This is a mystery based on true crime events. In 1971, a man murdered his wife and 3 children in New Jersey. He planned it so well that he was gone a month before anyone noticed anything was wrong. He evaded the police for almost 18 years. This novel fictionalizes the murders and tells the tale in the voices of people connected to the case: the detective, the mistress, and people who met the murderer while he was on the lam. Short chapters speed up the story (some are only 1-2 pages long). Salzburg uses the voices of almost 25 different characters who interacted with the murderer and crime to piece together the events from when the murders took place up to the capture.
