Don't Get Blood on the Daisies

After the death of his father, Michael's grief transforms into a rigid need for control, shaping the way he views intimacy-not as connection, but as a structure of power. Methodical and observant, he studies human behavior with unsettling precision, using online dating as a calculated environment in which trust can be carefully constructed and quietly manipulated.

Told largely through Michael's perspective, the novel reveals the subtle mechanics of psychological influence-mirroring language,...