‘Nobody's Fool' Book Recap & Ending Explained – What happened to Victoria that night?

The Review Geek

11-05-2025

Nobody's Fool Plot Summary
Rejoice because Harlan Coben has finally released the sequel to Fool Me Once almost a decade later. Released in March 2025, Nobody's Fool happens to be the second book in the Detective Sami Kierce series and this time it focuses wholly on Kierce as his past comes back to haunt him. Following the events of the Burkett case, former cop Kierce is now in a good place, teaching a criminology class to wannabe detectives.
However, his past catches up with him, literally, when his first love, Anna, who was murdered 22 years ago in Spain, walks into his class. At the same time, Tad Grayson, the killer of his ex, Nicole, walks free over a technicality. Kierce decides to take back control of his life as much as he can, even if it means chasing a dead girl who completely derailed his life.
With more twists than the driveway of the Belmond family, we have decided to do a recap and ending explained of Harlan Coben's Nobody's Fool.
Quick Recap
Sami Kierce's marriage is in a good place; he has a one-year-old son whom he dotes on and a good job, even if it isn't enough to pay off his debts. But when Dead Anna walks into his class and runs off on seeing him, he decides to get to the bottom of the case and follows her all the way to the Belmonds' house.
As a former cop, Kierce knows all about the disappearance of Victoria Belmond, a young girl who vanished on 1st January 2000 and was returned to her parents 11 years later, beaten up and traumatised. She doesn't remember a thing and has been living as a recluse. After Kierce makes the news 14 years later for the acquittal of Tad Grayson, Victoria recognises him and decides to visit him, leading to a messy chain of events.
Kierce enlists his class to help investigate as he realises that he just may be the missing piece that may help figure out what happened to Victoria. Given that he knew her when she was called Anna during her kidnapped years.
Our protagonist is a busy bee as Grayson also insists that he is innocent and wants to work with Kierce to catch Nicole's real killer. With a stalker harassing Kierce's wife, Molly, the Belmond security working overtime to keep him away from Victoria and Grayson emotionally blackmailing him, Kierce has a lot on his plate.
How is Anna alive?
22 years ago, Anna and her handler, Buzz, target Kierce who is partying with his friends in Spain. Anna falls for Kierce and tries to delay the trap but ends up sticking to the plan. 5 days later, Kierce wakes up with a knife in his hand and blood all over a 'dead' Anna. Buzz barges in and tells Kierce to run as he may be arrested for Anna's 'murder.' Once he leaves, Buzz and Anna steal his money.
Kierce does go to the cops but his father makes him come home as he may become a scapegoat. Remember, Kierce is a brown man while Anna is white.
At present, as Kierce digs into Anna, he uncovers the truth with the Spanish cops revealing that there are several such scammers who target tourists.
We then learn that Anna and Buzz are victims of Radiant Allure, a modelling agency and a child trafficking ring. During their final con, the mark was a thug who beat up Anna and tortured Buzz after he realised that the duo had tried to con him. Anna takes a flight to USA and goes to the Belmond NGO, Vic's Place, for help. That is how she comes into contact with the Belmonds.
14 years later, she sees Kierce on the news and feels guilty that his life is a mess, as he believes that he killed her. Wanting to set things right, she decides to show her face to him so that he can let go of that burden.
Are Victoria and Anna the same person?
No, Victoria and Anna are not the same person. Victoria's brother, Thomas, accidentally kills her and to protect his family, their dad, Archi,e concocts a story that Victoria has been kidnapped. However, her mother, Thalia, is not able to move on. 11 years later, when she spots Anna in Vic's Place, she believes that her daughter has returned.
To end Thalia's pain and false hope, Archie decides to turn Anna into Victoria. Anna agrees and she pretends to get a DNA test from Belmond Labs which 'confirms' that she is Victoria. Over the 14 years, the Belmonds come to love Anna as their own. But except for Archie, Thomas and Kierce, no one knows that Victoria and Anna are two different people.
What happened to Victoria that night?
On 31st December, 1999, Thalia considers ending her marriage and flies to Chicago to see her ex. Archie sulks and stays home while a drunk Thomas drives Victoria and her girlfriend, Caroline Burkett, to their party. Thomas has just broken up with his girlfriend, Lacey and finds solace with alcohol and drugs.
Victoria refuses to let him drive home and takes the car keys. This has Thomas drinking in a bar nearby. At the party, Victoria keeps checking on a drunk Thomas while Caroline hangs out with her 'boyfriend', Buff. Caroline later confesses to Kierce that she was using Buff to keep her secret.
