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Plot Summary[]

The phenomenal series set in a future New York City returns as NYPSD Lt. Eve Dallas hunts for the killer of a seemingly ordinary history teacher - and uncovers some extraordinary surprises. Craig Foster's death devastated his young wife, who'd sent him to work that day with a lovingly packed lunch. It shocked his colleagues at the private school, too, and as for the ten-year-old girls who found him in his classroom in a pool of bodily fluids - they may have been traumatized for life.

Eve soon determines that Foster's homemade lunch was tainted with deadly ricin, and that Mr. Foster's colleagues have some startling secrets of their own. It's Eve's job to sort it out - and discover why someone would have done this to a man who seemed so inoffensive, so pleasant . . . so innocent.

Now Magdalena Percell . . . there's someone Eve can picture as a murder victim. Possibly at Eve's own hands. The slinky blonde - an old flame of her billionaire husband, Roarke - has arrived in New York, and she's anything but innocent. Roarke seems blind to Magdalena's manipulation, and he insists that the occasional lunch or business meeting with her is nothing to worry about . . . and none of Eve's business. Eve is so unnerved by the situation that she finds it hard to focus on her case. Still, she'll have to put aside her feelings, for a while at least, because another man has just turned up dead.

Eve knows all too well that innocence can be a façade. Keeping that in mind may help her solve this case at last. But it may also tear apart her marriage.

--The Penguin Group

Map[]

Please reference the Innocent in Death Map for locations or approximate locations of sites listed here.

Timeline[]

Spoiler warning!
This article contains plot details about an upcoming episode.

Story Dates: February 9-15, 2060[1]

Day 1 - Monday, February 9, 2060[]

Chapter 1[]

  • 26-year old history teacher Craig Foster works on a pop quiz for his fifth-period U.S. history class, sends a mushy email to new wife Lissette (7 months married) offering to bring home dinner, and drinks hot chocolate from the lunch Lissette packed for him
  • Two ten-year-old girls, Melodie Branch and Rayleen Straffo, find Foster when they go to his classroom to get advice about a history project
  • Lieutenant Eve Dallas & Detective Peabody arrive at the Sarah Child Academy to investigate Foster's suspicious death and meet Principal Arnette Mosebly; they suspect poison and determine Foster's TOD as 1419
  • Dallas interviews:
    • Melodie, with her mother attending – gives information that she and Rayleen saw Mr. Dawson, who came when they screamed and ushered them out of the classroom, and Mr. Bixley, who was coming out of the boys' restroom; then the school nurse took Melodie to the infirmary and Mr. Kolfax took Rayleen

Chapter 2[]

  • Dallas interviews (continued):
    • Rayleen, with her father, Oliver Straffo, high priced defense attorney, attending - confirms most of Melodie's story, adding that Mr. Bixley had his toolbox, but said the nurse took them both to the infirmary
    • Eric Dawson (science teacher) – says he had just left Dave Kolfax and Reed Williams in the staff lounge, passed Leanne Howard in the hall, and was headed for the chemistry lab to set up for his next class when he heard the girls scream and took charge of the scene
    • Reed Williams – tells Eve that Foster had had a standing date with Mirri Hallywell on Wednesdays to study
  • Peabody reports on her interviews with Mr. Bixley and Ms. Hallywell
  • Eve follows up with Mirri Hallywell regarding the standing date, which she confirms along with telling Eve she was friends with both Fosters and they sometimes set her up so they could double date
  • Eve and Peabody head to Lissette Foster's work to break her heart
  • Peabody tells Eve she needs to buy Roarke a present for Valentine's Day; she bought McNab a talking picture frame with a photo of them from Christmas. Eve also needs to bring Bella a gift when she goes to see her at home with Mavis, which she needs to do ASAP.
  • Eve and Peabody tell Lissette her husband is dead, Lissette’s boss Elizabeth Blackburn comforts her, Eve waits for them in Elizabeth Blackburn's office while Peabody searches Lissette’s cubicle (nothing of note in there)

Chapter 3[]

