Dominance is a novel about a puzzle game about a novel. Sounds confusing, but it’s not. And it’s not just any game, it’s a deadly one. One that Harvard professor Alex Shipley will have to solve very quickly before the killer catches up to her.

Fifteen years earlier, Alex was part of a night class called Unraveling a Literary Mystery, taught by famed professor Richard Aldiss. Aldiss was teaching the class remotely from his prison cell where he was serving time for the brutal murders of two female grad students. The women were killed with an axe and their bodies decorated with the novels of reclusive author Paul Fallows. The night class’ assignment was to solve the mystery of Paul Fallows’ identity using his novels as their map. The way to follow the map was through a mysterious game called The Procedure.