The Fool Me Once Book Ends With An Unbelievable Twist

If you’re a fan of Netflix thrillers, you’ve probably already marathoned several series based on Harlan Coben books: like The Stranger or The Innocent to name a few, with even more adaptations on the way. The novelist’s latest project for the streamer is Fool Me Once, which follows a widow as she solves a disturbing mystery in the wake of her husband’s murder.

The new series dropped on New Year’s Day, so you can watch it in one long sitting. But if you still can’t wait to find out what goes down, you might want to look ahead at the Fool Me Once book ending and plot summary.

A Ghostly Glitch

Maya and Joe — a veteran and a scion from a wealthy family, respectively — are the married parents of a 2-year-old daughter, Lily, when Joe is murdered in an attempted robbery.

Maya’s friend gives her a nanny cam to help her feel comfortable with Lily’s care. But when reviewing footage from the camera, Maya sees what should be impossible: Joe, very much alive, paying his daughter a visit.

The spooky sight prompts Maya to investigate the circumstances of her husband’s death. In doing so, she learns that her late sister, Claire, was murdered with the same gun that killed Joe — suggesting that their deaths are connected.

Secrets Come To Light

Maya tracks down an online whistleblower, Corey Rudzinski, who had damning audio of Maya killing civilians as “collateral damage” during her time in the military.

He never released the audio, he explains, because Maya’s sister asked him not to — and in return, she would provide him with secrets about Joe’s wealthy family, for whom she worked.

Maya also learns some troubling secrets about her late husband, including the fact that he had a violent history. In high school, Joe killed his soccer team rival and, later, his brother to prevent him from telling others what he did.

Revenge... With A Twist

You might be able to guess where this is going: Joe repeated the pattern and killed Claire once she became a threat to the family name. In the novel’s final pages, Maya reveals that she knew about this and killed Joe in revenge.

The mystery was never about who killed Joe, then, but how he appeared on the nanny cam despite being very much dead. This, Maya learns, was a plot by Joe’s mother, Judith (with the help of some video editing), to make Maya “trip up,” question her own sanity, and confess to Joe’s murder.

During their final confrontation, Judith’s surviving son, Neil, shot and killed Maya. But unlike their son’s crimes, they couldn’t cover this one up: A nanny cam captured it all, and shared it with the world via live feed.

An epilogue reveals that 25 years later, Maya’s friends and her late sister’s husband stepped up to raise Lily.

Reflecting on Maya’s thorny storyline, Coben told HuffPost that Maya was his “favorite protagonist” aside from his Myron Bolitar books. “She’s strong, stoic, independent, and very damaged,” he said. “She’s brave and realistic, but she’s not terribly warm or cuddly. She’s not classically maternal, yet you sense her love and devotion perhaps even more because of that trait.”