In debut ‘Blood Sugar,’ we can’t help rooting for this killer

By Oline H. Cogdill

Miami Beach psychologist Ruby Simon will happily, and slyly, tell you that she is a killer — but with a good reason — in “Blood Sugar,” screenwriter Sascha Rothchild’s clever and dark fiction debut.

Yes, she killed three people, but she absolutely, positively did not kill her husband, Jason Hollander, even though Miami Beach police detective Keith Jackson is just as absolutely positive she did.

Rothchild’s unrepentant killer quickly seduces the reader through Ruby’s intelligent reasoning, and, oddly enough, compassion, even when her actions are repellant. Rothchild augments her breezy approach with tinges of dark storytelling. “Blood Sugar” also is a story about a strong marriage and how grief affects people differently.

Ruby insists she is not a bad person, nor a sociopath, though she is indeed both to a certain degree. Nor do three murders, one every 11 years, suggest she is a serial killer; though that also could be argued. None of her victims has a redeeming quality or generates empathy for their demise. Rooting for Ruby is akin to viewers’ feelings toward Walter White in “Breaking Bad.” No matter what Ruby does, the reader stays on her side.

Ruby first murdered when she was 5 years old — her victim a 7-year-old boy whose “ruthless bullying” of her sister turned her bright, lively sibling into a fearful child prone to nightmares. The boy was clearly a sociopath in the making. At 16, Ruby killed the drunken father of one of her best friends when he tried to rape her. A third victim is sort of a surprise, but not really.

Ruby and Jason were married about four years when he died in his sleep after slipping into a diabetic coma, which was the coroner’s official ruling on his death. But someone alerts Det. Jackson that Ruby had been nearby when three others had died, and he sets out with a vengeance to prove his theory.

Strong characters, especially Ruby, complement “Blood Sugar,” as does Rothchild’s vivid use of the Miami setting.

Meet the author

Sascha Rothchild will discuss “Blood Sugar” with filmmaker Billy Corben during a free virtual interview on Crowdcast, beginning at 7 p.m. April 21 through Books & Books in Coral Gables. Visit booksandbooks.com/events/ to register and for more information. Copies of “Blood Sugar” will be available and will be mailed following the event.

Oline H. Cogdill can be reached at olinecog@aol. com.

Sascha Rothchild’s debut novel is“Blood Sugar.”

By Sascha Rothchild. Putnam, 336 pages, $27