  • Next stop morgue, poison confirmed as ricin by CME Morris
  • Peabody suggests the murderer is a parent of a student who Foster disciplined or wasn’t doing well in class
  • They go to the Fosters' apartment building to interview the retired cop neighbor who complained about their loud music; he confirms they were happy and having a lot of noisy sex
  • All other neighbors confirm that the Fosters were a happily married couple
  • Eve realizes she’s late for dinner with Roarke and clients at Le Printemps
  • Eve rushes there and since she’s seriously underdressed, the maître d’ gives her grief until she asks where her party is (Roarke), then he’s all but licking her boots
  • They dine with Sam & Natalie Derrick of Montana
  • The evil Magdelana Percell just "happens" to be at the same restaurant, sees Roarke, and calls him lover; Eve is jealous and Magdelana is a bitch
  • Later Roarke tells Eve that Magdelana was "in the game"; they first competed, then worked a couple of jobs together

Chapter 4[]

  • Eve runs Magdelana, but either she has no criminal record or somebody (probably Roarke) has scrubbed it
  • Wild sex, but Eve still feels missed

Day 2 - Tuesday, February 10, 2060[]

  • Eve overhears Roarke setting up a lunch date with "Maggie"
  • Eve and Peabody visit Lissette Foster at her home, speak with her mother, who has come to stay with her, tell them Craig was poisoned with ricin, and search her apartment with Lissette's permission

Chapter 5[]

  • They go back to the school to begin checking the alibis of staff who came in early
  • They check faculty fitness-center lockers and find Reed Williams’s stash of condoms and Stay-Up
  • Eve questions Reed Williams and determines that Foster saw him with somebody he shouldn’t have been with
  • Rayleen sees Eve & Peabody, asks if it’s true that Foster was poisoned; she offers to help solve the crime, but Eve declines her help
  • They question Dawson outside the chem lab. He explains that the poison rumor has spread, and tells them that the chem lab doesn’t have the right equipment to make ricin.
  • Eve goes to Hallywell’s apartment since she didn’t go to work
  • Mirri vehemently denies having sex with Reed but says he asked her out a couple of times. She says Foster called him Casanova, but wouldn’t tell her who Reed slept with, only to steer clear of him.
  • Eve thinks maybe Reed slept with a parent, sees that seven parents signed in early, runs all of them

Chapter 6[]

  • Interlude for Roarke and Magdelana's lunch at Sisters Three: she fake apologizes for marrying the mark they were setting up and therefore shutting Roarke out and setting him up to take the fall, she acts surprised that Roarke is legit now, she lets Roarke know she’s open to an affair with him (he’s not!), she pushes and then asks for investment advice for some of her money (mostly acquired in her two divorces, since she conveniently outlasted the terms of the prenups both times). Also she keeps calling him "lover" and touching him inappropriately, neither of which Roarke shuts down [oblivious much?].
  • Eve goes to NJ to a castor oil processing plant (ricin is a byproduct) and gets a customer list without needing a warrant because Roarke sent out a memo to all his companies requesting full cooperation if and when Eve requests information or services; Eve is sad she no longer gets to intimidate people
  • Next stop Hallie Wentz, one of the parents who came to school early and had a knock for assault a couple of years ago – she was at school early to bring in their African gray parrot, Butch, since the cage was too big for her kid, Emily, to handle by herself; the assault was on a guy who used homophobic slurs in front of and to her daughter (lesbo spawn, for one); she was at school for a couple of hours, including talking to the school nutritionist, Laina Sanchez, who moonlights for her sometimes (Hallie is an event planner)
  • Eve starts to do more work at Cop Central then decides to go home to work, but before she can leave, the evil Magdelana visits to spread lies and fake reassurances
  • Eve lets her know that she’s at absolute capacity in the friend department, so Magdelana will have to apply elsewhere
  • Before Magdelana leaves she makes sure Eve knows she dumped Roarke, not the other way around, and "you know that makes all the difference"

Chapter 7[]

  • Eve goes home, Summerset tells her how dangerous and manipulative Magdelana is and how blind Roarke is to her. He says Roarke wasn’t in love with her, but infatuated, which Eve says is worse.
  • Summerset calls her visit to Eve’s office "sprinkling a few dark seeds under the guise of smoothing the water" and tells Eve that Magdelana "will never love him. You will never do anything but."
  • Eve goes upstairs to work, takes a blocker. She realizes that since the hot chocolate in Craig’s system didn’t have any real chocolate, which Lissette always used without telling him (and therefore hid from him, away from the mix she used, in her box of vitamins), the go-cup must have been swapped, and that it was brand new even though Craig had been using it every day for over a year
  • Roarke comes home, tries to skirt the Magdelana issue. Eve tells Roarke she came to her office, Roarke replied that it’s because she’s outgoing, impulsive, and curious about Eve. "Why would she want to antagonize you? She’d have nothing to gain." [wow, Roarke, really??]
  • They discuss the case, then sleep (badly for Eve, but no nightmares)

