The ax

Burke Devore has spent a quarter century as a manager at a paper company, where his expertise runs from chemical bleaching to the wood pulp used in ice cream. He has been a loyal husband, father, and employee, following the rules the whole time. Recently, though, his grip on ordinary life has loosened. His marriage and his relationship with his children are fraying, and he has begun to drift away from the basic standards of decent conduct. Facing a shrinking pool of openings, Burke fixes on the one position he believes he can realistically win. He pursues it along a route that grows more brutal with each step, and nobody standing between him and that goal is safe from him.

The novel follows Devore's escalating fixation as he sizes up the men competing against him for the same work. Westlake presents the story from inside a mind that is growing colder while convincing itself it is only fighting for what it deserves. The tension builds from the domestic strain at home and the cramped, humiliating job search outside it, and the question of how far Burke will go becomes harder to set aside.

Donald E. Westlake was an American crime writer, best known for his hardboiled Parker novels published under the name Richard Stark and for his comic caper stories. The Ax, first published in 1997, is one of his darker standalone works. It was adapted for film in 2005 as Le Couperet, directed by Costa-Gavras.