First published 2015
Seventy-year-old Sten Stensen shoots dead a gunman threatening tourists on his Central America cruise. The Vietnam veteran returns home to Fort Bragg, California, hoping to forget the incident. Instead, he discovers his son Adam has lost his grip on reality. Adam has fallen under the influence of Sara Hovarty Jennings, a woman fifteen years his senior who belongs to the Sovereign Citizens Movement. Sara and her fellow anarchists reject all government authority and laws. As Adam's schizophrenia worsens, his paranoia grows. He shoots two people in separate attacks, then flees into the California wilderness. Law enforcement launches the state's largest manhunt to track him down. Sten confronts the violence he passed to his son and his inability to reach him. The pursuit forces a reckoning between father and son that neither can escape.
Genres: fiction, american-fiction, crime, contemporary, thriller, action
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: father-son-conflict, mental-health-struggles, pursuit
Setting: California, Central America
Period: Contemporary
384 pages · Hardcover · Ecco
Content warnings: mental-illness, violence