Day 3 - Wednesday, February 11, 2060[]

  • Roarke picks out clothes for Eve as Nadine is interviewing her for her new show Now after work
  • Eve is about to eat breakfast with Roarke when Magdelana calls; Roarke was about to switch her to voicemail but Eve told him to take it since Peabody will be there any minute anyway and she needs to leave for work

Chapter 8[]

  • As Eve & Peabody leave, Eve tells Summerset to tell her if Magdelana comes to the house
  • They visit another parent who was in early: Eileen Ferguson - she came in early to bring cupcakes for her son’s birthday since all outside food has to be pre-approved and cleared by the nutrition center
  • Reed had felt her out but realized she wasn’t interested so backed off. Then Eileen tells them that she noticed at the school holiday party that Reed was boinking Allika Straffo (Rayleen’s mom).
  • They go to the Straffo house to interview Allika and confront her about the affair with Reed, Allika says she was depressed at Christmas since her son had died Christmas morning three years ago by falling down the stairs
  • The Lab confirms that the hot chocolate mix from Lissette has no ricin
  • The candy thief struck again - it had been in the back of Eve’s computer [not sure how that wouldn't have melted it, but maybe in the future computers don't generate heat]
  • Eve makes an appointment with Mira for a profile, then falls asleep and dreams about her father, the rape, the killing, and Roarke and Magdelana having sex

Chapter 9[]

  • Eve meets with Mira, confirms a profile – cold calculating killer, 'not looking for attention or for glory", could be a parent of somebody or something to do with Craig knowing about an affair Reed was having, but not Reed since he doesn’t care who knows what
  • Mira draws out from Eve the Magdelana situation. She advises Eve to go home, get some sleep, and then let Roarke know how she feels; but Eve can’t because the Now interview is that night
  • Laina Sanchez, the school nutritionist, comes into Cop Central to speak with Eve & Peabody. She tells them Reed sexually harassed her but she was afraid to report it because who would be believed, her or him? [Yes, even in 2060, *sigh*]
  • Craig saw her crying and even though Laina didn’t say anything, Reed had just left, so 1+1 or 2+2, whatever the expression is; after that Reed never bothered her again
  • Peabody sets up a ride home for Laina. Eve sets up a bust for Reed - a couple of burly cops to his classroom to bring him in for questioning. Eve also gets a warrant to search Reed's apartment while he's at Cop Central.
  • Eve, Peabody, and McNab search Reed’s apartment, lots of sex toys and some illegals (Rabbit and Whore), McNab finds a camera set up to record sexcapades, they bring everything into Cop Central

Chapter 10[]

  • Eve & Peabody interview Reed and then arrest him on illegals possession, Reed requests an attorney, who happens to be Oliver Straffo, but Reed remains in lockup despite Straffo’s posturing
  • Roarke gets ready to meet Eve at Nadine’s taping to surprise Eve, but of course scheming Magdelana picks that moment to drop in on Roarke at work to ‘thank him’ for setting her up with financial advisors and fake apologize for causing trouble between he and Eve even though Roarke assures her she didn’t

Chapter 11[]

  • Eve goes to Channel 75 for Now, gets sent through to the station for makeup with [wait for it] Trina, who gives her grief about the usual plus not visiting Mavis since she’s been home from the hospital with Bella
  • The show goes great, Roarke and Eve leave together and have sex when they get home

Day 4 - Thursday, February 12, 2060[]

  • Reed was released on bail the previous afternoon and is swimming in the school pool. He's pissed off because Arnette Mosebly wants him to resign and won’t admit to having sex with him in her office while Foster's hot chocolate was being tampered with. Reed stews about the dyke cops. The killer injects him with something and then pushes him further into pool to hold him down until he's dead.

