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The dire effects of untreated mental health challenges are on full display in Campbell's narrative revolving around the aftermath of a cold-blooded murder. The central character, Bill, reflects upon slaying his mother-in-law while tracing back to every part of the deed to ensure that it would appear like a robbery. Calculating and sinister, Bill's mind is on a jarring journey, a "peeling back of the curtain" to see into the mind of a psychopath.
On the one hand, the author's portrayal of Bill's mental health turmoil in medical school lends sympathy to his character. However, the meticulous manner in which he plans the murder, removing every potential roadblock that could point back to him, is downright harrowing. Conjure the image of a victim staring up into the perpetrator's eyes, asking "Why?" while the perpetrator, entirely devoid of emotion, is thinking about the crime scene as a work of photography. Perhaps what's more intriguing is his seemingly genuine fondness for Mac, his father-in-law, and his own wife, Rosie.
Leading a largely normal life at Conner's Computer Programming Company, where he is in a relatively functional relationship with his at-the-time girlfriend Rosie, Bill begins to revert into his old ways when he sees Ella constantly chastising Mac and later when Rosie is doing the same to him as she gains control of the company. More than anything else, the narrative zooms into the thought process of a killer whose absence of emotion is never more apparent than in the way he is depicted during intimate romantic moments that focus almost entirely on sensual gratification rather than a union of love. With the subsequent breakdown on the horizon, the seemingly perfect crime unraveling leaves Bill terrified in a story that descends into the darkest recesses of the mind to see if anything salvageable exists.