The Silent Conspiracy: A Novel

By L. C. Shaw

The past is about to catch up to Jack Logan and Taylor Parks in this gripping follow-up to The Network—praised by Steve Berry as “mandatory reading for any thriller aficionado.”

It’s been almost two years since investigative reporter Jack Logan and television producer Taylor Parks brought down the Institute—the secret facility responsible for indoctrinating a generation of America’s political and media power players. Their lives are just getting back to normal, and Jack and Taylor have settled into married life with their young son, Evan.

But soon a series of bizarre, seemingly random murder/suicides captures Jack’s attention as a disturbing pattern emerges. Could someone be intentionally causing people to become homicidal? At the same time, Taylor is producing a story about a class action suit against a national insurance company that has reached the Supreme Court.

As Jack and Taylor start to suspect that their stories are connected, they realize there is something far more insidious at play that could not only directly threaten them—but the very future of the country…

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Sep 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9780062950956

L. C. Shaw

L. C. Shaw is the pen name of internationally bestselling author Lynne Constantine who also writes psychological thrillers with her sister as Liv Constantine. Her husband wonders if she is actually a spy, and never knows which name to call her. She loves to procrastinate by spending time on social media and, when stuck on a plot twist, has been known to run ideas by her silver Labrador and golden retriever who wish she would stop typing and play ball with them. Lynne has a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and her work has been translated into twenty-seven foreign languages.

Reviews for The Silent Conspiracy

[jfe16 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Almost two years ago, Jack Logan and Taylor Parks exposed Damon Crosse’s Institute and ended the indoctrination occurring there. Now married, and with a toddler son, the family is finally returning to some normalcy. But a series of bizarre murder/suicide events, coupled with the discovery that Damon Crosse faked his suicide and is actually alive, signal a sinister new plan for destruction. Can Jack and Taylor stop the megalomaniac madman before his devastating plans come to fruition?This captivating story, the second in the Jack Logan series, follows the premise laid out in “The Network” and, although there is some backstory, readers may still feel a bit lost if they haven’t read the previous story. The characters are well-drawn and complex; several share their points of view with readers as they help tell a story of political maneuvering, manipulation, and corruption.As with the first book in the series, there is a focus on secret societies and hidden, centuries-old, must-find relics, but here the story is surrounding them is both cohesive and credible. There’s an underlying tension throughout most of the telling of the tale, keeping readers on the edge of their seats. Since the characters are ignorant of several important pieces of information that readers already know, there’s a sort of “what’s going to happen” suspense that keeps the pages turning. Several plot twists take the story in unexpected directions, but astute readers will figure out exactly what’s going to happen before the big reveal. However, two troublesome circumstances plague the story-telling and, as a result, lower its rating. First, there’s the tired, overused, exasperating, pulled-out-of-left-field trope of the heretofore unknown character suddenly appearing to maneuver the story, an occurrence that causes suddenly-vexed readers to roll their eyes in utter annoyance. Second, there is absolutely no resolution, leaving the entire story to end with a HUGE cliffhanger, a frustrating choice that is sure to leave readers feeling disappointed and more than a bit cheated.