One by One

January 15, 2017
Philadelphia journalist Danny Ryan (The 8th Circle, 2016), reluctantly agreeing to help an old friend who was never even much of a friend, lives to regret it, which is more than you can say for the friend.Back at Furness High, Greg Moss, quarterback of the football team, ran with an in-crowd Danny could only watch from afar and supply intermittently with weed. In the 25 years since, that crowd has thinned dramatically, along with some of its hangers-on. Three of Greg's teammates on the Furness Eagles are dead. Jenna Jeffords, an ugly duckling who aspired to write romance novels, died in a house fire, and Ollie Deacon, her prom date, was shot to death. Now Greg's been getting threatening text messages with a biblical cast, and he wants Danny, who's left the Philadelphia Sentinel and gone freelance, to see what's up. What's up, Danny swiftly finds, is the murder of Greg himself hours after their meeting, apparently the first new casualty of a killer who just can't quit. The logical place for a muckraker like Danny to look is Greg's real-estate work with Cromoca Partners, a shadowy development firm that's maybe too well-connected in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But Danny, still aching over all the personal losses he's already suffered himself, can't help thinking that the secret to Greg's death lies in the wild parties he used to host back in high school--and one party in particular. Unless, of course, the multilayered mystery has ties to both Greg's current dubious partners and his equally unsavory past.... Cain plots furiously enough for three installments and adds a remarkably florid climax and a series of downbeat epilogues for good measure. The payoff is some quality time with a hero whose "brain wasn't working because his heart was broken beyond repair."

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February 1, 2017

Philadelphia newspaper reporter Danny Ryan, from Cain's debut, The 8th Circle, is just getting his life back on track after losing his family in a car wreck several years earlier. Then Greg Moss, an old high school buddy, shows up and tells Danny that he's been receiving threatening text messages. Sure, Greg is involved in some shady real estate shenanigans, but the threats are unnerving nonetheless. Then Greg turns up dead and Danny discovers other classmates have also been harassed. The last thing Danny, who's even getting friendly with fellow reporter Alex Burton, wants is to look back at yet another painful part of his life, but he wonders if an incident that's haunted him for years--one that involves Greg and several other fellow students--is at the root of the intimidations and murders. VERDICT Solidly plotted with satisfying twists and turns, this is an enjoyable continuation of a promising series.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 16, 2017
In Cain’s compelling sequel to 2016’s The 8th Circle, Philadelphia freelance columnist Danny Ryan, who’s still coping with the deaths of his wife and preteen son in a car accident more than two years earlier, agrees to meet Greg Moss, a jock he knew in high school, at the Shamrock bar. Over a beer, Greg, now a realtor involved in a huge development project, tells Danny that he’s been receiving ominous messages with quotes from the Bible. Greg adds that several of his fellow ex-teammates may have received similar messages and now they’re all dead. The initially reluctant Danny agrees to help and enlists the aid of his police officer brother, Kevin, and a friend from his newspaper days, reporter Alex Burton. Their search for answers leads to increasingly violent events that bring Danny and Alex to the unwanted attention of a highly suspicious Det. Ted Eliot. Hints of a potential romance between Danny and Alex provide some welcome relief from the mounting tension. Agent: Renée C. Fountain, Gandolfo Helin Literary Management.