Gone (novel)/For Good/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

 * The Harlan Coben thriller Gone for Good is about a man whose perfect suburbia poster-boy brother is accused of a brutal rape/homicide - no one knows whether he actually did it or not, though it is revealed in the end that . This is all very nice, but another character, named Squares, is featured in the novel: he got his name from the tattoo on his forehead of four two-by-two squares. Apparently, this used to be a tattoo of a swastika, until Squares reformed. When the protagonist asks Squares why he didn't just remove it, Squares replies that he uses it to remind himself that anyone has "potential". I thought this was just filler for a while, but then I realized it: the whole character of Squares was an allusion to the theme of the novel, which was that anyone can do despicable things, even people you trust and don't seem capable of them - Squares is now in a relationship with a black woman, running a successful yoga place and working at a shelter for troubled teens.