WHAT BOYS LEARN

A high school counselor suddenly finds herself questioning whether her troubled teenage son was involved in the murder of two female classmates.

Abby Rosso always knew her loner son, Benjamin, was different. Then two girls she counseled at the high school—and whom he knew—are found dead, having apparently died by suicide. When she discovers a pair of girls’ panties among her son’s things, Abby refuses to believe the worst about Benjamin. But a past incident involving her violent, imprisoned brother, Ewan, and another young girl whose panties he kept as a kind of trophy sends her into a panic. Abby has kept Ewan from contacting Benjamin; yet history seems to be repeating itself, nevertheless. In a narrative that moves between Abby and, later, Benjamin, Romano-Lax plunges readers into the depths of a psychological thriller about a woman who, in seeking answers about her son’s involvement with the two deaths, is forced to revisit a dark personal chapter involving her brother. Curtis Campbell, a former psychology professor Abby runs into by accident, offers hope when he takes an interest in her situation and accepts Benjamin as a client. But the more Abby gradually learns about Curtis, the more she realizes that a man she thought could help her troubled son is actually an even greater threat to Benjamin than her imprisoned brother. Meticulous characterizations, thoughtful plotting, and unforeseen twists are only part of what make this novel so successful. As it explores the nature of unconditional mother-love and human psychopathy, Romano-Lax’s book also offers a chillingly on-point portrait of masculinity at its most toxic and perverse.

A propulsive novel that fearlessly probes the darkest corners of human psychopathy.