This is not an easy novel to read. It's no exaggeration, given the epidemic of mass shootings plaguing the United States, to suggest there are people who will be unable to finish it. Others will hate it. Nonetheless, it asks and tries to answer the one question that never seems to have one.

Why?

What makes an average man walk into a restaurant on a bright, beautiful Memorial Day afternoon in a small Arizona town, pull out a gun, and murder forty people before killing himself?

The families of the dead, the police, and the media all want to know why. Sam Tryor, most of all, needs to know, because he was that man, and he has no memory of what drove him to become a monster. The difference is, he's trying to figure it out from beyond the grave.

Instead of a whodunit, this mystery is a what-made-him-do-it. With the help of a gorgeous reporter, a world-weary cop, and his own brother, Sam searches for the reason for his horrific crime, and his search leads him to a conclusion that is as disturbing for what it reveals about the rest of us as it is shocking for what it reveals about him.