Before midnight, Buff is all over Caroline and having had enough, she kisses Victoria. The partygoers mock them and Victoria runs out. Caroline goes after her and Victoria assures her that they are fine. However, Thomas is in a bad shape and Victoria leaves Caroline to check on her brother.
She drives Thomas home and wishes her father Happy New Year. Lacey calls and takes Thomas back. Excited, he loses control of the car and hits Victoria who is walking their dog. She dies on the spot. A scared Thomas is about to call for help but Archie decides against it. He doesn't want to lose his remaining child and reasons that justice won't bring Victoria back.
They bury her and rush out to get alibis. Thomas visits Lacey while Archie flies to Chicago to see Thalia. Archie uses Victoria's phone to send texts and waylay everyone. Later, they burn the woods where her body is buried, get rid of her phone and the car.
How does Kierce find out about the Belmonds using Anna?
The first clue is when an 'amnesiac' Victoria insists that she visited Kierce to right a wrong. He has a feeling that she is feigning memory loss. The second clue is when Buzz believes that Anna is playing a long con by pretending to be Victoria. While Kierce doesn't believe him, the idea is planted in his head.
Next, Victoria almost comes clean in the park by sharing that she has her memories and that Kierce must protect the Belmonds no matter the truth. On top of that, there aren't any photos of Victoria before her reappearance. When she reappears, she looks different but the world chalks it up to torture and trauma.
Kierce then finds it odd that, as her best friend and lover, Caroline wasn't allowed to visit Victoria when she returned. The Belmonds claimed that she needed to recover and no one was allowed to meet her.
The final clue is Thomas' alibi. Caroline testifies that Thomas is the last person to see Victoria. As for Lacey, she tells Kierce that Thomas met her hours after their phone call. And as confirmation, Kierce surreptitiously gets a DNA test done which reveals that Thomas and Victoria aren't siblings. In the end, he confronts Archie and Thomas who come clean about Anna pretending to be Victoria.
Why does Archie hire Kierce?
Archie realises that Kierce will never let go of the case when he follows Anna that first day all the way home. While it is not illegal to have Anna pretend to be Victoria, Archie doesn't want Thalia to know the truth, as it will break her heart. He decides to hire Kierce with an iron-clad NDA so that even if the former cop learns the truth, he cannot tell anyone except Archie. And that is exactly how it goes down.
Who is Scraggly Dude and why does he stalk Molly?
In the middle of the Victoria case, an ex-convict, dubbed Scraggly Dude, stalks Kierce's wife, Molly. He sends threatening texts to Kierce and mocks him. With the help of Kierce's former partner, Marty, he learns that Scraggly Dude aka Brian Powell is Tad Grayson's cellmate. Initially, the team believes that it is too obvious and so someone has hired Powell to frame Grayson as Kierce's harasser.
However, it is Grayson who hires Powell to harass Kierce. When Powell finds out that Grayson killed Victoria, Grayson kills him. Kierce finds out via Raymond, one of his homeless students who follows Grayson.
Is Tad Grayson innocent?
No. Tad Grayson gets out of prison on a technicality. He fools his mother and his lawyer into thinking that someone has framed him and that he is innocent. His only argument is that he bought an untraceable gun and so, someone ensured that it could be traced back to him and was the murder weapon. Unfortunately, it was just his bad luck that the gun was traced back to him.
He harasses and toys with Kierce because he blames the former cop for ruining his life. As revenge, he tries to kill Kierce when he is meeting Anna at the park. However, the bullet hits Anna. In the end, we learn that while he didn't care if he killed Anna or not, he is glad that he did, as it will torture Kierce to know that the girl died because of him. Had Kierce not contacted Anna, she would not have been in the line of fire.
How is Nobody's Fool connected to Fool Me Once?
In both books, Kierce is a pivotal character. Nobody's Fool is also set in the same universe and brings back several characters like the Burketts. Caroline and Judith Burkett make an appearance and there is a mention of Joe and Lilly. However, it is worth noting that in the Fool Me Once book, he is a white cop called Roger Kierce.
In the 2024 TV adaptation of Fool Me Once, Roger is changed into Sami, a brown cop with Pakistani roots. It seems that Coben is sticking to this change as the protagonist of Nobody's Fool is the same Sami from the TV show. Marty, Nicole and Molly are all original characters of the show. Kierce's storyline in the show is also mentioned and how his choices led to his current status in Nobody's Fool.
And while reading the prequel and watching the show can help in pointing out easter eggs, it is not necessary. Nobody's Fool also works as a standalone novel. But there just might be a third book, given that Kierce believes that Anna gave birth to his child.