation brings him closer to becoming the next victim. The mystery demands he solve not just who is responsible for the growing pile of bodies, but why the original suicide was worth killing to conceal.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator, web-of-secrets
Setting: Country Club
Period: Contemporary
Mass Market Paperback · Ballantine Books
Content warnings: murder, violence