From New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Linwood Barclay comes the jaw-dropping finale of the Promise Falls Trilogy.   It’s May 23, and small town Promise Falls finds itself in the midst of a full-blown catastrophe with dozens dead from a flu-like virus. Investigator Cal Weaver quickly zeros in on mass poisoning and a tainted water supply.   Meanwhile, a college student has been murdered, and Detective Barry Duckworth recognizes a killer’s handiwork from the unsolved homicides of two women in town. Suddenly, the strange events from the last month start to add up….Bloody mannequins in car “23” of an abandoned Ferris wheel…a fiery, out-of-control bus with “23” on the back…“23” on the hoodie of a man accused of assault.   The motive for hurting the people of this town points to the number 23—and working out why will bring Duckworth closer to death than ever before. “There’s definitely something rotten in Promise Falls. In The Twenty-Three , the riveting final installment of the Promise Falls trilogy, the story comes to a frightful and fitting conclusion. Nothing is more satisfying than tucking into a new Linwood Barclay novel, and this is one we’ve all been waiting for.”—Shari Lapena, New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door More Praise for Linwood Barclay “No one can thrill you and chill you better than Linwood Barclay.”—Tess Gerritsen   “Barclay masters the nightmare in a small town formula practically invented by Lisa Gardner and Harlan Coben...A riveting, pulse-pounding tale.”— Providence Journal   “Riveting...Great entertainment from a suspense master.”—Stephen King   “Expertly plotted...superior entertainment.”— The Washington Post   “Twist-driven thrillers packed with emotion are a hallmark of Barclay’s career.”— USA Today   “A killer of a thriller.”— The New York Times Book Review   “One of the best thrillers of the year.”—Lisa Gardner Linwood Barclay is the New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of fifteen critically acclaimed novels, including Far from True , Broken Promise , No Safe House , A Tap on the Window , Trust Your Eyes , and No Time for Goodbye . Several of his novels have been optioned for film and television. ***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected copy proof*** Copyright © 2016 Linwood Barclay Two Patricia Henderson, forty-one, divorced, employed at the Weston Street Branch of the Promise Falls Public Library system as a computer librarian, was, on that Saturday morning of the long holiday weekend in May, among the first to die. She was scheduled to work that day. Patricia was annoyed the library board chose to keep all of the town’s libraries open. They were slated to close on the Sunday, and on the Monday, Memorial Day. So, if you’re going to close Sunday and Monday, why not close for the Saturday, too, and give everyone at the library the weekend off? But no. Not that Patricia had anywhere in particular to go. But still. It seemed ridiculous to her. She knew, given that it was a long weekend, there’d be very few people coming into the library. Wasn’t this town supposed to be in the midst of a financial crisis? Why keep the place open? Sure, there was a bit of a rush on Friday as some customers, particularly those who had cottages or other weekend places, took out books to keep them occupied through to Tuesday. The rest of the weekend was guaranteed to be quiet. Patricia was to be at the library by nine, when it opened, but that really meant she needed to be there by eight forty-five a.m. That would give her time to boot up all the computers, which were shut down every night at closing to save on electricity, even though the amount of power the branch’s thirty computers drew overnight was negligible. The library board, however, was on a “green” kick, which meant not only conserving electricity, but making sure recycling stations were set up throughout the library, and signs pinned to the bulletin boards to discourage the use of bottled water. One of the library board members saw the bottled water industry, and the bins of plastic bottles it created, as one of the great evils of the modern world, and didn’t want them in any of the Promise Falls branches. “Provide paper cups that can be filled at the facility’s water fountains,” she said. Which now meant that the recycling stations were overflowing with paper cups instead of water bottles. And guess who was pissed about that? What’s-his-name, that Finley guy who used to be mayor and now ran a water bottling company. Patricia had met him the first—and, she hoped, last—time just the other evening at the Constellation Drive-in. She’d taken her niece Kaylie and her little friend Alicia for the drive-in’s final night. Kaylie’s mom—Patricia’s sister, Val—had lent her their minivan, since Patricia’s Hyundai was too cramped for such an excursion. God, what a mistake that turned out to be. Not only did the screen come crashing down, scaring