This was a very timely novel in light of police brutality in the news and everywhere else. 

When Mike’s police partner gets shot on the job, there is a great sadness, but when Mike shoots an unarmed Hispanic boy weeks later, all hells breaks loose as controversy over police brutality grows and news crews swarm the situation.

Told from three perspectives, Jamie, the wife of cop Mike; Christie, Mike’s ex gf, and Lou, Jamie’s younger sister. 

Jamie feels like her life is out of control because of the shooting as one can imagine. First she just felt helpless when Mike became emotionally stoic afternoon his partner’s shooting. She just didn’t know how to help him cope with his guilt. But the shooting causes everything to fall apart and she desperately tries to help the attorney get Mike appealed. This sort of desperation causes a rift in their relationship as Mike is more traumatized by what he’s done but also distant because his wife doesn’t believe him when he says the boy had a gun too. 

 Christie, the ex girlfriend had dumped Mike in the first place because she craved more excitement. However Mike stuck around because she was pregnant. Her son, Henry is the only thing she feels she has done right with her life despite her job being hired as “the mistress” for when husbands wanted affairs. However she provides a vital piece to Mike as the one who fully supports him and believes in him through the trial. Christie starts wanting that stability again and slowly inserts herself between Jaime and Mike since he provides Christie with the friendship and support she longs for. 

Personally I felt Lou was an unneeded POV to the story and would have preferred it to be just between Jamie and Christie. However, Jaimie does adds some drama for when she accidentally spills a not-so-violent beer-throw Mike did at a concert when they were teens to a blogger, fueling the fire that Mike has anger issues. Anyway her main arc is becoming the caretaker to Mike and Jamie’s kids and trying to figure out her own way through the world. 

Obviously I can’t reveal whether the other boy had a gun and Mike actually did shoot in self-defense, but I do admire how the bookdoesn’t automatically dismiss Mike as being the one who is unfairly treated. He acknowledges how police brutality is a very real thing and that is why the boy probably tried to shoot him. It also shows the aftermath with Jaimie seeing the distraught mother and emphasizing that even if Mike is a “good man” justice still must be served. 

5 stars.