The Victim’s Club

by Jeffery Deaver

published 2018

Snap. Upload. Ruin a reputation.

Rose gets drugged at a party and someone takes an inappropriate picture of her and uploads it to the internet. Detective Jon Avery catches the case and must find the perp in this new digital age- a seemingly impossible task.

In this page-turning short story from international bestselling author Jeffery Deaver, senior detective Jon Avery inherits a deeply troubling case. Senior detective Jon Avery investigates a case where st an off-campus party, a university professor Rose Taylor is drugged, undressed, and photographed on a burner phone. At an off-campus party, university professor Rose Taylor is drugged, undressed, and photographed on a burner phone. In seconds her humiliation is uploaded, and millions of JPEGs are zipping like immortal wasps through the internet. But why would someone target her? She has no vengeful exes or rival academics, no stalkers or unhinged students.

Jon Avery, the sharpest, most experienced investigator in the sheriff’s office, is determined to find out who’s behind this horrific invasion of privacy. But soon he runs into a wall of silence at Preston College—an academic mecca whose reputation one doesn’t dare tarnish. The message is clear: if he pursues the case, he’ll pay for it.