I confess: I am addicted to the Hard Case Crime line of novels. They’re all so good. Case in point: Dominic Stansberry’s THE CONFESSION, which represents Hard Case’s first (but certainly not last) Edgar Award winner.

THE CONFESSION is a lurid tale told by Jake Danser, a successful psychologist who spends much of his time in court, testifying to the mental state of those accused of heinous crimes. For all his credibility on the stand, Jake isn’t exactly a likeable fellow off of it – for one thing, he’s repeatedly unfaithful to his wife, Elizabeth; for another, he has a ponytail. Currently, he’s canoodling with his mistress Sara, and when Elizabeth finds out about it, their already strained marriage turns positively sour. Jake moves out of the house, though he wants to patch things up.

When he sees Elizabeth pop up at a party with his rival, prosecutor Minor Robinson, Jake gets angry. When he sees Sara pop up at the same party, he seeks to make his wife jealous by dancing with his mistress. And then following her home. And then having sex with her. And then leaving the next morning. All’s right with the world until Jake learns Sara has been murdered, with all evidence pointing his way. Thus, the man who works from a witness box stands to be on trial himself. Time to cut that ponytail.

So compelling was THE CONFESSION that I read it in one day, which is somewhat remarkable, given that we’re saddled with a narrator/protagonist that I’m not sure we’re supposed to like. And it’s not that you root for him, but you definitely want to see what happens. You really have no choice, as Stansberry does a superb job in stringing you along, putting the screws to Jake and everyone else. Reminiscent of a noir THE FUGITIVE, it starts out dark and grows even darker, leading to a conclusion that’s chilling. It takes a sure hand to end such a story the way Stansberry does and not the outcome obvious, yet if you go back and look, the clues are all there. That’s the mark of a great writer, and THE CONFESSION finds him at the top of his game, throwing a new crime classic our way.

Buy it at Amazon.