Much of Sascha Rothchild’s debut novel, BLOOD SUGAR, takes place in the claustrophobic confines of a police station interrogation room. Our narrator, Ruby Simon, is being confronted by a police detective with a series of photographs. Each photo sends Ruby down memory lane, to a place where that person died, often feet or even inches from her.

Ruby freely admits, at least to herself and to readers, that she killed three of the four people pictured in the photographs. But she had very good reason to do so, which she spells out in painstaking detail over the course of her narrative. Ruby can’t tolerate bullies or predators of any kind, and her carefully executed homicides have helped make the world a very slightly kinder place, both for herself and for others around her. But the fourth photo is of her husband, Jason, and she is unfailingly insistent that she did not kill him.

"Rothchild is a screenwriter, so perhaps it’s no surprise that BLOOD SUGAR propels forward at a pace worthy of any bingeworthy television show."

BLOOD SUGAR’s first half plays out just like this: the detective reveals a photograph, which unleashes a series of memories for Ruby, memories of incidents that bring us up to the present moment. But just when you think you’ve figured out the formula, Rothchild reveals significant new information that causes us to completely reimagine the scene that she has so vividly drawn. That’s kind of a microcosm of the novel as a whole, which constantly compels us to reconsider what they thought they already knew.

Ruby is, from the outside, a perfectly respectable young woman, married (at least until recently), a successful therapist, and owner of a rescue dog and cat. She is often kind to strangers and animals, fiercely loyal to her friends and family (especially her older sister), and valiantly overcame some early struggles with addiction to arrive at where she is today. But on the inside, Ruby is also just a bit…off. She’s deeply committed to routine; as an undergraduate at Yale, she would ask to take the final exams early just to get the semester over faster. She has a firm deal with herself not to let her number of lifetime sexual partners exceed her age.

Ruby narrates her story in a tone that might seem psychopathic or could just be the outcome of a very type A personality, one who identifies a goal and then goes for it. In Ruby’s case, of course, the goal is murder, and right up until the final pages, we will be asking ourselves many of the same questions that the detective poses in that interrogation room.

Rothchild is a screenwriter, so perhaps it’s no surprise that BLOOD SUGAR propels forward at a pace worthy of any bingeworthy television show. Ruby’s morally ambiguous justifications for her own behavior will haunt us well after we’ve eagerly devoured this chilling but propulsive thriller.