The Best of Crimes opens with the narrator, Walter, turning himself in for kidnapping at the police station of his New York City suburb. The chief tells him to go home – no one wants to prosecute. But Walter insists, until he is arrested and charged. Why would Walter, a pillar of the community, voluntarily confess to a felony that carries a minimum sentence of five years?

This riddle takes readers back to 1999, to Walter’s first day as an investment banker on Wall Street. He’s an 18-year-old math prodigy, eager to embrace life after an adolescence consumed by earning advanced degrees. He wastes no time getting married and soon has a daughter. But after living through the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in which he loses his best friend, Walter becomes disillusioned by Wall Street’s bottomless greed. He finds solace in his daughter Olivia and her best friend Amanda, who lives across the street and has essentially been abandoned by her absentee mother.

As years pass and Walter’s marriage slowly crumbles, his wife leaves him and takes his beloved daughter with her. Walter is left confused and heartbroken. His only neighbor in the secluded suburban enclave is Amanda, who has grown into a stunning teenager brimming with humor and curiosity. Amanda is as lonely and love-starved as was Walter at her age, and to some extent, still is.

Walter and Amanda grow closer, even as, to his horror, he finds he must suppress a fascination with her budding sexuality. Over the course of a school year, the push and pull of their relationship transforms them: as Walter discovers his best self, and Amanda blossoms into adolescence.

Lively and thought-provoking, The Best of Crimes is an extraordinary novel that shows  how selfless love can be.