Unbalanced: A Novel

Summary

In Jason Parent’s Unbalanced, a detective becomes embroiled in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with a possible psychopath.

By-the-book Detective Asante Royo can only sweep up Fall River’s filth for so long without getting dirty. When he’s called to an apparent suicide at an apartment complex notorious for its prostitution racket and drug trade, he doesn’t shed a tear for the life wasted. Yet, something about the scene haunts his thoughts, and when his investigation gets swept under the rug, he has a hard time living with its stain.

Jaden Sanders is an unstable loner who lives across the hall from the crime scene. When three unarmed men break into Jaden’s apartment, he kills two of his attackers in self-defense, but he stalks and stabs the third in the back as the man flees, and it lands Jaden on trial for murder.

With no clear motives for the home invasion or Jaden’s violent response, Royo must uncover the story before more people get hurt, his only leads extracted from a truly unbalanced mind. Is Jaden merely a victim being steamrolled by cold justice, or is he a murderer capable of killing again?