FALSE POSITIVE
Andrew Grant
December 2015
Ballantine Books
Detective Cooper Devereaux can’t seem to stay off the suspension list—one thing after another just seems to land him hot water. But when a young boy named Ethan goes missing from his bed, Devereaux’s boss has no choice but to pull Devereaux from his latest time out to work the case. Ethan is an orphan who was adopted by a rich family and Devereaux along with his new partner Jan Loflin—herself just back from some time off after a stint in vice—immediately start looking into the family. It becomes quickly apparent, however, that there is a larger pattern to young Ethan’s disappearance, and Devereaux is going to have to pull on more than a few dangerous threads to rescue Ethan—and himself.
Grant is a master at building suspense and moving the plot forward at nothing short of breakneck speed. This new character Devereaux is a fantastic mystery in and of himself—you can’t tell if he’s a good guy doing dangerous things to find the truth, or a dirty cop playing games within the system. The story itself is interspersed with tidbits about Devereax’s career missteps, which only add to the aura of mystery around him. Grant finds the perfect balance, keeping the reader right on a knife’s edge trying to decipher the enigma that is Cooper Devereaux. And while it’s obvious that his new partner Loflin is suspicious of him, it’s also obvious that Loflin is hiding more than a few secrets of her own.
Grant really has a gift for creating a fascinating set-up, and for very unexpected twists. This is both a complicated and spellbinding plot, but also an emotionally charged one. Be prepared to devour this in one sitting. And that ending? It will leave your skin crawling—and begging for more.
Erica Ruth Neubauer
