From the author of The Deepest Lake comes a gripping novel of psychological suspense that unravels a high school guidance counselor’s growing fear that her son may have had a role in the deaths of two teenage girls in a wealthy Chicago suburb.

Abby Rosso, a high school counselor, has reason to fear the worst—not only that she is partially to blame for the recent apparent suicides of two female students, but that her son Benjamin has somehow been involved in the deaths, the details of which are still murky. It’s hard for Abby to know if Benjamin’s stoic and sometimes sullen behavior is normal, if she should believe him when he claims to be innocent.

Abby doesn’t want to believe Benjamin could do anything terrible—but she also recognizes signs of problematic behavior. She should. Her own brother Owen is currently in prison for crimes he committed when he was just a little older than Benjamin. And Abby has more troubling memories from her own adolescence that confirm what boys and men sometimes do. As Abby faces the idea that she has made excuses for her son for years, she begins to peel back uncomfortable truths about her son’s behavior as well as her past.

What hope do boys have in a world that encourages men to be “alpha males?” How far will a mother go to protect her son? What Boys Learn is a twisty thriller laced with cultural commentary about how boys are raised—and what they are taught they can get away with—that leans into many mothers’ worst nightmares in its investigation of family, memory, and psychopathy.