SEGMENT OF ONE

The lives of a retiree, his genius granddaughter, and two serial killers intersect in Dallas.

Newly retired, recently widowed Nick Vanderoff left a busy corporate life as a marketing analyst to become a teacher. He still consults for the Dallas Police Department’s new analytics unit, hoping to predict crimes before they happen. He also plans to spend time with his daughter Mary and his granddaughter Holly. Holly, a 12-year-old prodigy who has skipped ahead and is now in high school, struggles to fit in with her older classmates. She’s working with her grandfather to create a predictive analytics program to help her school’s football team, which makes her stand out and gain the attention of her (much older) crush, but it also places her in harm’s way. Math enthusiast and substitute teacher David Bar David has a self-imposed revenge mission, driven by grief and madness. After his wife and child died in a high school shooting, he and his younger brother, Sol, have gone on a killing spree. David, Nick, and Holly cross paths once Nick’s police work thwarts David’s carefully laid plans; a violent, inevitable showdown ensues. Grigsby’s thriller features a unique setup that uses marketing analytics as an investigative tool and features a face-off between math and statistics. The unlikely heroic duo of granddaughter and grandfather is a fun, unusual twist. David’s and Sol’s complex mental health issues (Sol is the survivor of domestic sexual abuse), however, are explored in simplistic, exploitative ways; none of it adds up. Clumsy writing and wooden dialogue also mar the storytelling. Still, much of the book focuses on Nick’s inability to relate to emotions or form deep connections, and his awkward attempts to change that are funny and earnest.

A thriller with a thought-provoking premise but flawed execution.