First published 2025
Brock Hobson teaches Sunday school and sells insurance in the Midwest. He's divorced, dating a kind woman, and trying to stay connected with his teenage children. Then Brock takes a new medical test that analyzes his genetic makeup. The results tell him something impossible: he carries a predisposition to commit murder. This news turns Brock's careful life upside down. He questions everything about himself while navigating the complicated people around him. His ex-wife has moved in with an aggressively masculine contractor. His teenagers are discovering their own sexuality. His gentle girlfriend represents the stability he wants but now fears he might destroy. As Brock struggles with what the test results mean, he faces mounting pressure from all directions. The knowledge of his supposed violent potential creates a crisis that forces him to examine who he really is versus who science says he might become. The story builds toward a confrontation that will test everything Brock believes about fate, choice, and the people we decide to keep close.
Genres: fiction, mystery, crime, contemporary, psychological-thriller, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: moral-ambiguity, nature-vs-nurture, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Midwest
Period: 21st-century
224 pages · Paperback · Vintage
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness