Shank

Dan Cody loved his wife Janie. He loved her so much that he killed her. She was HIV-positive, and she begged him to do it. Or so he says. Now Dan's on the run with a new romantic obsession--Carol, the prison nurse. Their daring breakout had made the evening news, and Dan wants to set the record straight--he did it for love. This is Dan's story. And if Dan holds back some crucial part of the story, or even lies, you can be sure he has his reasons.

This rough but fascinating new thriller should have a warning label: some scenes of torture and masochism are very upsetting. But the writing is dazzling, and the story is one of those marvelous packages of deceit and self-delusion that make readers feel smart for being one step ahead of the narrator. Dan Cody tells us that he killed his first wife because she was HIV positive and he didn't want her to suffer. Now he's broken out of prison with a hostage--a prison nurse he claims to love as much as his late wife.