Chapter 12[]

  • Over breakfast, Roarke suggests dinner, champagne, dancing, and inventive sex for Valentine's Day (day after tomorrow)
  • The morning news show mentions Roarke and Magdelana having lunch and shows her being casually intimate with him the day before as Roarke was saying goodbye. Eve turns sheet white, incurs Roarke’s wrath, and leaves for work.
  • As she’s leaving Summerset hands her her coat and she is tagged with Reed’s murder
  • Dawson found the body; he had tried to save Reed because he thought he was drowning, not already dead. TOD determined as 7:50. Principal Mosebly says she had suspended him and he shouldn’t have been at the school at all; she also says she was working on terminating him [presumably his job, not him] due to the illegals charge.
  • Mrs. Straffo had signed in at 7:32 and out at 8:12 so Eve & Peabody visit her again
  • She says she walked Rayleen to school to try to talk to Reed about not having Oliver represent him. But she overheard Reed arguing with Mosebly at the pool, threatening to expose her if she fired him since they had had sex in the pool and in her office. Mrs. Straffo had then left to throw up so she doesn’t know how Mosebly reacted.

Chapter 13[]

  • Eve tells Mrs. Straffo that Reed is dead and she faints, then becomes hysterical when she revives. Au pair Cora comes home and helps Mrs. Straffo to her bedroom to rest; she tells Eve the Straffos were fighting because she didn't want Oliver representing Reed.
  • Eve asks Peabody to contact Mosebly, request nicely that she come into Cop Central for a few more questions. They go back to Cop Central; everybody gives her a wide berth. Eve reports to Whitney, who mentions that gossip is insidious [ya think?], which just adds to her embarrassment.
  • Mosebly comes in for interview and Eve confronts her about the argument with Reed. Mosebly claims Reed must have used the rape drugs on her (both times) and requests a rape counselor.
  • Peabody is pissed and lets Mosebly know (off record).

Chapter 14[]

  • At the morgue, Morris confirms murder: killer injected Reed with surgical paralytic substance, then probably used pool equipment to hold him down. Eve is sure it's the same killer – cold, calculating. Also Morris is smitten with Detective Coltraine, who made fudge brownies for him.
  • Eve requests warrants for Mosebly's & the Straffos's apartments
  • Search of school, including infirmary and lockers yields a few illegals but nothing relevant to the murders
  • Warrant for Mosebly comes through, nothing relevant to the murders but they haul in her discs, electronics, and paper files
  • Eve visits Mavis, holds the baby for a minute, and cries (Eve, not Bella). Mavis points out how the video was staged by Magdelana and advises Eve to go home and make Roarke see that also.

Chapter 15[]

  • While Roarke is home waiting for Eve, he pummels a sparring droid to broken bits and then showers. When he sees that Eve is home, he finally tells Eve his whole history with Magdelana, how she set him up, ending with "She was part of my life. You are my life."
  • They sleep

Day 5 - Friday, February 13, 2060[]

  • Pre-dawn sex
  • Eve finally makes Roarke see all the manipulation Magdelana has been doing. Reo tags Eve with a warrant for the Straffos’s residence, Eve catches Roarke up on the case, Roarke ignores Magdelana’s call.

Chapter 16[]

  • Eve, Peabody, and McNab search the Straffos’s penthouse. Eve finds the stash of their dead son’s pics on the top shelf of the closet in Allika’s sitting room. Eve realizes Rayleen’s diary is missing (she had mentioned it to Eve when poison was confirmed, when Rayleen offered to help Eve on day 2).

Chapter 17[]

  • Eve does another school run-through, this time with Roarke. They go to a cup and glove store to see if they have a record of a go-cup inscribed with "Craig" sold recently. They don’t but Roarke takes the opportunity to purchase two pairs of gloves for Eve.

Chapter 18[]

  • Eve suspects Rayleen Straffo of killing the teachers and also of killing her baby brother. Eve thinks Rayleen got the ricin from Allika’s maternal aunt, Quella Harmon, a leather artist who the Straffo family visited the previous Thanksgiving. Eve thinks Rayleen got the paralytic from a pediatric or geriatric ward, which she visited as a volunteer for From the Kids.
  • Eve sleeps, has a nightmare with Rayleen giving Eve poisoned hot chocolate in addition to the usual (killing her father)

Day 6 - Saturday, February 14, 2060[]

  • Roarke gives Eve a bottle of perfume: the scent is custom-designed for her and is subtle and not frilly; the bottle is decorated with diamonds from the Forty-seventh Street heist and rubies [perhaps the ones from Roarke and Magdelana’s first heist together?]. They plan for dinner at 8.

