What Happened to the Bennetts

From #1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline comes a pulse-pounding new novel.

Your family has been attacked, never again to be the same.
Now you have to choose between law…and justice.

     Jason Bennett is a suburban dad who owns a court-reporting business, but one night, his life takes a horrific turn. He is driving his family home after his daughter’s field hockey game when a pickup truck begins tailgating them, on a dark stretch of road. Suddenly two men jump from the pickup and pull guns on Jason, demanding the car. A horrific flash of violence changes his life forever.
 
Later that awful night, Jason and his family receive a visit from the FBI. The agents tell them that the carjackers were members of a dangerous drug-trafficking organization—and now Jason and his family are in their crosshairs.
 
The agents advise the Bennetts to enter the witness protection program right away, and they have no choice but to agree. But WITSEC was designed to protect criminal informants, not law-abiding families. Taken from all they know, trapped in an unfamiliar life, the Bennetts begin to fall apart at the seams. Then Jason learns a shocking truth and realizes that he has to take matters into his own hands.
 
Sometimes justice is a one-man show.

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Published Aug 9, 2022

399 pages

Average rating: 7.03

119 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *What Happened to the Bennetts* starts with a gripping, emotional premise and strong character development, especially in portraying famil...

Across the Globe Book Buddies
Oct 19, 2025
4/10 stars
My first LS book. Not for me. While it was an attention getter right outta the gates, and held me for a bit, it took a hard left about halfway thru as the implausibility became too egregious to stay invested in the story. In the gist of another reviewer’s words, it for sure turned into one action-packed movie scene after the next. And there’s just no way that much risky or dangerous or threatening or… happens to ONE person. Unless it’s a Tom Cruise movie.
K Olson
Jan 14, 2025
4/10 stars
The first half of this book was a great build up to the second half. Imagine losing your daughter to a violent crime and having to go into protective custody all in a 24 hour period. Lisa Scottoline does a nice job drawing out the feelings of each character as they are dealing with the loss. So Jason Bennett decides to handle unraveling this crime by himself. And suburbanite dad becomes a loan ranger taking on drug gangs, politicians and members of the FBI, single handedly. There is a fine line between a believable thriller in which you can suspend reality for the sake of a fun, twisty plot and a thriller that becomes more and more absurd with implausible plots. Unfortunately the second half of this novel fell apart for me because of just how implausible it became.
Khris Sellin
Jul 05, 2024
Our book club chose this book on the sole basis that the central character is a court reporter (have I mentioned I'm a court reporter?). It was a fun read, but there were lots of twists and turns that got more and more ridiculous, and my willing suspension of disbelief can only go so far. I do love that the author gave a shout-out to Browseabout Books, one of my favorite bookstores.
Organizer
May 29, 2022
Loved this!
Ana Tangari
May 21, 2025
Intriguing!

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