"A mystery novel of profound depth." -- Booklist (starred review)

"Walter is at his incisive best. . . . Hypnotically compelling." -- Publishers Weekly

In this fiendishly clever and darkly funny novel, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jess Walter explores the bonds and compromises we make as children--and the fatal errors we can make at any time in our lives.

While working the weekend night shift, Caroline Mabry, a weary Spokane police detective, encounters a seemingly unstable but charming derelict who tells her, "I'd like to confess." But he insists on writing out his statement in longhand. In the forty-eight hours that follow, the stranger confesses to not just a crime but an entire life--spinning a wry and haunting tale of youth and adulthood, of obsession and revenge, and of two men's intertwined lives.