DON'T TELL ME HOW TO DIE was not what I expected. Having read Marshall Karp before --- his solo novels and the NYPD Red series that he wrote with James Patterson --- I was anticipating a smash-mouth style of writing about elite law enforcement teams.

The book is categorized as a domestic thriller, but it is so much more than that. Karp composes a deeply affecting generational family drama filled with twists and surprises. The narrative is completely engaging and sucks you in from the first chapter, only to hold you there straight through to the exciting finale.

The action is set in New York's Hudson Valley in the town of Heartstone. A terrible storm is being reported by a meteorologist, who finds the corpse of a woman floating in the overflowing water during his telecast. The body is later identified as Minna Schultz, a realtor who had more than a few enemies in Heartstone.

"Pairing up the mystery with the dark domestic storyline that weaves its way through several decades allows Karp to produce some of his most impassioned writing to date."

No foul play is suspected, but the fact that it happened under Mayor Maggie Dunn's watch does not sit well with her. The narrative jumps back nearly three decades to recount the death of Maggie's mother, Diane, from the same blood disease that is killing Maggie in the present. Maggie and her sister, Lizzie, visit the Magic Pond, a body of water alleged to have healing properties. Their mother asks them to help out their father, Finn, when she is gone and to be extremely protective when it comes to all the women who might seek to take advantage of a new widower and family restaurant owner.

The inevitable does happen, and a woman who recently moved into town sets her sights on Finn, who quickly becomes smitten with her. Connie Gilchrist is an artist whose husband suffered a fatal heart attack when they lived in Florida. Only Maggie is suspicious of her. Through some background checking performed by a friend at the library, she finds out that Connie is an ex-con who had three previous husbands from whom she stole. Maggie confronts Connie with this information and demands that she leave her father alone. Connie obeys and leaves town, absconding with Diane's car she had once borrowed and all of her expensive jewelry.

The family is shaken but appreciative that Maggie's instincts were correct. However proud she may be about saving her father from making a terrible mistake, the past will not stay dormant forever. The mayor and her loved ones have to deal not only with the fact that she does not have much longer to live, but also the return of someone who has plotted revenge against them.

Karp keeps things buzzing along throughout the novel, and the time jumps add to the electric suspense he has created. It is hard to know everything about the characters because some of their behaviors can be quite unpredictable, especially when we learn that in law school Maggie was named "Most Likely to Kill Someone to Get What She Wants."

What can't be ignored while reading DON'T TELL ME HOW TO DIE is the grief that has affected generations of Maggie's family, and this undercurrent makes everything feel that much more real and powerful. Pairing up the mystery with the dark domestic storyline that weaves its way through several decades allows Karp to produce some of his most impassioned writing to date.