Night Fall by Nelson DeMille is a government conspiracy/cover-up mystery. Night Fall is book 3 in the John Corey series. This is the first book after 9/11. I was curious how he would handle it. John Corey works for an Anti-Terrorist Task Force. What DeMille cleverly does is have Night Fall start in the Summer before 9/11 and lead up to the event. I can feel the effects of 9/11 on this book. John Corey’s smart ass persona is dialed down a little bit. John Corey still has humorous moments, but not as frequently as in the past two books. Night Fall is about a passenger flight that exploded. The main plot is the mystery of how it exploded. Was it a gas leak, or was it a missile? The mystery of the plane crash was a good mystery at the start. I was a little disappointed. The whole book only focused on this mystery. It did not explore what the conspiracy leads to. The ending is pretty controversial. It is an ending that is memorable, but a bit of a cop out. The end event was good, but the timing is what left me unhappy with it. I wanted the big showdown the book was leading up to, then the ending event, not before the showdown. Although I was let down by the big plot of the book, the writing for this book is good. How John Corey solved the mystery was so clever. You can see why this mystery has not been solved for 5 years. Night Fall was published on November 1, 2004.

Plot Summary: A couple on a beach is having an affair. They decide to record themselves. The camera captures the action, but also the explosion of TWA 800. John and his new wife Kate visit the crash site on the fifth anniversary. Kate was an investigator in the plane explosion. Kate has always felt like this case was unresolved. She took hundreds of statements from eyewitnesses. Most of them said the same thing. They saw a trail of light before the explosion. The CIA did a video showing that it was a fuel leak, but Kate was not satisfied. Also, there was the mystery of a tape that captured the explosion. The evidence that the tape exists is finding a lens cap on the beach. There is also a blanket from a hotel nearby. However, on a follow-up, the couple used a false name at the hotel. Kate goes over her theories, and John is amused. Meeting the CIA agent at the anniversary convinces him to control his wife. He is concerned about her wild theories. John is on the case and discovers a key piece of evidence that can expose the truth. But some people and organizations do not want the truth out.

What I Liked: We are with John Corey the whole time. What his character knows is what the reader knows. When John figures out the mystery, it feels very earned. The reader gets to experience all the highs and lows. Setting the book before 9/11 and leading up to it was smart. Since John is a part of the Anti-Terrorist Task Force, he would be very involved. He would track down who was responsible. I loved the interaction between John and his ex-partner on the police force. The talks were both comical and a great sign of loyalty. I liked all the returning characters from the last two books. I liked the secret recurring character. I thought their reintroduction was great. The airport scene was intense. I enjoyed how that scene played out. I liked the ending event, but not the actual ending of the book. The event and what he did to the characters will stick with me.

What I Disliked: The ending event was good and as shocking as it was messed up the ending. There was no showdown; an event ruined what could have been very epic. John Corey vs. a rival from his past, oh what it could have been. The pacing was a little bit slow, there is a lot of exposition. The plane explosion was covered multiple times. Sure, there’s new information occasionally. Still, we get the information repeated way too much.

Recommendation: Night Fall had a lot of potential, but ultimately, the plot could have been better. The book has some great moments, but not enough. Night Fall was my least favorite of the John Corey series so far. I was shocked at how high the rating is for Night Fall on Goodreads currently, with a 4.14 rating. So the book has its fans. I think this is one of those books that will be defined by the final scene. Some will love it. Others, like myself, will acknowledge how good it is. It could have easily worked better for the story.

Rating: Night Fall by Nelson DeMille. I rated 2.6 out of 5 stars.

Ranking: I have read 4 books by Nelson Demille. Three of these books are part of the John Corey series. I will first rank just the three books in the John Corey series. Then, I will do a full ranking of all the Nelson DeMille books. John Corey series ranking: 1) The Lion’s Game, 2) Plum Island, and 3) Night Fall. Nelson DeMille books ranking: 1) The Lion’s Game, 2) Cathedral, 3) Plum Island, and 4) Night Fall.