First published 2017
It is May 23 in Promise Falls, and people are dropping dead. Cal Weaver, a private investigator, traces the mass casualties to the town's water supply. Someone poisoned it. While Weaver works that angle, Detective Barry Duckworth catches a murder case at the local college. A student is dead, and the crime scene looks familiar. Two women were killed in Promise Falls not long ago, and whoever did it was never caught. Duckworth thinks he is looking at the same hands. Then the connections start to surface. A Ferris wheel car marked 23, filled with bloody mannequins. A runaway bus with 23 on its back end. A man charged with assault wearing a hoodie with the number on the chest. The poisoning, the murders, the strange incidents over the past month are not separate problems. They point to one source, one motive, one number. Duckworth pushes toward the answer, and the closer he gets, the more danger closes in around him. This is the final chapter of the Promise Falls Trilogy, and the town's survival depends on what he finds out next.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, adult-fiction, thriller
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, gritty, intense, suspenseful
Tropes: interconnected-mysteries, race-against-time, unreliable-clues
Setting: Promise Falls
512 pages · Paperback · Orion
Content warnings: death, murder, violence