Chapter 19[]

  • Like everybody else, Peabody doesn’t want to believe Rayleen is the killer and they head to Melodie’s to look for Rayleen’s diary. Mira calls to ask Eve not to contact Rayleen until they’ve spoken.
  • Melodie had Rayleen’s diary while Eve was searching the Straffos’s penthouse but gave it back after that
  • Eve & Peabody visit Allika again. Allika suspects Rayleen pushed her son down the stairs that Christmas and gives permission to Eve to take Rayleen’s diary, but Eve & Peabody can’t find it. Whitney orders Eve to his office immediately.
  • Eve tells Peabody to shadow Rayleen and Cora, but Allika calls Cora and asks her to bring Rayleen home right away

Chapter 20[]

  • Whitney and Mira don’t believe Eve and basically order her to stop investigating Rayleen
  • Allika sends Cora away. Rayleen gives Allika tea with sleeping pills in it to try to kill her, making it look like suicide, so her mother would be blamed for the other murders. Allika knows this but drinks the tea anyway.
  • Rayleen moves the diary from where she hid it (her mother’s underwear drawer) to the recycler
  • Peabody contacts Eve to let her know Cora got a call right before she got to the museum where Cora had taken Rayleen, so they were leaving as she was coming. Eve knows this means the mother called them home. Whitney allows Mira and Eve to head back over to the Straffos’s apartment. Cora feels bad about leaving Allika and Rayleen so she heads back uptown, finds Allika in bed with the empty pill bottle next to her and calls 911.

Chapter 21[]

  • Peabody finds out Allika is on her way to the hospital, Eve orders her to find the diary. Eve and Mira go to the hospital where Louise Dimatto is working on Allika [because she is the only doctor in New York]. Mira stays with Rayleen so Eve and Cora can talk; Eve convinces Cora to stay with friends,
  • Eve tells Oliver his wife is under suspicion for two murders so there will be a guard posted at her door and no visitors allowed. Peabody finds the diary in the recycler, but not damaged. Eve brings it home for Roarke to unlock.
  • Meanwhile Roarke is home planning the Valentine’s Day festivities. Magdelana visits to fake apologize for the gossip piece, Roarke calls her on her bullshit, she breaks a glass during her temper tantrum, then Roarke tells her to never step foot in any of Roarke’s properties or businesses and to leave the country within three hours or he will go to Interpol and Global with information on her. Magdelana sees the headlights of Eve's car returning home so she flings herself into his arms. Eve punches Roarke, then Magdelana, then they have wild sex as Summerset removes the trash (Magdelana).

Chapter 22[]

  • Roarke opens the diary, they read the horrors of a ten-year-old homicidal narcissistic psychopath

Day 7 - Sunday, February 15, 2060[]

  • Mira confirms that Rayleen knows right from wrong and meticulously planned and executed her crimes
  • A witness from a go-cup place remembered the girl who bought it (Rayleen)
  • Roarke and McNab wire the room where Eve will talk to Rayleen. Eve tells Oliver that Rayleen killed his son and poisoned his wife, so he gives permission for Rayleen to talk to Eve alone. Rayleen brags about everything after Eve says she can’t close the case since she has no proof, so it will become an inactive case and Rayleen can tell her whatever she wants because she beat Eve and Eve isn’t wired so it’s just between them.
  • Rayleen is arrested because, duh.
  • The end

Character List[]

List of Main Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Secondary Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Recurring Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Minor Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Peripheral Characters Appearing or Mentioned in this Book[]

Deaths[]

Victim Cause of Death Weapon Perpetrator
Trevor Straffo (pre-book) broken neck, head trauma push down stairs Rayleen Straffo
Adele Versy (pre-book) overdose sleeping pills
Craig Foster poisoned ricin
Reed Williams paralyzed by poison, drowned surgical paralytic substance


Trivia[]

Nadine Furst's new show "Now" is launched featuring Lieutenant Eve Dallas.


Other Covers[]

Additional covers here

UK edition cover German 1st edition cover German Book Club edition cover French edition Hungarian edition Brilliance Audio unabridged edition cover
UK edition cover German 1st edition cover German Book Club edition cover French edition Hungarian edition Brilliance Audio unabridged edition cover

Footnotes[]

  1. Pg. 36 "Jesus, Jesus, why is there February?" Eve demanded. "February should be eliminated altogether for the good of mankind."

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