Over twenty years ago, heiress Patricia Lockwood was kidnapped during a robbery of her family's estate, then locked inside an isolated cabin for months. Patricia escaped, but so did her captors, and the items stolen from her family were never recovered.
On New York's Upper West Side at the Beresford, one of the most prestigious buildings in Manhattan, a hermit is murdered in his penthouse apartment, alongside two objects of note: a stolen Vermeer painting and a leather suitcase bearing the initials WHL3. For the first time in years, the authorities have a lead on Patricia’s kidnapping and another FBI cold case - with the suitcase and painting both pointing them towards one man.
Windsor Horne Lockwood III - or Win as his few friends call him - doesn't know how his suitcase and his family's stolen painting ended up in this dead man's apartment. But he's interested - especially when the FBI tells him that the man who kidnapped his cousin was also behind an act of domestic terrorism and that he may still be at large.
The two cases have baffled the FBI for decades. But Win has three things the FBI does not: a personal connection to the case, a large fortune, and his unique brand of justice.
The character Win’s profile and approach to life is a story of its own and, in some ways, competes with the mystery of what happened in that cabin years ago and the outcome of events.
In contrast to the Win character, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher character comes to mind. Reacher always got his man and some women along the way, but Win seems to be a rich and sleazy version of that bold approach. We never really grew tired of Jack Reacher, but Win is just a little too much already.
