Far from True by Linwood Barclay
The second book in Linwood Barclay's Promise Falls trilogy opens with two characters attempting to sneak their friend into a drive-in cinema. However, there was no way I would have guessed how the story would continue, as the characters promptly witness the cinema screen collapsing, killing four guests. This is another act by the unknown person committing hostile acts connected to the number 23 (the cinema screen comes down at 11:23pm, or 23:23 in 24-hour time), who is now turning to terrorism.
From this point, several plot strands start, with the main one (at least according to the plot synopsis) concerns one of the victims, who is found by his daughter to have had a secret love den in his house, from which it transpires he was a swinger, and that he also kept a large number of homemade porn DVDs, one of which has gone missing.
This plot makes the book feel like erotic fiction at times, but the novel also continues the mystery connected with the number 23, introduces the fact that there is apparently a serial killer at work, and adds a storyline about the character of Sam Worthington being blackmailed by her ex-husband, who is attempting to regain custody of their son. The plot also involves subjects such as rape and the very current issue of Islamophobia.
The story has a similar format to the original, as it switches between third person and first person narrative, which this time is from the point of view of private investigator Cal Weaver.
I overall enjoyed this book, despite having to try and follow a lot of subplots; it seemed to go at a quicker pace than the first book. While there were the usual plot twists, with most things not being as they first appeared, everything did make sense in the end. While a lot of the storylines felt separate to the first novel, you shouldn't skip ahead to this one, since it contains several plot spoilers for what has gone before. Having seen that the trilogy's final book is named "The Twenty Three", I am excited to find out what the relevance of the number is and who is behind it.