Downfall
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
First, his doppelganger is killed—then it's his father. Rick Shepherd is being stalked by a murderer.
When Rick Shepherd, a physician, approaches his office on a busy Manhattan street, he finds police cars, an ambulance, and crime scene technicians. He soon learns a passerby was shot three times in the back, murdered at the front door to Rick's office.
Later that evening while watching the local news, Rick and his fiancee, Jackie, see a photo of the victim—to their horror, the deceased looks identical to Rick.
Two nights later, while making a house call in a Brooklyn apartment building, Rick's 64-year-old father is shot and killed in the exact same way. Detectives Art Nager and Liz Callaghan are assigned the case, and they launch an investigation. There are no clues leading to the perpetrator.
Even more ominously, someone has been calling Rick and Jackie's apartment and hanging up. Whoever is targeting Rick must have murdered his father, and they now have Rick in their crosshairs. Nager and Callaghan seem to be making no progress with their investigation. Rick's quest for the truth draws him into a labyrinth of secrets, past tragedies, and the agonizing pain of lives shattered by a single event. Can he make it out before he meets the same fate as his father?
Perfect for fans of Michael Connelly and J. D. Robb
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Physician Rick Shepherd, the protagonist of this strong thriller set in 1983 New York City from Rubinstein (Assassin's Lullaby), regrets having joined a Manhattan practice, because its orthopedic surgeon managing partner insists that his colleagues pack their schedules with nonstop patient appointments, even at the cost of providing lower-quality care, to maximize the bottom line. But those work concerns, which lead Rick to question his choice of profession, recede in importance when he returns to the office after a coffee break to find a man has been fatally shot just outside his door. Worse is to come. First, Rick, who was getting hang-up calls at home, learns that the dead man, elementary school teacher Robert Harper, looks enough like himself to be his twin, leading the police to wonder whether Rick was the intended target. Then, just two nights after Robert's death, Rick learns that his physician father has been shot dead while making a house call. Rubinstein makes Rick a well-rounded and plausible lead, and the action builds to a satisfying ending. Lisa Unger readers will be pleased.
