Solitude Creek by Jeffery Deaver

 

One minute the crowd was enjoying themselves, anticipating the start of the concert in the small nightclub beside Solitude Creek in Monterey.  The next there was a stampede as smoke drifted in and people rushing for the exits found them blocked.  People were killed and many more were injured.  Worse, Kathryn Dance, investigator for the California Bureau of Investigation, finds that the stampede was deliberately set.

Who could do such a thing?  The police suspect perhaps one of those killed were targeted and when that doesn't pan out, they suspect maybe it was the location.  But another stampede occurs at a book signing, people jumping out windows into the frigid bay below or landing on the jagged rocks.  It has all the hallmarks of the first tragedy and then others continue.  There is one at an amusement park then a hospital elevator.  Dance and her co-workers need to find this man.

Things are also unstable at home.  Dance is a widow, her husband killed in a car accident a few years before.  Her young daughter is showing signs of anxiety and her son, a few years older, has new friends Dance is not sure about.  Then there is her romantic life.  She has been dating Jon but is unsure if she should move things forward and merge their lives with his.  

This is the fourth novel in the Kathryn Dance series.  As with all Jeffery Deaver novels, there are twists and turns that will take the reader by surprise and a satisfactory resolution.  The killer is part of a group from the Dark Net that most readers have no experience with or have even heard about.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.