When we meet Dr. Jeremy Carrier, he has thrown himself into his work as psychologist at City Central Hospital to avoid the pain of losing his girlfriend.  Jeremy’s whirlwind and passionate (bordering on obsessive) relationship with nurse Jocelyn Banks ended with her kidnapping and murder.  The detectives on her case consider Jeremy their number one suspect but don’t have evidence to make an arrest.  When other women are found murdered in similar manners, Jeremy decides to prove his innocence.  

Out of the blue, Dr. Arthur Chess, a pathologist at City Central Hospital, starts engaging Jeremy in conversations about evil.  He invites Jeremy to a dinner.  At the dinner are prominent members of the community who seem to have no connection to each other.  When Jeremy receives an anonymous article about an old murder, Dr. Chess is his first guess of the sender.  Dr. Chess has taken a sudden vacation out of the country leaving Jeremy to muddle over the clues alone.  From his travels, Dr. Chess sends postcards to Jeremy just saying “Traveling and learning.”

  Jeremy knows there has to be connection between the articles and the dinner guests, but what? With each article/clue he receives and each glimpse into the dinner attendees lives, Jeremy tries to figure out the connection.  The book’s goal is to build the reader’s interest as clues slowly filter in.  But it doesn’t work.  The clues come way too slowly.  Jeremy spends the majority of the book plodding along in his life while thinking about the teasers sent by Dr. Chess.  It takes over ¾ of the book for Jeremy to act and move forward.  

Jeremy is a good guy but he doesn’t make a sympathetic character.  The reader is supposed to feel sorry for the loss of his girlfriend in brutal manner.  Their relationship was presented in a way that didn’t generate an empathetic response.  Jeremy and Jocelyn knew each other only for 5 months.  Their relationship was all about passion (but no sex scenes) and didn’t include common interests.  It’s hard to feel bad for a guy who is in such a superficial relationship. 

Also Jeremy’s acted oddly in some situations, such as his interaction with the police.  Despite knowing that he is their prime suspect, he freely calls the police to ask questions.  Wouldn’t the prime suspect in a murder usually try to avoid the police?

  As a fan of the Alex Delaware novels, I was hoping The Conspiracy Club would have the same thrill and attention grabbing suspense of the previous books.  The Conspiracy Club moves at a snail’s pace.  This book was easy to put down.  In fact, the only time the book held my full attention was when I was on stuck on an airplane.

--Terry Lawrence