Dr Jay Handler's nephew Evan appears to have committed suicide but investigations reveal that his death was no suicide and is related to his father's murky background on a commune in the 1970s. Jay Handler's life is ideal. He's a successful New York doctor; he has a beautiful wife, Katy, and two well-adjusted children, Sophie and Matt. But his perfect life is shattered when he receives a phone call from his brother Charlie, informing him that his nephew, Evan, has hurled himself over a cliff. Evan had a known bipolar disorder apparently inherited from his parents.
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Jay rushes to California to be with Charlie and his wife, Gabby, but after assessing all the evidence at hand, he increasingly starts to doubt that Evan had committed suicide.
Sherwood, the coroner's detective who is overseeing the case, is reluctantly drawn into the case. He has personal demons he wants to rid himself of. He's also had a liver transplant which he knows won't hold out for long. He wants to go out on a high note.
Together Jay and Sherwood begin to unravel the murkiness surrounding the case. A basketball pal of Evan's who'd come to pay his respects reveals that a policeman, Walter Zorn, had made contact with Evan at the courts, days before his death. Jay scarcely has time to digest this information when Zorn is found brutally murdered with the bizarre image of an eye carved onto the side of his tongue. It resembles the symbol found on Evan.
Jay discovers that Zorn was the policeman who, 35 years before, had arrested a bunch of hippies and their leader, Houvnanian, after he'd received tip offs that they'd brutally murdered Riorden the owner of the ranch they were occupying, as well as his guests, after he'd ordered them off the ranch. Houvnanian and the four were given multiple life sentences while three others received lesser sentences for conspiracy. At his sentencing, Houvnanian had declared that he'd be back just like Jesus Christ to “finish what was begun” but that no one would know when he'd return or in what manner. The word watch, had been key in his address. Jay suddenly realizes that the eye symbols on the victims so far, was Houvnanian's sign that his revenge mission had begun. But what is the connection with Evan? Jay remembers that his brother Charlie had been a member of the commune at one stage but when asked about it, Charlie claims he left long before the murders.
Jay does more research and learns that a woman named Susan, who'd been serving a thirty-five-year sentence for conspiracy in the Riorden murders, had been released just before Evan's death. The other two who had been serving the same sentence, had long passed on. While on a visit to the scene of Evan's death, a vendor in the area tells Detective Sherwood that he had seen someone matching Evan's description going up the hill to the cliff, but that he'd been in the company of a woman. He however, cannot not give a positive identification of the woman because she'd been wearing dark glasses and a baseball cap. Meanwhile, another death has occurred. It later emerges that the dead woman, Sherry, had lived on the ranch at the time of the Riorden murders. An eye symbol had also been left on her body.
Convinced that Susan was involved in this woman's murder, as well as Evan's and Zorn's, Jay and Sherwood track her down to a remote plot where she professes her innocence and declares she's sorry for what she's done. She appears not to remember Charlie. But Jay is not convinced and he's sure his seen her in a car in the vicinity of Charlie's apartment. Jay now believes Charlie is being scape goated for a reason.
Jay and Sherwood then visit the mastermind of the Riorden murders, Houvnanian, who is in jail, to find out why he had targeted Charlie through Evan. But Houvnanian spends the interview talking in riddles, pretending any kind of revenge mission, denies any recollection of Charlie or any current connection with Susan. Jay and Sherwood, however, learn from the prison records that Susan had written to Houvnanain. And reading in between the lines, it's clear she's on some kind of revenge mission on his part. She's also mysteriously disappeared from her farm.
Events escalate when Jay and Gabby escape with their lives when Jay's car explodes while they're out shopping. Charlie decides to open up about his past and about the threats and warnings he's been receiving that he's kept to himself. He was indeed at the ranch at the time of the Riorden murders and although he hadn't taken part, he had played the role of police informant, together with Sherry. That's probably why Evan was killed and why he and Gabby were next in line.
Jay knows that Susan could not have been acting alone. And it suddenly dawns on him who her accomplice is. It's Dev, the supposed street man that he befriended outside his motel and who every day had become increasingly bold in his approaches. He identifies him in a photo of the people at the ranch at the time of the murders.
But Jay's discovery comes too late. Dev has already disposed of Detective Sherwood and turns to attack Jay leaving him barely alive and with the ominous message: “We've got your son.” Jay's wife Katy can't locate their son Matt, when he calls her. In a panic, Jay sets off for Charlie's house to provide support and find out where Matt is. He finds the killers, Susan and Dev already there, holding Charlie and Gabby hostage. Gabby lunges for the woman who killed her son, there's a tussle which leaves Susan and Gabby dead. Charlie follows soon after. Dev won't say anything about Matt but before he's shot dead by police arriving on the scene, he throws out another riddle about the jack of hearts on a card suite, and warns that Jay still has work to do and things to find out. To his relief, Jay finds that Matt is safe and sound in New York.
Jay resumes his old life in New York but is constantly plagued by the cryptic messages he'd heard from Houvnanian and Dev. He looks through his father's belongings and appears to make sense of some of what Dev had been hinting at. His father had also been killed by Houvnanian's agents several years before. But what he doesn't know is that they are now watching Matt. A would-be vagrant who shares Matt's taste for guitar-playing has made contact with him and given him a piece of paper with an eye on it.
Best part of story, including ending:
I liked it because it's fast paced and an excellent read. It was very well put together.
Best scene in story:
I like the scene when towards the end of the book, Gabby, Evan's mother is face to face with Susan, the woman that killed her son. She unexpectedly rushes at Susan and impales her on Charlie's broken guitar. So much for Susan's carefully laid plans for killing the couple and enjoying the experience.
Opinion about the main character:
I like Jay because he's believable and all his discoveries are logical. They are not improbable or the result of coincidences.
