Misanthropy

Kim Baxter has the life everyone assumes they want: a husband, a kid, a solid career on the police force, and a promotion within reach. Then she crosses paths with Hayden, one of her son's classmates, and that's the thread that unravels everything else.

What follows is less a crime story than a slow excavation of the marriage and the woman herself, as the encounter with Hayden drags old lies and quieter neuroses out into the open. The family's peace turns out to be a lot more fragile than Kim's composure let on.

This is a kinetic novel, so there's no branching to manage and no choices to second-guess. You read, you watch the Baxter household come apart at its seams, and you let the story decide how far the corruption and humiliation of it all is allowed to go.