The Twelfth Card

A high-school girl in Harlem, Geneva Settle, is the target of a ruthless professional killer whose first attempt, is a failure but it's clear to Lincoln Rhyme that he's going to strike again, from clues the killer leaves behind, one of which is the twelfth card in the tarot deck, The Hanged Man, whose meaning resonates eerily throughout the story. Rhyme believes that Geneva may have been targeted because of a paper she's writing about her ancestor, Charles Singleton, a former slave who was instrumental in the civil rights movement in the 1860s, but who was arrested for theft and disgraced. In his correspondence Charles wrote about a "secret," that could have tragic consequences if revealed. This secret Rhyme is convinced will provide the key to why Geneva is in danger. And, yes, for anyone wondering, readers will finally learn the answer to the missing-shoe murder from the final chapter of The Vanished Man.