Thy Neighbor

This first novel by the author of nonfiction works Self-Made Man and Voluntary Madness is an absorbing psychological mystery about Nick Walsh, a thirtysomething resident of a Midwestern suburb who lost both his parents in a mysterious murder-suicide more than a decade ago. He is still wallowing in self-pity and inertia, drinking himself daily into oblivion, hanging out at a singles bar with his rich and seedy friend Dave, and carrying on an affair with a woman named Monica, about whom he knows nothing. Out of boredom, Nick begins to spy on his neighbors, planting electronic devices in their houses and viewing them on a computer in his basement, witnessing, among other things, disintegrating marriages and nightmarish parental discipline. Mysterious notes begin appearing in his house, followed up by an anonymous contact on Facebook from someone who wants to talk about his past. Nick begins to piece together clues provided by his nameless correspondent and discovers that his aloof lawyer father and his mother, a bored housewife with a Ph.D. in English literature, were hiding more than just their disdain for suburban Midwestern life.