Secret 77

"Your girlfriend is dead. You have 24 hours before your wife finds out."

Former reporter Clay Burton has no idea what the anonymous note means. It reads like one of the clues from his book, a collection of solve-it-yourself mysteries based on real cases he covered while working the crime desk at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. What bothers Clay most is the reference to his wife Lindsey, housebound since a bizarre accident months earlier. He finally shrugs it off as a prank by an overzealous fan—until more notes lead him to the remote lake house of a former love interest. Clay’s worst fears are realized when he finds what appears to be a dead body in the shallow water of the lake, posed in a grotesque manner. Clay goes for help but when he returns, the body—or whatever it was—has vanished.

Clay begins to wonder if the whole ordeal was an elaborate ruse. But then new messages arrive in the mail, each more clever and cryptic than the last. Is it only a twisted game of psychological torture, or is someone targeting women tied to Clay? If so, could Lindsey be next? Or is Clay himself being set up as a murderer? Using his reporter’s skills and instincts, Clay must protect Lindsey and solve the riddle before the final devious gambit is played.