A Rough Way to Go by Sam Garonzik

Published by Grand Central Publishing on May 21, 2024

A Rough Way to Go is a dark comedy about financial crime and murder. The comedy comes from the hapless but likable narrator, Peter Green, an unemployed househusband who spends his time surfing, hanging out at the gym or library, watching his young son, and trying to finish the endless stream of errands his wife tasks him with completing. She peppers him with constant texts asking where he is, what he’s doing, when he’ll be home.

Pete’s “future appears pointless and bleak.” At least that’s how it appears to Pete, who apparently lacks the ambition to give his future a different shape. Some of the novel’s most amusing moments come from Pete’s efforts at quiet rebellion — like not putting down the toilet seat — when he tries to show his wife that he’s the boss.

Pete and Lauren used to live in the city. Pete lost his job for reasons that are never quite clear, probably because Pete is narrating the story and wants to gloss over his many failings. He was out of work for almost two years before Luke was born. Luke is almost four now and Pete hasn’t made a diligent effort to find a new job. Nor has he been a happy househusband. Pete once pretended he had jury duty to get away from Lauren and Luke.

Lauren works in finance, as did Pete when he last had a job. She seems to view Pete as her unpaid assistant whose only reason for existing is to make her life easier. She is remarkably unsympathetic when he comes home from the hospital after surviving a beating. Being married to Pete, on the other hand, would be exasperating. The story hints at mental health issues.

When Lauren told Pete she wanted to move to a location a few hours away, a place near the ocean with a more relaxed lifestyle, Pete was ecstatic. He now devotes himself to surfing whenever the weather and his childcare duties permit. Pete often takes Luke to the beach and meets up with his buddy Frank, who earns a living as a handyman who takes care of people’s property during the offseason. They take turns watching kids while the other surfs.

Pete has occasionally chatted with another surfer, Robert Townsend. They shared a background in finance but, like most of the people Pete knows, Townsend seemed to be put off by Pete’s unemployment.

Townsend’s body is found on the beach. Pete had seen him in the late afternoon on the day he entered the water. It seemed unlikely to Pete that Townsend would have gone surfing in the late afternoon after they chatted, given the weather. Townsend supposedly drove to a different beach where he supposedly had a surfing accident that resulted in a broken neck. The facts don’t make sense to Pete, so he presses a cop he knows from the gym to investigate. The cop wants Pete to calm down, but serenity doesn’t seem to be in Pete’s nature.

The story follows Pete as he makes a nuisance of himself trying to solve Townsend’s murder, if in fact it was a murder. The police seem indifferent to, or perhaps annoyed by, his suspicions. The clues that drive him are ambiguous. He bases conclusions on partial evidence, conclusions that seem to be wrong when more facts become available. Yet his suspicions are plausible, given the coincidental pattern of deaths among partners in the finance firm that employed Townsend. The firm has a checkered history that has left some investors in ruin. Perhaps Townsend was threatening to disclose illegal conduct. Maybe he wanted a bigger cut in exchange for silence.

The police warn Pete that he’s on the wrong track and repeatedly try to persuade him to stay out of police business. Perhaps the warnings have merit, but Pete is certain he’s being followed. A thuggish man threatens his family (although no witnesses can corroborate the encounter). Another administers a very real beating (although it might have been an ordinary bar fight). Townsend’s brother encourages Pete’s investigation but, for reasons that aren’t immediately clear, the sheriff is enraged that Pete even talked to the brother. The sheriff doesn’t even like the fact that Pete went to Townsend’s funeral or visited his widow to pay his respects — or more accurately, to make inquiries in furtherance of his haphazard investigation.

In the meantime, Pete’s wife is on the verge of divorcing him. Pete begins to question his own mental health. The reader will do the same.

These seemingly random facts not only add up to a story, they furnish clues to the mystery (if there is one) of Townsend’s death. The story’s genius lies in its creation of uncertainty about whether a crime even occurred or whether Pete has fantasized a murder and criminal conspiracy from a simple surfing accident. The solution is unexpected and smart.

Sam Garonzik milks a clever plot for its comedic potential, drawing from the dark humor that underlies relationship dramas, amateur detectives, and financial shenanigans. Most of the humor comes from Pete’s obsessive personality. A Rough Way to Go tells a fun, engaging story about a likable if downtrodden protagonist who might deserve some, but not all, of the hardships he endures as tries to puzzle out the circumstances of Townsend’s death.

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