Erin’s fiancee loses his investment banking job just before they marry, causing ripples throughout the wedding planning due to his loss of income. They go ahead and hold the big wedding and go on their intended honeymoon in Tahiti, keeping their hopes up for his future employment. While scuba-diving on honeymoon, they discover a plane wreck in the ocean. A more experienced scuba diver, Erin’s new husband Mark retrieves a dufflebag of money from the wreckage. Despite good intentions, they end up smuggling it home where they begin an ongoing debate on what to do with it, even as they hide it in their home. Mark seeks opportunities while Erin continues her documentary on the before and after of three convicts released from prison: a young girl who turns to terrorism, a middle-aged woman who helped her terminally-ill mother die with dignity, and a professional criminal.

Every character is fully fleshed out, with complex motives and emotions, and behavioral integrity. Steadman skillfully leads the reader in a carefully laid out zig-zagging path, following Erin’s ever-shifting perspective with each new piece of information. She carefully weaves in Erin’s new-found colleagues, showing the balancing strategy of the average person faced with the chance to “get away with it,” as the possibilities of advantageous connections enable her to do just that while maintaining that she is a good person and “not a criminal.” The ending circles back to the opening, of Erin digging a grave for her husband, for a highly satisfying conclusion. I was fortunate to receive an early copy from the publisher of this page-turner—a must-read for fans of psychological and crime thrillers.