Although not a novel in itself, but part of a short story collection in the greater more popular collection of short stories The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, I find this story to be one of the most compelling that I have read so far in the series! If you are the kind of person that wants everything to be completely fresh to themselves when they read, then I suggest you stop reading this post and go pick up the story on your own. I am going to talk a bit in detail about some parts of the story that I found most interesting.
To start off with the setting, the entire story takes place in a jail where the narrator is low twenty-something male that got put into a minimum security jail facility for 41 days. Throughout this 41 days he meets many characters, one of them whom is called Strangler Bob. Although the name is given right away, the full story of his background isn't given till later. Although it is pretty easy to assume what kind of thing Strangler Bob did to get himself wound up in the jail cell given his name. Well just like his name says, the crime he committed was getting into an altercation with his wife and strangling her. While he reveals this to the narrator and several other inmates that are around, he points to the three listening to tell them that they will all go on to commit murders in their life.
I found this incredibly provocative, but kept reading to see if what he said was true. While the other inmates besides the narrator do end up committing direct murders, the narrator takes a different turn. He leaves the jail and questions the validity of God while years later one of the inmates shows up at his house with heroin. One needle led to an addiction and the narrator finds himself on the streets and eventually riddled with HIV/AIDs. Through continued addiction and use, the narrator actually believes he kills more people than all the other inmates combined. He looks forward to seeing the rest of them in hell/heaven with him in the future.
I definitely was not the way I imagined the story to end...but I think that is what made it one of my favorite in the series!