From the New York Times Sunday Review:

Vincent Eaton's dark, angry and intense first novel uses police documents, psychological evaluations, interviews, straight narration and interior monologues to chronicle the self-destruction of Tim Buckles. At 28, Buckles appears at first to be leading a normal life. He has a steady job as a lifeguard, a bungalow in Los Angeles and a loving girlfriend named Alisa. The problem is, he feels as if he's living someone else's life. When Alisa becomes pregnant, she encourages him to take a job in her father's business. Tim's feelings of alienation escalates. A drowning and then a disastrous visit to his elderly parents, who have become more miserable with the years, push Tim over the edge.


**

“...striking first novel.... ...the devastating consequences of Tim's traumatic family dynamics, captured powerfully in dialogue and brief vignettes, provide a powerfully destructive counter force, with devastating consequences. Eaton's harsh, unsparing tale jolts the reader, holding us uncomfortably close to Tim's commingled criminal insanity and humanity.

o

Publisher's Weekly



From Publisher's Weekly

“...striking first novel.... The devastating consequences of Tim's traumatic family dynamics, captured powerfully in dialogue and brief vignettes, provide a powerfully destructive counter force... ...unsparing tale jolts the reader, holding us uncomfortably close to Tim's commingled criminal insanity and humanity.

From Bridgeport Post

Mr. Eaton concocts a puzzle out of a depraved childhood, multiple murder mysteries, flashbacks, hallucinations, a love story and self-analysis. ...a brave literary debut about an intelligent man who, struggling to understand and control his rage at his past, ''realizes himself away”.