Excerpt from Hot Springs Drive by Lindsay Hunter, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

And here, the day Theresa meets Jackie Stinson, is where the story—the one neighbors and acquaintances and report- ers and true crime enthusiasts love to tell and retell—here is where that story begins.

There's something familiar in Jackie, too. She's brash like Carissa, and funny like her too. But unlike Carissa, Jackie seems to find something she needs in Theresa. A stasis, a peace, some quiet. It's easy to look back, after everything that will hap- pen, and assume that there was some deeper meaning behind their friendship. More likely, it was a simple transaction—each woman needed a friend. New moms struggle to make friends, everyone knows that. Best to find someone equally in the thrall of infanthood, equally unable to talk about anything outside of diaper rash and feeding schedules and exhaustion, someone who can laugh about the disgusting state of their nipples and sit patiently during a bout of weeping.

The story ends this way: Several years from that day in the maternity ward, Theresa will find out Adam and Jackie are fucking. She'll walk in on her husband with his head between Jackie's legs, crouching the same way he does when they've lost something under the couch, his legs tucked under his ass and his weight in his hands, fingers splayed. He'll be moving his head rapidly and Theresa will want to laugh. He never was good at finding anything.

The next day, Theresa will be murdered in her own garage. They'll find her murderer with blood in his hair, on his face, in his nail beds, even some inside his socks. He'll still be holding the crowbar. "I wasn't sure where to put it," he'll tell the officer.

Excerpted from Hot Springs Drive by Stephen Hunter. Copyright © 2023 by Stephen Hunter. Excerpted by permission of Roxane Gay Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.