Fool Me Once

Though he is dead before the novel begins, Joe is the primary antagonist. He was murdered by his wife, Maya. Even though his brother, Neil, ended up in charge of the Burkett empire, Joe was the first-born scion of the family. Ironically, Neil was tapped for the role by their father, Joseph Sr., because of his “killer” instinct, while Joe actually turns out to be a killer, making Neil a red herring throughout the text. When Joe and Maya met, Joe was effortlessly charming, sweeping Maya off her feet with his rakish charms and dazzling wealth. Joe liked people, and vice versa. He was meticulous about his clothes, caring about them like Maya cares for her weapons. It’s insinuated that, in addition to his class, Joe’s charms allowed him to skate by despite his violent tendencies. As a teenager, Joe beat a peer with a baseball bat and nearly burned another rival to death for asking out a girl he was interested in. His murder of Theo and his own brother, Andrew, did not alter his professional or personal trajectory, and he enjoyed the luxury of being a Burkett before Maya got wise to his crimes. Through Joe, Coben portrays the protections that class and wealth afford.

The Burkett family legacy informed Joe’s actions. He was privileged and protected by the status that his name afforded. Joe also fiercely defended his family, as evidenced by the brutal murder of Maya’s sister, Claire, after she attempted to leak documents concerning nefarious corporate polices in the pharmaceutical sector. Even though he was capable of murder when they met, Joe’s wealth and social ease made Maya ignorant of his true nature. However, Joe met his match in Maya, who was able to see the dark side of his nature. Joe’s smugness was his undoing, and Maya was able to avenge Claire because he was a step behind Maya. Choosing Maya’s own weapon to kill Claire and attempt to kill her backfired, and he was unable to overcome his egotism.

Judith Burkett is an antagonist in the novel. She is in her sixties and is the picture of a society matriarch. Though she could easily never lift a finger again in her life, Judith, a revered psychiatrist, maintains an office in Manhattan, still treating patients twice a week. Judith is a social chameleon, altering her persona as her mood strikes her or the situation warrants. For example, warm and grieving one moment, she plays the part of severe widow to keep up appearances in front of the family lawyer. Coben constructs Judith as a villain because she is hard to pin down; her unpredictable tendencies hint that she is not to be trusted.

Though Judith recognizes something of herself in Maya, they butt heads because she is unable to control her daughter-in-law. Her children are her pride and joy, but she makes it clear that she plays favorites. Joe’s death cut deep—much deeper than Andrew’s—and Judith is another of the novel’s quasi-detectives as she investigates Maya throughout, further subverting the conventions of the mystery genre as both turn out to be killers. In the botched kidnapping attempt, it’s hinted that Neil isn’t fully brought into her fold, and Caroline is dismissed as unwell. Whether Caroline’s mental illness is real or a ploy to shake Maya, committing her own daughter to an institution emblematizes Judith’s self-serving character.

While she appears to be in some sort of denial about the nature of Andrew’s death, Judith had no problem bribing Coast Guard officer Tom Douglass to cover it up to preserve the Burkett reputation; she did not want suicide to be associated with her family. More acceptable, it appears, is murder. She claims that Joe killed Claire because she was the enemy—a traitor to the family that barely tolerates outsiders in the first place. Judith’s slippery identity and capacity for self-preservation are evident in the penultimate chapter, in which she angles to buy Maya’s silence. However, when Neil reveals that he is armed, Judith immediately approves of Maya’s murder.

Eddie Walker is Maya’s brother-in-law, widowed after Claire’s murder. After his life was upended by her death, Eddie coped by drinking, which led Maya to step in to help take care of his children, Daniel and Alexa. His experiences emblematize The Lasting Consequences of Trauma and Secrets. Though his transformation occurs largely off the page, Maya’s investigation into Claire’s death proves to be a catalyst for change in Eddie’s life.

While taking care of Lily in Maya’s stead, his appreciation for his children is invigorated. Furthermore, learning more about Claire’s bravery makes him realize how lucky he was. Claire kept him in the dark about working with Corey, which saved Eddie’s life. Once Maya tells him that Claire wasn’t cheating on him, like he suspected, Eddie makes changes. He becomes a father figure in Lily’s life and is present for the birth of her daughter, Maya. He remarries a decade after Claire’s death and is happy and at peace at the end of the novel.

Corey runs the whistleblower website that published the leaked video of Maya’s murder of Iraqi civilians. When Maya meets him, he is disheveled, with a grimy beard and wearing baggy, inconspicuous clothes. His paranoia compels him to go incognito, undercutting the image of him as a fresh-faced, sharp dresser that he cultivates to win the public’s trust. Corey’s marijuana use contributes to his paranoia. Corey believes deeply in what he does, exposing institutional misdeeds and lies, believing that the public has the right to know and that truth will set the world free. However, he also bends the truth or omits facts in service of the greater good. Coben hence constructs Coben both to catalyze the plot when secrets are exposed and to explore the positive and negative aspects of surveillance culture.

Corey, believing that his network may not be airtight, hides out in a strip club, communicating with his contacts via code. However, he exposes himself by tailing Maya, whom he hopes can further Claire’s work in taking down the Burketts. He manipulates Maya into digging into Tom Douglass’s life, which leads to their discovery of his death—which Detective Kierce thinks could have been orchestrated as a setup by Corey. While it remains unclear how true his aims are, Corey ultimately does not release the audio of Maya’s mission because he thinks that living with her crime is punishment enough. With his associate, Lulu, Corey helps Maya by livestreaming her confession and murder, which fulfils his mission to end the Burketts.

Shane is similar in age and experience to Maya. He is a fellow Army special ops soldier whose transition home has been difficult: “Shane couldn’t handle small talk or the excess bullshittery of modern society” (46-47). Shane represents The Reintegration of Veterans Into Civilian Life. Shane likes Lily but struggles with most other people. Maya is his closest friend, and he seeks her advice on his life because she is one of the precious few who understands what he’s been through overseas. However, Maya keeps a crucial detail from him regarding their ill-fated mission: She single-handedly made the decision to fire on the Iraqi civilians, making Shane unwittingly an accessory to murder. Before he understands the truth of the botched rescue mission, Shane is willing to bend the rules for Maya, including illicitly running ballistics tests and license plates for her—an abuse of power as the head of the local branch of the military police.

Shane is loyal to Maya and puts himself in jeopardy repeatedly for her. However, he sees the goodness in her that Maya cannot. He believes that her PTSD is proof that she feels remorse over her actions on the Syrian-Iraqi border. He keeps in contact with Lily to honor her memory. He is ultimately more trusting of people than Maya and is able to better integrate into society after her death. Their mutual trust catalyzes a major plot point as Maya reveals to him that she killed Joe.