Book overview
A soul-seeking family man pursues the American Dream through a series of comic nightmares involving Zoom calls, rental houses, and a narcissistic con man's plot to rob the dead
Jake Flynn is an underpaid and overstressed remote worker feeling pulled apart by the demands of modern life and middle age. His parents need care. His young children need attention. And his burnt-out wife needs support. With his boss hounding him at all hours and the debts rolling in, Jake worries that he'll never be able to give his family the home and stability they deserve.
When they move into a new rental house, the neighbors only make things worse. There's Edwina, the town historian with an increasingly strange newsletter hinting at a dark past. There's her son, Eddie, a freewheeling aspiring artist hungry for easy money, erotic encounters, and revenge. And then there's Trevor, a lonely 15-year-old whose desire to take care of his mother and little brother lands him in the wrong place at the wrong time.
At the center of their odd small town, there's the old cemetery with three mausoleums containing beautiful treasures and hideous secrets. Unable to resist temptation, Eddie concocts a scheme to rob them of something valuable, and he manipulates Trevor and Jake to help pull it off.
Middleman presents a humorous, heartfelt, and unsettling account of an amateur heist gone wrong, the damning consequences of playing someone else's game, and the human desire for both freedom and security in a world of uncertainty.