The Match (wilde, #2)

The Match is a thriller centered on Wilde, a man in his early forties who was discovered as a young child living alone and feral in the Ramapo Mountains of New Jersey. He has no memory of parents or any life before the woods, only fragmented images: a red banister, a dark house, a portrait of a mustached man, and a woman screaming. No one ever came forward to claim him. He was placed in foster care, given the surname Wilde, and grew into an independent loner who still lives off the grid in a self-sustaining dwelling called an Ecocapsule, hidden deep in the mountains.

Months earlier, Wilde reluctantly submitted his DNA to DNAYourStory, an online genealogy database. With the help of Hester Crimstein, a renowned New York attorney and the closest thing Wilde has to a mother figure, he tracked down a match identified as his biological father: Daniel Carter, a residential contractor in Henderson, Nevada. Wilde approaches Carter and tells him he believes they are father and son. Carter, stunned, explains that during the summer of 1980, while stationed overseas in the US Air Force and engaged to his fiancée Sofia, he had affairs with several women and believes Wilde's mother was among them. Carter asks for time before telling his family, but Wilde quietly flies home, choosing not to disrupt Carter's life.

In a parallel storyline, Chris Taylor, a hacker formerly known as "The Stranger," leads Boomerang, a secret online vigilante group whose six members communicate through animal-avatar aliases on a secure platform. No member knows any other's real identity. The group punishes the internet's worst trolls using escalating "hurricane categories" of retribution.

Four months later, Hester's 18-year-old grandson Matthew, the son of her deceased youngest child David, tells Hester he is worried about Wilde, who has been out of contact for nearly a year. David was close to Wilde and died in a car crash 11 years earlier; Hester, after visiting the crash site with her boyfriend, retiring Westville police chief Oren Carmichael, no longer believes Wilde's account of what happened. She finds Wilde in the mountains, confronts him about withdrawing from Matthew's life, and he promises to reconnect.

Back at his Ecocapsule, Wilde discovers a desperate months-old message from PB, the second cousin he also matched with on DNAYourStory. PB writes about his life falling apart and begs Wilde to call. Wilde reconnects with Matthew and Laila, David's widow, at the family home in Westville. Matthew identifies PB as Peter Bennett, a famous reality television star who won the dating show Love Is a Battlefield and married co-star Jenn Cassidy. The couple, beloved by fans as PB&J, collapsed when Jenn's younger sister Marnie Cassidy appeared on a podcast and accused Peter of sending her explicit photos and drugging her. Peter has been missing for months, with many believing he died by suicide after posting a final photo from a cliff in French Polynesia.

Wilde visits Peter's older sister, Vicky Chiba, who says Peter is dead and describes the online harassment he endured. Using Peter's email credentials, Wilde accesses Peter's Instagram and discovers threatening messages from an anonymous troll account. His foster sister Rola Naser, who runs a security firm, traces the account to the home of Henry McAndrews, a retired police officer, in Connecticut. Wilde breaks in and finds McAndrews's body in the basement. Hester reports the death anonymously.

Chris Taylor recognizes McAndrews from Boomerang's files: He was a target in a case presented by the member called Panther, which the group had rejected. When Panther becomes unreachable, the group triggers a protocol to reveal Panther's identity: FBI forensic technician Katherine Frole, who has already been murdered with the same weapon. A third victim, Martin Spirow, a troll previously investigated by Boomerang, is later confirmed as well. Chris deletes all Boomerang files and severs connections between members.

Hester meets with Jenn Cassidy and learns that Peter was adopted, a secret he kept from nearly everyone, and that he searched multiple DNA databases for his birth family. Wilde confronts Vicky, who admits the family swore to keep the adoption secret. She explains that nearly 30 years ago, her parents suddenly moved from Memphis to rural Pennsylvania and arrived with a baby they claimed was their own.

Wilde is ambushed and tortured by Hartford police officers who were colleagues of McAndrews, a retired assistant police chief. After Hester secures his release, Wilde learns McAndrews worked as a private investigator who destroyed reputations through online bot farms. He then confronts Marnie and forces her to admit she lied on the podcast: A woman she met, likely a plant, told her the assault story, and a junior producer orchestrated her appearance in exchange for a future on-air role.

When Rola discovers that George Kissell, who previously questioned Wilde about the murder alongside FBI agent Gail Betz, is actually a US Marshal, Wilde realizes Daniel Carter is likely in the federal Witness Security Program (WITSEC).

Chris contacts Wilde and explains how Boomerang was compromised: After the group rejected Peter's case, Frole went rogue and revealed McAndrews's identity to the applicant. Chris believes someone connected to Peter killed McAndrews, murdered Frole to cover their tracks and obtain her list of targeted trolls, and continued killing.

On the DNA databases, Wilde and Matthew find that Peter's brother Silas Bennett matched with Peter at 23 percent. Wilde realizes this indicates uncle and nephew rather than half siblings, meaning Peter's biological mother is someone in the Bennett family: Vicky herself. Further investigation reveals Peter was fathered by Pastor Paul Sinclair, a religious leader near Memphis who raped and impregnated young parishioners over decades.

Wilde confronts Jenn with his deductions: She orchestrated Peter's downfall because their popularity was declining and she needed to reinvent herself as the wronged wife. She hired McAndrews to amplify harassment, secretly photographed Peter, and manipulated Marnie into lying. Jenn confesses, rationalizing her actions as playing the "game" of reality TV.

When Wilde tells Vicky about Jenn's betrayal, Vicky's devastated rage confirms his suspicion. He sets a trap: When Vicky lures Jenn to a meeting, Wilde waits in the car and disarms her. Vicky confesses to four murders: McAndrews, Frole, Spirow, and Marnie. She reveals she is not Peter's sister but his mother. Pastor Paul began raping her at 12; she became pregnant at 14. Her parents fled Memphis when the pastor targeted Vicky's younger sister, and the family pretended the baby was the mother's. After Frole gave her McAndrews's name, Vicky killed him and found she could not stop. She confirms Peter died by suicide, calling her from the cliffs to say goodbye before jumping.

One month later, Deputy Marshal Kissell directs Wilde to a house near Greenwood Lake, New York, the house where he was hidden as a child. Inside, Sofia Carter reveals she is Wilde's biological mother. As a teenager, Sofia was held captive by a psychopathic crime family leader. She met Daniel and became pregnant but pretended the crime boss was the father. When the crime boss discovered the truth, Sofia fled with young Wilde to this house. The men found them. Sofia hid Wilde under the stairs and ran into the woods to draw the pursuers away. By the time Daniel and the Marshals arrived, Wilde had wandered from hiding into the forest alone. The family entered witness protection immediately. Wilde embraces Sofia. "It's okay, Mom," he tells her, and she sobs.

Wilde arranges to exchange sealed notes with his parents through Kissell. In an epilogue at a barbecue at Laila's house, Peter Bennett posts a video announcing he is alive and coming home, casting doubt on his apparent death. Wilde, now in an exclusive relationship with Laila, asks Hester and Matthew for their blessing to propose.