A guilty person is always his own hangman.
It's ten years since businessman John Turner, his college professor wife and infant daughter fled violence-torn South Africa for a new life in Tucson, Arizona. A life that seems prosperous and peaceful until a home invasion plunges them into an orgy of bloodshed. As three masked gunmen terrorize the Turners, exposing the fault lines in a marriage built on a foundation of lies, John is forced to confront the truth about his complicity in an unspeakably brutal crime in Johannesburg a decade ago and ask himself a question: is it payback time?

Man Down is both a harrowingly propulsive thriller and a meditation on moral ambiguity and the roles choice and chance play in the shaping of a life.

Praise for Roger Smith

"Roger Smith is the crime genre's greatest tragedian." Spinetingler Magazine

"Smith's writing is astonishing." The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Smith has a unique ability to plunge readers into his nightmare visions." The Times

"If you are a fan of George Pelecanos or Dennis Lehane, give Roger Smith a close look." Bookpage

"Smith writes with the brutal beauty of an Elmore Leonard in a very bad mood." The Washington Post