First published 2013
Todd Gilbert and Jodie Brett have shared twenty-eight years together in their comfortable Chicago life. No children complicate their routine, but cracks spread beneath their polished surface. Todd cheats repeatedly while Jodie refuses to acknowledge what everyone else sees. He moves between two separate worlds, keeping his affairs hidden. She keeps mental tallies, waiting for the right moment to balance the scales. Their childless marriage has given them wealth and freedom, but nothing binds them together anymore. When Todd decides he wants something permanent with another woman, Jodie faces losing the only life she knows. She has spent decades perfecting the art of looking away, but now she must confront a terrible choice. Everything she has built depends on maintaining their arrangement. As their carefully constructed world threatens to collapse, Jodie discovers capabilities she never knew she possessed. The question becomes not whether she can kill her husband, but whether she can live with herself if she does not.
Genres: domestic-fiction, suspense, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: deception, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Chicago
Period: 21st-century
326 pages · Paperback · Penguin Books
Content warnings: domestic-violence, murder