Mr. Peanut

(Paperback)

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Description

When David Pepin first dreamed of killing his wife, he didn't kill her himself. He dreamed of convenient acts of god. David Pepin has loved his wife since the moment they met, and he can't imagine living without her - yet he obsessively contemplates her demise. Soon she's dead, and he's both deeply distraught and the prime suspect. The detectives investigating her death have their own conjugal difficulties. Ward Hastroll's wife is inexplicably, voluntarily bedridden. And Sam Sheppard has for decades been especially sensitive to the intricacies of marital guilt, for the most personal of reasons.... When Pepin is linked to a hitman, the case begins to resemble the Escher drawings that inspire the computer games Pepin designs for a living. Mesmerizing, hugely poignant, astonishing in its reach, Mr. Peanut is a police procedural of the soul and a first novel of the highest order.

Reviews

The most riveting look at the dark side of marriage since Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf... fascinating. It induced nightmares, at least in this reader. No mean feat -- Stephen King
This compulsive thriller works as a sharp satire on loneliness and partnership, and is a beautifully crafted, gripping read * Financial Times *
An ambitious and well-crafted noir that manages to humanise its characters while fashioning their stories into a gripping page-turner * Observer *
A perverse romance... deliciously clever, full of dark insight and even a touch of hope * The Economist *
Mr. Peanut, the daring, arresting first novel by Adam Ross, an author of prodigious talent... the novel is an enormous success - forceful and involving, often deeply stirring and always impressively original... This is a brilliant, powerful, memorable book -- Scott Turow * New York Times Book Review *

Author Bio

Adam Ross was born in New York and studied writing with William Gass and Stanley Elkin. He worked as a journalist and teacher but now writes full-time and lives with his wife and two daughters in Nashville, Tennessee.