Nobody's fool

Samuel "Sami" Kierce, the troubled protagonist of Edgar winner Coben's disappointing sequel to Fool Me Once, has spent decades running from his past. His life changed irrevocably during a backpacking trip through southern Spain when he awoke one morning in Costa del Sol covered in blood, next to the lifeless body of his girlfriend, Anna. Terrified, he fled the scene and returned to the United States, too afraid to confront the situation. Fast forward 22 years: Sami, now an ex-NYPD homicide detective fired for incompetence, has become a private investigator and a new father, struggling with debt while teaching aspiring sleuths at a night school in New York City. When he unexpectedly spots a familiar face in his class, he realizes with a shock that it's Anna. He panics as she flees, igniting a desperate quest for answers that culminates in devastating violence. Coben cleverly interweaves seemingly unconnected side plots involving a famous kidnapping case from 25 years earlier and the release of a convicted murderer, but his characters are flat and his plot twists flatter. This is far from the author's best. Agent: Lisa Vance, Aaron M. Priest Literary. (Mar.)