Nobody's Fool

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of substance use and death.

Nobody’s Fool is the sequel to Harlan Coben’s Fool Me Once and centers a minor character from the original book. Fool Me Once’s protagonist is Maya Stern, a recent widow and ex-military pilot who goes on a quest for answers after seeing her murdered husband, Joe Burkett, on her secret nanny cam. While Maya conducts her own investigation into whether Joe is alive, Sami conducts an official investigation into Joe’s unsolved murder. Through a series of twists, the text reveals that Maya killed Joe because he murdered her sister, Claire. Claire discovered a scandal in the Burkett pharmaceutical company, so Joe killed her to keep her quiet. Judith, Joe’s overbearing mother, hired the nanny to project Joe’s image on the nanny cam, hoping the shock would force Maya to confess. Maya confronted Judith Burkett and her other children, Neil and Caroline, about the scandal, and Neil shot Maya. Sami helped Maya set up a secret livestream of the confrontation that exposed the Burkett crimes to the world.

In the Netflix adaptation, Harlan Coben expanded Sami’s character to make him a