<p>A chilling psychological study of an ordinary husband and wife consumed by their pursuit of the American Dream.<br />

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<em>The GoodLife</em> is based on the true story of the kidnapping of an Exxon executive in suburban New Jersey by an unlikely pair of criminals: a middle-aged， middle-class husband and wife， deeply in debt. He was the son of a retired cop; she was the mother of two. Together， they believed they were entitled to more， to a taste of the good life. Intrigued by the audacity of their crime and its psychological underpinnings， award-winning writer Keith Scribner turned his fascination into an unsettling， compulsively readable novel about the American Dream gone awry.<br />

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Told from five different points of view， <em>The GoodLife</em> unfolds over the course of three excruciating days. As the couple's carefully wrought scheme begins to falter and their desperation mounts， the novel becomes an engrossing depiction of how a tenuous moral hold comes undone. As much a cautionary tale as a penetrating thriller， Scribner's debut is about the slippery seduction of relative truth and the dangerous lure of entitlement. &quot;Keith Scribner has written his way into the sordid center of a riveting， morally complex crime. He has given us a world -- our world -- that is full of macabre humor and gruesome intimacy， a world in which money talks， sniggers， tempts， and lies. Even as you begin to realize where the fates of his characters are leading， you read on with quickening excitement.&quot; --Scott Spencer， author of the New York Times Notable Book of the Year MEN IN BLACK</p>