Bad Move - Linwood Barclay

In the too-quiet town of Oakwood, only the lucky die of boredom . . . and new homeowner
Zack Walker isn't feeling lucky. Whoever said the burbs were boring will think twice
after reading Linwood Barclay's hilarious debut mystery, in which Dad learns the
hard way that he doesn't always know best.

Zack wouldn't blame you for thinking
he's safety-obsessed. True, he masterminded a plot to trade his family's exciting
city lifestyle for one of suburban tranquillity.
True, even after this strategic
move, Zack still has issues with family members who forget their keys in the front
door, leave their cars unlocked, or park their backpacks at the top of the stairs-where
you could kill yourself tripping over them. Just ask his wife, Sarah, or his teenage
kids, Paul and Angie, who endure their share of lectures.

Zack knows that he needs
to chill out and assume the best for once-but we know what happens to those who assume.

When Zack realizes their two-faced developer sent a petty thief to fix their leaky
shower, he starts fighting hard to ignore the fact that Oakwood isn't the crime-free
paradise he was hoping for. But his brief state of denial comes to an abrupt end
when, during a walk by the creek, he stumbles across a dead body. Even more shocking,
Zack actually knows who the victim is-and who might want him dead.

With a killer
roaming around their neighborhood and Zack's overactive imagination in overdrive,
he's sure things can't get any worse. But then another local is murdered-and Zack's
paranoid tendencies get him implicated in the crime. While his wife is trying to
remember why she married him in the first place, and his kids are considering whether
it's time to have him committed, Zack decides there's only one thing he can do. To
protect his family-and avoid being busted for a crime he didn't commit-he's going
to have to override his safety-first instincts, tap into his delusions of machismo,
and track down the killer himself.