After That, the Dark
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
In this newest entry in Andrew Klavan’s USA Today bestselling Cameron Winter series, the ex-spy turned English professor finds love—and murder.
Cameron Winter is falling in love. After finally working up the courage to contact the attractive therapist Gwendolyn Lord, he finds himself immersed in a passion that feels heaven-sent. When Gwendolyn tells him about a true-life “locked room mystery,” Winter feels compelled to investigate.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a solid citizen named Owen McKay suddenly went mad and killed his wife and child. Locked in a padded cell and monitored on video, he was nonetheless discovered dead from a projectile fired into his head. As Winter begins to ask questions, he finds Tulsa officials have been intimidated into silence by a killer who once tried to attack Winter during his days as a government assassin. What’s more, another mysterious death, just like McKay’s, has taken place in Connecticut. And both murders seem linked to a sinister billionaire who once clashed with Winter’s old mentor, the Recruiter.
Winter’s past and present are coming together in a single dangerous conspiracy. And though Winter desperately wants to escape his career as an assassin, his love for Gwendolyn is deepening quickly and he will do anything—and kill anyone—to protect her.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Klavan's brilliant fifth mystery featuring Cameron Winter (after A Woman Underground), the Illinois hit man–turned–English professor investigates a baffling cold case. After spending months unpacking his emotional baggage in therapy, Winter is emboldened to ask his acquaintance, Gwendolyn Lord, on a date. When he divulges his violent past over dinner, Gwendolyn responds by recounting the story of a bizarre real-life mystery she learned about from a grad school friend. About five months before, beloved Tulsa community figure Owen McKay was arrested for murdering his wife and their toddler, and placed in a padded, unfurnished cell. Somehow, despite receiving no visitors, he wound up dead from a wound to his heart. Official reports concluded that McKay died by suicide, using a nail gun he'd managed to sneak into his cell, but Winter is unconvinced, and he starts to investigate. Then another murder case with eerie echoes of McKay's alleged suicide crops up in Connecticut, raising the stakes. The solution, when it arrives, hits the sweet spot between logical and surprising, and Winter's romantic entanglement adds depth to his characterization. The author's prose, meanwhile, remains as darkly hypnotic as ever. This series continues to impress.